Metrum Acoustics Pavane DAC listening impressions

Re: demo unit, moving along slowly but surely. Finished up the input selector pcb design over the long weekend, and my builder's coming along on the case. Back panel / connectors are all cut - so back / top panels will be off for powder coating soon (satin black). It's going to look sweet with black plates, and Purple Heart case (satin finish).

 

Check out this write up.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/804153/life-after-yggdrasil/375#post_12714119

One of the only DACs so far in his comparison to match the Yggdrasil. The others Bricasti, Chord DAVE

 

Hmmm I have never looked into the trade offs and what they are sonically. I have had a short road to an end.

Edit: yes i do... Had a brain fart. In the end I dont know which I prefer but am happy w/the Pavane to say the least

 

The Bricasti M1 didn't make it to my shortlist.

I've still got write-ups to do for the DACs on the list I've already auditioned (including the Bricasti unit), and then another bunch of DACs to audition before I can call my shortlist complete. But the Bricasti has already been eliminated.

 

I just bought a Pavane from @Rotijon and compared it to my one year old Yggdrasil - initial impressions mirror those here on this forum:

- Soundstage is deeper and taller on the Pavane,
- Detail-wise, I'm having trouble deciding which has the edge - I think the Yggdrasil has slightly more detail, but does sound a bit more analytical when compared to the more musical presentation of the Pavane.

 

What music were you listening to?

 

Metrum Adagio DAC/Pre review
http://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/metrum-acoustics-adagio-dacpreamplifier

The upgrade options for Pavane owners could be interesting.
(Perhaps the DAC One modules in the Pavane can be replaced with the newer DAC Two modules!?)

 

I have a Pavane on the way that should be here by early next week. Right now I have a Gungnir Multibit but my last few DACs have been:

MHDT Pagoda
Audio-GD Master-11
Gungnir Multibit (for the first time)
Audio-GD DAC-19 (10th Anniversary)

I figured the only way I was going to get an upgrade from the Gungnir Multibit was to go up significantly in price with how good it is. I'll mainly be comparing the two on speakers.

 

Got my Pavane today. It's a demo unit I bought from Zach Mehrbach at ZMF headphones (he's also a Metrum dealer) so it has been given a ton of hours at trade shows.

I've been running it in for the past three hours to warm it up. So far I'm very impressed by clarity, tonality and detail retrieval but find it a tad on the strident or bright side. It's just enough to potentially be fatiguing over a long listening session. Did anyone else notice this? Did it go away when the DAC had warmed up?

I have Roon feeding the Pavane then to a Parasound Halo Integrated powering PSB Imagine T2s.

 

Sounds stupid but make sure you're using the same interconnects as the other DACs your comparing. If your using silver, your going to get bright.

 

Pavane -> Magni 2U -> stock HD 800 was perfectly fine. That says something about the Pavane's tonality.

 

Thanks @Hands @cskippy and @Psalmanazar for the feedback. I'm listening to it again now and it seems a little more even on the top end after about 30 hours of running nonstop. The speakers have a a peak around 14 kHz which the Pavane seemed to be highlighting more than the Gungnir Multibit did. I'm going to chalk it up to the unit still warming up. It probably also doesn't help that I've been mainly testing a lot of early 90s grunge that sounds like ass just to see how forgiving the Pavane is versus the Gungnir Multibit.. Better source material helps a lot. I'm listening to some Jimmy Cliff now and it is sublime.

The Pavane is quite different from the Gungnir Multibit, probably more so than I was expecting. I'll follow up with more impressions once it's been running another few days.

 

You know, I assumed that too but I'm still getting a bit of listening fatigue where I never had any with the Gungnir Multibit, which is downright mysterious. Setup is exactly the same, just literally swapped out the DAC and am using the same XLR interconnects, etc.

I can't find measurements of the Pavane but atomicbob's measurements of the Gungnir Multibit show over at Changstar that the high frequency roll-off on the Schiit is negligible to the point where it shouldn't be audible. The Pavane is quoted at -1 dB at frequency extremes (20Hz at the high end) so I'd assume it has more high-end roll-off than the Gungnir Multibit like you stated.

I just did ran a IMD test WAV and IMD is only obvious when I crank up the volume to absurd levels (this also holds true with the Gungnir Multibit) so that shouldn't be the cause of any fatigue. In any case, I'll keep running it in and hope it improves with time. Might be time to replace these speakers with something with a smoother treble response...

 

Yup, that was my assumption as well. I'll break out my neglected HD650 tonight to see if I get the same brightness. If I do, it's definitely the DAC or amp or some combination of the two. Thanks for the feedback, btw. Glad to know it's probably something else in my system and not the DAC. The detail retrieval and musicality is off the charts on the Pavane, so I'd hate to get rid of it.

In any case, this has been a good excuse to tease myself with new speakers. I'm looking at something with a smoother treble response and a RAAL tweeter ala Philharmonic or Salk.