Experience with Metrum Octave DAC

Received mine about a week ago as well, really love the way it sounds even with a bare Squeezebox Touch. Although it has been suggested that re-clocking and upsampling is required to get ideal results I'm not sure that I'll bother going any further as everything is working just fine as is.

The one thing I will say is that putting the Octave in line produced one of the most pronounced and noticeable differences that I have heard from a digital upgrade(Benchmark->Lavry->Audiolab). Better bass, better tone and rock solid in terms of placement of instruments.

We'll see what happens over time but so far it appears to be a keeper. I'll try and report back after putting some more hours on it...

I've been playing with my Metrum Octave DAC for the past 4 weeks, and I have to say, that it sounds spectacular. Super transparent, fast, detailed, smooth, with excellent front to back layering and soundstaging in general. It is indeed a game changing product.

No, it is not better than my uber-expensive dCS Scarlatti, which is still smoother and has even better resolution, but is not that far behind.

This DAC could sell for $5k and (fit and finish aside) could still represent a good value for money.

Mjm6 - You asked about jitter boxes (re-clockers) used with the Octave. You might check out the new Synchro-mesh re-clocker from Empirical Audio ($600), which is probably much better than the dated and cheaper Monarchy DIP. I almost purchased the Synchro-mesh but ended up buying a used Wyred4Sound modified Sonos instead, cleaning up the jitter at the source instead of externally with a re-clocker. In my system, going from a standard Sonos to W4S Sonos into a otherwise good dac (Rega) made a world of difference. IMO, jitter must be minimized at the source or with a re-clocker to make recorded music sound real. Most affordable dacs, including the Metrum Octave, can only do so much with jittery sources like the Sonos.

Elberoth,

That's great to read. Which source/s are you using? Playing what kind of material?

I've seen comments saying it really shines with high resolution material and low jitter sources, like USB/SPDIF converters if coming from a computer. My interest is mostly around a SB Touch.

Elberoth, thanks for posting your impressions of the Octave. Like Lewinski I'm interested in your source and any software such as Pure Music.

Your component selection over the years has been spectacular but I've really enjoyed your photo journal of your rooms evolution. In my opinion this is the craft of good audio. Looks terrific, keep it coming.

Vic