Meitner MA3i DAC Review

@kray on the D-1 I tried A, B, C 2nd Order Harmonic Distortion filters. The A & C filters were only used when burning in the DAC and the sound was fatiguing. Once burned in I removed 2HD filters went naked for a while. However, I found I wanted a bit of warmth when using headphones, so I am now settled in with filter B at Level 4. I even use that with 2-channel. In fact, the D-1 is really only used with 2-channel (Livingroom) and the MA3i will be used with both 2-channel (office) and headphones.

I asked John La Grou, the D-1 designer, to help end users out by posting a page on their web site to explain the sonic attributes of 2HD A to F filters. I have no clue as to how they individually differ from each other, John said that was on their ToDo list.

BTW - do you have a D-1 DAC in the house?

@audphile1 I had to reinstall my Qobuz desktop app and I am now able to stream to the MA3i from Qobuz by-passing ROON. I do not have time to do a lot of testing, but I tried 1 song that I find can sound too hot on playback, that is DREAMS by Fleetwood Mac. On the MA3i streaming from Qobuz there is a bit more energy on top. Not too much to make it fatiguing but noticeable. On ROON, this is slightly tampered down. I do not feel like I am losing resolution (hard to tell) but the sound is a bit less hot on top and I prefer it (for this song).

After listening to another song, there is definitely a subtle difference, and I am not sure which I prefer. I am listening with the CODA #16 and the Yamaha NS5000 speakers. 

I do not have a direct connection via USB to my D-1 DAC, so I am not sure how I can get the Qobuz app to stream to the D-1. I think I need Qobuz connect to be setup to my DAC. My Sonore OpticalRendu which I use to stream to the D-1 is the ROON ONLY version so that will not work.

@yyzsantabarbara yep. You heard what I heard. Slightly more energy up top. I like it in remastered rock albums where they killed the top end air. Example - Led Zeppelin 2. Sounds better with Q Connect. Not surprised you like the MA3i. It’s a world class DAC. 

@audphile1 no. The buffer is small. Usually 30sec to a minute. It isn’t local playback.

Trying to square this. My streamer has a 30 second buffer, so if Internet or it’s local connection is lost I still hear music for a max 30 seconds. 

If the connection is down and it’s still playing, and the data is not local.... Where is it?

My desktop I use JRiver and have 1Gb of buffer going to RME> Genelec 8331a So the amplification is built in. So theoretically I can queue up entire PCM 16/44.1 albums without a network connection. 

PSAudio (I think) had a network player which copied the entire song into memory before playing it. 

@habaneromonk I pulled the cable from my Aurender N200 once as an experiment (I no longer have this streamer) after I kicked off a pretty long playlist. It played all the way thru. Yes you lose controller options as it’s no longer connected to network but the 256gb was cool. 
To me local playback means music files stored within your local network. Buffer is a temporary storage. Not really local. But if you want to call it that I’m not gonna stop you.