Metrum octave vs new Rega DAC vs Eastern electric

I have not heard the EE but have had both the others. The Rega is quite good but the Metrum is better. A friend who mostly uses vinyl was over today and said he liked my digital front end even better than my vinyl; something he has never said before.

Metrum is in a completely different league than Rega. HiFi Critic awarded metrum with 170 points, and Rega with ... just 50. That should give you an idea about the diferences we are discussing here.

One word of advice though - the Metrim is very sensitive to signal jitter. Buy only if you can afford to buy an Audiophileo 2 USB->SPDIF converter ($579) to go with it. Cheaper converters, like MF V-Link, Stello U3, HiFace 2/Evo, Halide etc will not do it (yes, I have tested them all with Metrum and then some).

Coupled with Audiophileo, Metrum is absolutely stunning piece of gear. You can pay 10x more and get lesser sound.

Get the Metrum. You are getting a dac that competes with much more expensive dacs. I find it sounds great with a Halide Bridge, or from my Squeezebox Touch with the enhanced digital out. Haven't tried the Audiophilio, but I probably will.
The Metrum is pretty much without a sonic signature, but very musical. That is what I want from a dac.

i just read that Paul Hynes is now offering a shunt regulator mod which supposedly ramps up the Metrum performance significantly. He literally just posted about it yesterday so he's probably the only to have heard it at this point but his designs are well tested and have been received by the market favorably so I'd bet it does as he says. The metrum is very sensitive to power and jitter...clean them both up and you can't beat it.

jcote,

Where did you read that? That sounds very interesting, and as an owner of a Metrum and AP2, I have to say that I'm very happy with the sound, but I'd love to take it up a notch!

---Michael