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Mach2Music mini and Amarra : Huge disappointment

I invite all the fellow Audiogon members than own both the Mach2Music Mini and Amarra to share they experiences.

Mine has been a huge disappointment .

The sound I get from the Mach2Music mini even with the advantage of playing Hi-Res files is mediocre at best and way inferior to the sound of a common CD.
Mach2Music tech support after checking that every setting is correct and everything is as it should dropped the ball. They blame the mediocre sound I'm complaining about on Amarra newer version of software they say more stable but sounding not so great.......

To me It doesn't add up. When there are problems the old music start playing: It's someone else fault. May be it's just that the Mach2Music mini is not so great as some say to start with.......

After spending over $4000 on the Mach2Music web site purchasing all the best available upgrades to possibly get the best possible sound from this computer based system, including their top of the line cables (power, USB, Firewire) an optional solid state SSD hard drive besides their special sandwich case to reduce vibrations and the expensive software Amarra, I get instead the sound you would from a cassette player.........at least that's how it sounds to me in my audio system....

My audio system as you read below is of high quality and well balanced where everything from acoustic treatment to power treatment has been closely matched starting from a dedicated room 20x24x9H fully treated with massive use of acoustic diffusers Gikq7 and bass traps Soffits and Tritraps by GikAcoustics.

Audio components connected to the Mach2music mini are:

DAC : dCS Debussy 24/192
Pre: BAT VK52SE upgraded with 6H30DR supertubes Reflector 1987.
Amp: 2x BAT VK600SE Mono
Transport ; Oppo 95
Speakers ; Magnepan 20.1
Speaker cables : MIT Oracle Matrix HD90
Interconnect : MIT Oracle Matrix XLR
Power: 2x Torus RM20 (one x each amp on two dedicated 20 amp circuits)
Power cords all MIT Oracle ZIII
Audio rack Adona Zero reference
All internal and external stock fuses replaced with HiFi Tuning Supreme.

I rarely write on the forum but this is too big of a screw up to pass and I hope to save to somebody the frustration I went thru.

Besides if some of you has a very positive experience with other computer based systems please share . Help is always appreciated.

I hear good things about Solos by Meridian or the USB Thumb reader by Bryston and I'll probably move on one of the two.... life continues......

so if you'll see my Mach2mini for sale on Audiogon in the near future you already know why..............................
128x128alessandro1
hfisher3380
167 posts
 
Tomcy6: Using a Mac Mini with 64gig SSD and 8 gigs ram. Altogether came in at under $1K. Using XLD or iTunes for ripping and Amara MINI for playback. In terms of optimization, not too difficult - lots of info out there on disabling what can be disabled in order to maximize processor speed. All music is stored on external thunderbolt drive although you could do it for cheaper on a firewire drive.

Running the Mini headless and controlling it with screen sharing from my macbook pro. Initial set-up required a dedicated screen so I plugged its HDMI out into my TV.

Any time computers are involved there will be considerable effort required. Pettyofficer mentioned the old convenience vs. sound quality conundrum and it applies here - to do computer audio right and at a reasonable budget requires considerable effort - it is most definitely NOT plug and play. But in the process I have learned a lot and have found it ultimately rewarding to have so much control over the proceedings. And I can tell you that the sound on some of the better recordings - both standard 16/44 and high resolution, is downright jaw dropping - the first digital front end I've had that actually CAN give my vinyl a run for its money (although my best records still sound quite a bit better!).

All I can say is that for a total bill of under $6K I have a great (dare I say "state of the art") digital front end capable of playing high resolution files. No way I could have accomplished this with an optical player!
devilboy
1,172 posts
 
"...a hard drive system won't be musical, sweet, airy, or possess any other audiophile desired flavors. It will just report what is stored on the hard drive and many people won't like this non-editorialized sound."

Onhwy61: Are you comparing music on a hard drive to cd or vinyl? I'm assuming vinyl. If not, please tell us how ones and zeros on a hard drive will sound inferior to ones and zeros on a cd.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,540 posts
 
Hfisher, It's good to hear another report of great sound quality on a server system. I'm sure it's especially satisfying when you put some hard work into acheiving it.

I am a lazy audiophile though. I am happy playing discs and although I'm sure my system produces well below SOTA sound, I still enjoy it. I will wait until some audio engineer comes up with a server system aimed at the less ambitious audiophile. Thanks for your replies and enjoy your music!
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
"It will just report what is stored on the hard drive and many people won't like this non-editorialized sound."

This is not the defect with most digital playback, and I mean both CD transports and Computer Audio. The real defect with both is simply jitter.

Once you deal with this properly, then computer audio can beat both CD transports and Vinyl. There is no way in hell that vinyl can achieve the dynamics possible with digital audio, even 44.1. Its physically impossible. The original digital samples should not be "editorialized" either, just played back with the lowest possible jitter.

I'm not saying that there are not poor computer audio systems and CD transports because there are, lots. But how many people need to post that their computer digital systems outperform their vinyl before your mind is opened?

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
hfisher3380
167 posts
 
Audioengr: outperforming vinyl? My personal opinion is that by far the best sound I've heard has been the classic analogue jazz recordings from the 50's and 60's played back on state of the art analogue systems. As far as I'm concerned that was the golden age of audio recording and there have really been no advances in recording technology since then if one judges purely on sound quality. Furthermore, no digital transfer I have ever heard comes close to capturing the naturally detailed and organic sound of these works played back on a state of the art analogue system.

However, I do think that some of the more recent high quality recordings from the digital age can sound great on high end digital players - server and optical player alike.
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