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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..............................
alessandro1
chadeffect
586 posts
 
Tomcy6,

You seem to be forgetting that the musicians in the studio are hearing the output from a computer. I know of few people who still record totally in the analogue domain. Trust me as that is my profession.

Also my point is that the rest of the system is where you would do your tuning. As I said in an earlier post, the output of the DAC is pretty much the same as the master "tape". Unlike in days gone by.

If you feel some vinyl is closer your are kidding yourself. That's not to say it cannot sound good, but not as the original.
edorr
714 posts
 
Pettyofficer, I repeat, it is simply a commercial issue. The studio went to the effor to remaster the Beatles collection and sold an X number of sets. Dark Side of the Moon was remastered for SACD and sold Y. If the industry thinks it is commercially interesting to remaster a release as high rez downloads it will. It chicken and egg - as long as many the audiophiles hold out on computer based audio there is no market and no content. Look at video - everyone has a blu ray player so many, many popular movies are being released on blu ray - a commercial boon to the industry. The same could happend with computer audio. I would rebuy a few hundred titles as $20 a pop in high rez in a heartbeat if they were available, and I am not alone.
pettyofficer
462 posts
 
I got stuck with the "Dark Side of the Moon" SACD Hybrid.
SACD side sounded awful, CD side sounded worse! I had to
go back to CD only Remastered version of this release.
If 50 years of Audio history is any model, it has always
been the egg (Format/Music Selection) that comes before
buying the Chicken (Equipment that plays Format). A Format Player with nothing to play on it, except for type of Music that perhaps 20% listen to (Minimum High Rez. Download Selection), is the epithany of how "Not to market a New Format". You are not even tickling the Dragons Tale of the Audio Market with that limited selection. Fifty years of Audio History in changing Formats, shows that only those Formats with a large cross section of Music Selection ever had the Market penetration for the chance to become successful. You are robbing Computer Audio Format of that opportunity with a Format crippling minimum selection in High Rez. It is so intuitive based on 50 years of Audio History in changing Formats. Can you atleast try to repeat the successes learned in Audio History, instead of repeating the failures (SACD/DVD-Audio)? I would still like to have Computer Audio around for awhile, but you are SACD'ing it to death with this minimum selection! Not interested in buying vacuum today!
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,632 posts
 
Chadeffect,

I think the attraction of vinyl is that it's the way that people listened when they developed their taste in music, not that it's a superior format. Maybe a couple of decades ago, but digital is more accurate to the master tape or file now or will be soon.

I do think that people should listen to what sounds good to them though, not what is called accurate or what they are supposed to like.
chadeffect
586 posts
 
Tomcy6,

that is probably true for a generation, but remember there are generations now who have never heard vinyl. I have a friend who's son stayed with his brother (a vinyl nut) & came back saying he had all these big black CDs!

Very soon DACs will come with not only room correction, but filters that copy this sound or that at uber bandwidths. You will be able to have your cake & eat it. But don't forget all this is recording dependant. I have great sounding 44.1/16 recordings as well as 24/192.

In the pro market many of the plug ins that have copied classic kit are pretty good. They have come a long way. Things like tape saturation, limiting, compression, reverbs, distortion etc. The well heeled will notice, but as it develops it gets harder & harder to tell the difference between the real kit and the algorithm.

All modern pro studio hardware is at least 24/192. So it is no big deal to make available downloads of high bandwidth recordings. It's only a file. Not a disk reading issue.

Soon your whole library will be on a cloud accessible from anywhere at anytime. It will be great. It's damn good now! Embrace it.

If love to fiddle with your kit you will still be able to play with cables, tubes etc if you wish. At least you will know the source is as good as the original master.
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