Matrix Mini-I Pro 3 : Roon ready or not?

Matrix Mini-i Pro 3 is still not on the “Partner Devices Matrix list”. How should it be understood?
Is officially Roon Ready now?

its right there …

Roon Ready Matrix

I may order one to see if it sounds just as good, at least, to my Pro-Ject S2.

Hi, Roon have added mini-i 3 series in Matrix partner page.
But they have not updated the knowledge database (Partner device matrix) page. Matrix Audio is contacting them for the fix now.
Don’t worry the mini-i 3 series has been certified officially by Roon.

Pro 3 landed at lunchtime.
Only had a quick play so far but very impressed with build and sound quality.
Network & Roon setup an absolute breeze.
Another home run from the Matrix guys. :+1:

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this is one of those things I’m super intrigued by, but don’t need.

I have a few streaming devices and DACs on separate systems, and they work fine, and sound great. (Mac mini running roon bridge, and a couple of raspberry pi’s – one with a Pi2AES HAT.)

So, I keep going back and forth on this device. It’s soooo cool, but will it sound better than any of the streamers I already have? Would I miss HQPlayer’s filters and upsampling, which this device wouldn’t support? Ahdunno.

Hoping for more testing and verdicts from all y’all!

It’s a very sexy unit.
I’ve been stroking it in stanby mode.
Had to stop as the dog was getting jealous.

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I have two Stafffies and I could so without them sitting on mine when it arrives.
So I will try not to pet it too much :grin:

Mike

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I’ve got a 50 kg Rottweiler who likes his ears and neck being rubbed.

Must say that as an Android user the Bluetooth addition to the Pro 3 is a really nice touch. Great for podcasts on Spotify.

Really happy with this purchase.

Infact the 3 HiFi purchases I’ve been most happy with over last couple of years for pure quality and value have all been Chinese brands : 2 Matrix products and a pair of HiFiMan Ananda headphones. Great stuff.

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So my two Staffies (actually one is a cross old time English Bulldog crossed with a Staff) way just a little bit more than your beast. Though the one is still growing!!!

I bought a pair of Sundara headphones last year and really like them, after buying a nice balanced cable I am seriously tempted to add the Ananda headphones to my collection as well (for a different room of course) for use with the Matrix. Glad to hear that you see them as a recommendation, and I assume they work well with the Matrix?

As another Android user I am also looking forward to listening to my podcasts this way using Pocketcasts

Mike

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I use the Ananda on the Element M for 8+ hours of Roon per day whist doing home office.
Will put the Pro 3 in there for a bit to run it in.
The comfort on the Ananda is superb.
Ear slippers :+1:

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Matrix Mini-I Pro 3 was delivered to me today.

Fantastic sound and big upgrade, works great with McIntosh MHA100, Sennheiser HD600 and Harbeth P3ESR.

There are some things to polish (wrote two emails to the support and I’ll see what they’ll respond).

First issue is not Roon related - you can’t switch from streaming to USB directly using remote - you need go to through all digital inputs (and USB is last in the list). Remembering last input would be great.

Second issue I’m not sure is it Roon related or not. When streaming something that has non-standard characters in artist name or song title, it looks scrambled. For example, Rafał Blechacz has last letter in his name displayed wrong. Same goes with Croatian characters (čćžšđČĆŽŠĐ), some other characters…

Do you guys have same issues?

Mine was supposed to be arriving today, but it’s now going to be another week.
Hopefully they can sort out the font issues with a firmware release, but does it it happen if you play through AirPlay or another method?

Mike

That’s supposed to be part of the Roon Ready programme to display correctly unicode characters I believe. You on latest firmware?

can you tell us what you were using before? Just trying to get a sense if it was a big upgrade over airplay or a chromecast audio dongle or a RaspPi or what. :slight_smile:

and you mention you’re also using the USB input. I don’t really need a DAC for my main system, My Parasound HINT6 has a built-in DAC. So i’m wondering if the device is overkill. Might just need a great streamer. But if the DAC is really good, I could justify it.

Hi Chris,

the mini-i 3 is mainly a DAC featuring little streaming capabilities and, of course, the roon endpoint thing.
Limitations:

  • no app
  • no native support of any streaming services (tidal, qobuz, spotify…).
    Access to the streaming services is via roon only … or managed by an external device which you connect via airplay or BT.
    If it was for streaming only, I’d definitely go for a different solution.

For me, it’s just the other way round: I wanted a good dac with roon endpoint capabilities…and the mini-i 3 is perfect for that.

Bye,
Sunny

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Yes, character is incorrect on the example you gave. I had not noticed it on anything else so far.

So, to answer to all replies…

I tried AirPlay now, it’s the same.

If you want examples, here is another one:

It should be “Kad ćeš mi doći”. Practically anything in Croatian is wrong. Which is really strange, i suppose when they created font they didn’t make all proper characters.

When it comes to DAC - I wanted good DAC primarily, and Roon endpoint next. And I wanted both in one package.

First I was using integrated DAC of McIntosh MHA100, it sounded nice to me but drivers are ridiculously old (2013) and sometimes I’ve been getting BSOD in Windows which was not acceptable, because I’m using it like 10 hours per day, during my work. And I can’t afford BSOD when I have 15+ apps opened.

That’s why I switched to Denon DA-300USB. It’s OK, but somewhat not dynamical. It’s just not the same sound league as my amp, speakers and headphones. So I’ve been waiting for some time to find a proper DAC that would also support all the current standards (which also include MQA), have proper Windows drivers, and most importantly sounds great.

What surprised me the most is the quality of reproduction on low volumes. I’m finding the sound really, really great, background is dead black… But that’s subjective anyway and depends on what you’re listening to, your personal experience, rest of the system… If you’re listening to simple music, there’s not much to be gained anyway. :slight_smile: Maybe even the opposite. But, if you’re listening to something more complex, or to the fine produced material where you have some quality in the source that can be unleashed - I think this is a good way to go.

What is not so good that I got rejected from support with my question for remembering last digital input. I think that’s the shame, they just said “it’s designed like this”. :frowning: And they’ll take a look at the characters issue.

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I checked with a few other tracks.
Scandinavian special characters display OK: things like ø æ å
So does indeed appear to be an issue with certain alphabets.

Just setup my matrix mini pro 3. So far sounds excellent. I’m curious though, I have Roon device setup as MQA decoder and renderer, and MQA Core decoder disabled. No DSP and fixed volume. I would expect to see signal path as lossless, but I’m instead getting enhanced. Does this make sense to anyone? Or because the DAC is doing MQA decoding by definition Roon can’t guarantee it is lossless anymore?