I was under the impression Matrix Audio were defunct! I own and love a Matrix M-Stage HPA-2, works great with vintage Grados and is warm+dark enough that it plays nice with almost any headphone. For the £75 I paid on Reverb I'm positive there's no better all round Class A amp. It seems they've gone upmarket since the M-Stage line!
What happened to the headphone amp? I own the original Element X which has a pretty good headphone amp with jacks for both balanced and single ended phones. The hdmi Arc is the only thing I am missing. Updates have caused the Matrix app to be problematic at times, and I prefer to use Roon for most functions. Matrix Support, based in Xi'an, is quite responsive, and very competent.
I liked your review. I hope you don't mind me adding some thoughts. I own this DAC and have put thousands of hours onto it. I think how you express the spatial presentation of the DAC is very interesting. I don't think the way the DAC presents conversion is a mistake or anything that was messed up. I reviewed it on Head-fi and talked a lot about how the DAC's design leads to the way it presents music. I have always been an R2R lover, and I have the Musician Taurus here now for review and it is spectacular. It is so different from the X2 Pure with a huge soundstage and wonderful control over macro properties. Matrix in the description of the DAC actually discusses that the DAC was designed specifically to highlight micro properties. At the end of the day, whether someone likes a DAC is purely up to each person. I cannot judge what people hear or what they like. Only respect it! I will say this about the X2 Pure after close to 2,000 hours; the DAC is not bright, or overly forward. It is very much focused on the center in its spacial presentation. I could imagine that with the wrong synergy this DAC would not be for everyone. However, in my system with my amps and headphones I am getting both a wide and deep spatial presentation with incredible extension, no bright or brittle sounds, and it is extremely smooth and musical. All 4 angles of the music are coming at me straight to the DACs center. I get perfect image specificity and the space between the notes is exactly what the recording provides. My amps have incredibly large soundstages and thus the mixture of the X2 Pure's focus on micro properties matches perfectly with my amps which are focused on the opposite giving me incredible detail and resolution while the entire soundscape is laid bare. I would agree that the DAC's weakness is sub bass, but my amps help with that. I listen to mostly live music, and music with complex changes and lots of different time signatures and the X2 Pure has never skipped a beat. It is extremely fast and has wonderful low level detail. Not Rossini Apex levels of resolution and low level detail, but that is a $33,000 DAC and with clock add another $10,000. So, I wouldn't expect it to compete. It isn't the best DAC I've ever heard, but has been a great partner to my system for over a year. Especially as I have one Ethernet cable running from it into my Roon NUC and the whole thing gets picked up by the network and provides incredible flexibility. The 9039 Pro along with the 9038 Pro is actually 2 of the 9018 DAC chip in one. So, each chip has 16 channels per side. Presented on each chip in 2 configurations of 8. So the Pure has 4 configurations of 8 on each side. Matrix then separated each side in dual mono, separated the analog and digital sections and gave all 4 their own LDO's funneling into an in-house built O Core Transformer. This is what makes the DAC what it is and is entirely built on purpose to be the way it is. There is nothing about this DAC that they missed or messed up. That isn't to say it is for everyone, but everything in the design and sound is intentional. I actually have an email from ESS describing how they designed the 9038 and 9039. Matrix's engineers work with ESS to figure out how to implement that many channels. 2 chips is essentially 32 channels per side and 64 in total. I am no engineer, but I would imagine figuring out how to do so and let the DAC be what they want it to be would be an extremely difficult task. I don't know how long I will use this DAC as my main DAC, as I like to try different DACs. But, I love how my system sounds. I did hear better DACs and better amps, but I didn't hear anything besides the Rossini Apex that made me think I was without anything in sound. I did love the Wandla. However, I didn't love it without the Hypsos. But, with the Hypsos it was amazing. There are better DACs than the X2 Pure, and better amps than what I own, but I have built a system with incredible synergy that brings the best out of the X2 Pure and my amps. Thus, my headphones just sing. I enjoyed your review very much and hope these comments aren't meant to start a fight but to lend another perspective. Thanks for reviewing it! And I look forward to whatever DAC I end up with next and the process of ensuring my amps and headphones have perfect synergy together. And I look forward to another review from you!
No worries. I appreciate the measured response. I agree on the fact that we'll all have our preferences on DACs, or any other piece of gear. For me it came down to this DAC sounding very different in its presentation as compared to other DACs I know well, trust, and are close to the X2 Pure in price and/or type. But, more importantly, spatially it did not sound as like what I hear in live performances as those other DACs do either. The real world will always be the best reference point, IMO. And I don't have a good explanation for why that spatial effect was more pronounced while using the onboard streamer. I too had it plugged in via LAN to my Roon NUC (granted there is a network switch in there because I have streamers coming out my ears, but WiFi produced a similar result). I could be just unlucky on the synergy, but have also generally found the Prelude and the Niimbus HPA US-5 to be fairly DAC friendly. I try to run multiple signal chain combinations to catch synergy issues, if relevant, but this behavior was pretty consistent for me. It's still possible I just got unlucky with these specific combinations. Nonetheless, I also appreciate your viewership and your thoughts. Cheers.
@@wavetheorysound It absolutely sounds different from other DACs. My system is set up similarly to you. I have an Ethernet Switch and LPS's into my Switch and NUC. I don't think you need to overthink why you felt the way you did about the spatial presentation. You hear what you hear. My amps are the Eddie Current Aficionado, CFA3 and the Mjolnir Pure BiPolar. I also have a Meier Corda Soul, which might be better than all of it. When you use a pure DAC how do you connect into your NUC? Do you use a separate streamer or a DDC?
@@geoffreyalter5016 I almost always use streamers anymore. I have 2 Sonore ultraRendu (hw v 1.3). One of them routes through a Singxer SU-6 DDC. The other I will often plug direct USB into a DAC under test. One of the SU-6's various outputs will be used into other inputs on that same DAC. This allows me to check USB vs spdif/I2S performance, if needed.
@@wavetheorysound I just pulled the X2 Pure out of my system and have put the Taurus in for the next 2 months. It is an awesome DAC. It is so different from the X2 Pure. The sound isn't as immediate, much grander in scale. Vocals are a bit more set back, but this DAC is really incredible. I just hate not having an ethernet port as I don't have a DDC. I do have a DDC of sorts in the USBe Perfect which is a wonderful little unit and the Taurus has an incredible USB solution. The sound is very different and will take me some time to get used to. I am about at my limit with the X2 Pure as wonderful an anchor as it has been for my system, I am ready for what is next. We will see... I do have it going into my NUC, just no streamer, but as a fixed DAC into my NUC it is fantastic...
Can this product go fixed volume, or does it only have volume attenuation? I watched the video and either I missed when it was talked about because listening while driving ooooor it wasn’t mentioned.
Hey Wave theory, on the subject of dongle dacs, is it possible you will review the onix alpha XI1? That is a dongle dac+amp witha 500Mw balanced output and a few filters (that truly change the sound). It's abou 110 dollars and It's an impressive product in my opinion, and i would definitely like to hear your opinions about it.
11:08 Not Fiber Optic.............................. Those two inputs are Optical Toslink SPDIF. If that connection were Fiber Optic, it would be an "SFP" designation, the connector itself would be a cassette/module & the interconnect cable would be of an "LC" cable designation. SFP fiber with LC interconnect cables will be a connection found on all digital audio coming very soon, There are two 2 mass market DACs with it already. It is not Toslink. Apples & Oranges. Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
Ahhhhh so stoked for Aune S17 Pro review!
I was under the impression Matrix Audio were defunct! I own and love a Matrix M-Stage HPA-2, works great with vintage Grados and is warm+dark enough that it plays nice with almost any headphone. For the £75 I paid on Reverb I'm positive there's no better all round Class A amp. It seems they've gone upmarket since the M-Stage line!
Detailed review - thanks!
What happened to the headphone amp? I own the original Element X which has a pretty good headphone amp with jacks for both balanced and single ended phones. The hdmi Arc is the only thing I am missing. Updates have caused the Matrix app to be problematic at times, and I prefer to use Roon for most functions. Matrix Support, based in Xi'an, is quite responsive, and very competent.
I liked your review. I hope you don't mind me adding some thoughts. I own this DAC and have put thousands of hours onto it. I think how you express the spatial presentation of the DAC is very interesting. I don't think the way the DAC presents conversion is a mistake or anything that was messed up. I reviewed it on Head-fi and talked a lot about how the DAC's design leads to the way it presents music. I have always been an R2R lover, and I have the Musician Taurus here now for review and it is spectacular. It is so different from the X2 Pure with a huge soundstage and wonderful control over macro properties. Matrix in the description of the DAC actually discusses that the DAC was designed specifically to highlight micro properties. At the end of the day, whether someone likes a DAC is purely up to each person. I cannot judge what people hear or what they like. Only respect it! I will say this about the X2 Pure after close to 2,000 hours; the DAC is not bright, or overly forward. It is very much focused on the center in its spacial presentation. I could imagine that with the wrong synergy this DAC would not be for everyone. However, in my system with my amps and headphones I am getting both a wide and deep spatial presentation with incredible extension, no bright or brittle sounds, and it is extremely smooth and musical. All 4 angles of the music are coming at me straight to the DACs center. I get perfect image specificity and the space between the notes is exactly what the recording provides. My amps have incredibly large soundstages and thus the mixture of the X2 Pure's focus on micro properties matches perfectly with my amps which are focused on the opposite giving me incredible detail and resolution while the entire soundscape is laid bare. I would agree that the DAC's weakness is sub bass, but my amps help with that. I listen to mostly live music, and music with complex changes and lots of different time signatures and the X2 Pure has never skipped a beat. It is extremely fast and has wonderful low level detail. Not Rossini Apex levels of resolution and low level detail, but that is a $33,000 DAC and with clock add another $10,000. So, I wouldn't expect it to compete. It isn't the best DAC I've ever heard, but has been a great partner to my system for over a year. Especially as I have one Ethernet cable running from it into my Roon NUC and the whole thing gets picked up by the network and provides incredible flexibility.
The 9039 Pro along with the 9038 Pro is actually 2 of the 9018 DAC chip in one. So, each chip has 16 channels per side. Presented on each chip in 2 configurations of 8. So the Pure has 4 configurations of 8 on each side. Matrix then separated each side in dual mono, separated the analog and digital sections and gave all 4 their own LDO's funneling into an in-house built O Core Transformer. This is what makes the DAC what it is and is entirely built on purpose to be the way it is. There is nothing about this DAC that they missed or messed up. That isn't to say it is for everyone, but everything in the design and sound is intentional. I actually have an email from ESS describing how they designed the 9038 and 9039. Matrix's engineers work with ESS to figure out how to implement that many channels. 2 chips is essentially 32 channels per side and 64 in total. I am no engineer, but I would imagine figuring out how to do so and let the DAC be what they want it to be would be an extremely difficult task.
I don't know how long I will use this DAC as my main DAC, as I like to try different DACs. But, I love how my system sounds. I did hear better DACs and better amps, but I didn't hear anything besides the Rossini Apex that made me think I was without anything in sound. I did love the Wandla. However, I didn't love it without the Hypsos. But, with the Hypsos it was amazing. There are better DACs than the X2 Pure, and better amps than what I own, but I have built a system with incredible synergy that brings the best out of the X2 Pure and my amps. Thus, my headphones just sing.
I enjoyed your review very much and hope these comments aren't meant to start a fight but to lend another perspective. Thanks for reviewing it! And I look forward to whatever DAC I end up with next and the process of ensuring my amps and headphones have perfect synergy together. And I look forward to another review from you!
No worries. I appreciate the measured response. I agree on the fact that we'll all have our preferences on DACs, or any other piece of gear. For me it came down to this DAC sounding very different in its presentation as compared to other DACs I know well, trust, and are close to the X2 Pure in price and/or type. But, more importantly, spatially it did not sound as like what I hear in live performances as those other DACs do either. The real world will always be the best reference point, IMO. And I don't have a good explanation for why that spatial effect was more pronounced while using the onboard streamer. I too had it plugged in via LAN to my Roon NUC (granted there is a network switch in there because I have streamers coming out my ears, but WiFi produced a similar result). I could be just unlucky on the synergy, but have also generally found the Prelude and the Niimbus HPA US-5 to be fairly DAC friendly. I try to run multiple signal chain combinations to catch synergy issues, if relevant, but this behavior was pretty consistent for me. It's still possible I just got unlucky with these specific combinations. Nonetheless, I also appreciate your viewership and your thoughts. Cheers.
@@wavetheorysound It absolutely sounds different from other DACs. My system is set up similarly to you. I have an Ethernet Switch and LPS's into my Switch and NUC. I don't think you need to overthink why you felt the way you did about the spatial presentation. You hear what you hear. My amps are the Eddie Current Aficionado, CFA3 and the Mjolnir Pure BiPolar. I also have a Meier Corda Soul, which might be better than all of it.
When you use a pure DAC how do you connect into your NUC? Do you use a separate streamer or a DDC?
@@geoffreyalter5016 I almost always use streamers anymore. I have 2 Sonore ultraRendu (hw v 1.3). One of them routes through a Singxer SU-6 DDC. The other I will often plug direct USB into a DAC under test. One of the SU-6's various outputs will be used into other inputs on that same DAC. This allows me to check USB vs spdif/I2S performance, if needed.
@@wavetheorysound I just pulled the X2 Pure out of my system and have put the Taurus in for the next 2 months. It is an awesome DAC. It is so different from the X2 Pure. The sound isn't as immediate, much grander in scale. Vocals are a bit more set back, but this DAC is really incredible. I just hate not having an ethernet port as I don't have a DDC. I do have a DDC of sorts in the USBe Perfect which is a wonderful little unit and the Taurus has an incredible USB solution. The sound is very different and will take me some time to get used to. I am about at my limit with the X2 Pure as wonderful an anchor as it has been for my system, I am ready for what is next. We will see... I do have it going into my NUC, just no streamer, but as a fixed DAC into my NUC it is fantastic...
Gustard x30 looks dope.
Can this product go fixed volume, or does it only have volume attenuation? I watched the video and either I missed when it was talked about because listening while driving ooooor it wasn’t mentioned.
Hey Wave theory, on the subject of dongle dacs, is it possible you will review the onix alpha XI1? That is a dongle dac+amp witha 500Mw balanced output and a few filters (that truly change the sound).
It's abou 110 dollars and It's an impressive product in my opinion, and i would definitely like to hear your opinions about it.
11:08 Not Fiber Optic..............................
Those two inputs are Optical Toslink SPDIF. If that connection were Fiber Optic, it would be an "SFP" designation, the connector itself would be a cassette/module & the interconnect cable would be of an "LC" cable designation.
SFP fiber with LC interconnect cables will be a connection found on all digital audio coming very soon, There are two 2 mass market DACs with it already. It is not Toslink. Apples & Oranges.
Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
Interesting…now that Wiim Ultra has shown up at 1/10th the price ….it’s interesting to see what the future brings.
Have a great weekend.
44:38 I know you want us to take the high road, but sometimes you have to take the low road.
Great Job !! But Geezzz I can cut up a Gucci bag an adorne a cheaper DAC/Streamer with money to spare, Pure R&D cost recovery $$$$ for that product
Professor, thank you for another wonderful digital audio converter review! 👌
Reverend Dr. Thomas,
✝️ The Vegan Vicar 🌱
👌👍