Meitner MA-3 Roon Ready timeline

Yes - Meitner will convert to DSD internally.

re: noise floor is ridiculous on this unit. When mine arrived I had it sent back immediately cause I figured I had a problematic unit. EMM Labs confirmed it was fine. Asked for my money back.

You DON’T have to have sonic fidelity and noise floor in 2021. My MA1 V2 was much quieter than the MA3. My Verity DAC is dead silent and sounds spectacular.

Hi Derek,
Thanks; So when Roon reports “Sigma Delta Modulator” within the Signal Path, that function (modulator step) occurs within the MA3 hardware? Interesting; I was thinking that the conversion was being done in Roon’s software and transmitted to the MA3 this way; In any event the end result is spectacular!
I just had a round of DAC’s and SACD players through my stable and the MA3 tops them all;
Bricasti M3 (with latest MDX and streamer option), Luxman D08u paired with Lumin U1 Mini; The Luxman was the last to leave the rack and the idle music “noise floor” is exactly the same as with the Meitner MA3 (very low);
I am connected to my Luxman CL-38uc tube preamp via XLR, just as it was with the D08u;

When you had your MA3 did you perceive noise when music was playing, or did the thought of hiss when there was no audio signal ruin your experience in some way?

Cheers and enjoy the music

Yes, in the hardware - correct.

Noise floor is always present with the MA3. I have 93dB speakers. I guess what I’m saying is good engineering in 2021 will deliver a zero noise floor.

Not crazy about Lumin. You can do better - we built our own streamer using Ubuntu on an ASUS PN50 and a hand-built power supply. We did blind A-B against Lumin / Aurender / Melco and the difference is spectacular.

Cool! Sounds like a fun project; The Lumin sounded fine as a source; I had an Aurender N10 with a previous Chord DAC stack (TT2+Mscaler); Loved Aurender sq, but missed Roon experience too much; Melco looks very interesting to me; I built my own Roon Rock on the latest top spec Roon has published in a NUC (no fancy fanless case) and it works flawlessly so far with the Meitner and other endpoints; I think my quest is over- Thank the Lord, lol;
Cheers

Wanna build an Asus streamer? It’s not hard and I’ll help you. Your jaw will drop when you hear the difference. No kidding.

Not sure I follow; would this replace the Roon Core (ROCK) build? Would I connect the MA3 via ETH or USB to Asus streamer?

You got it - USB to the Meitner.

Roon core remains on the NUC? I mean one of the reasons to go for the MA3 was to simplify- just add an ETH cable and i’m all set; What benefit would adding an off board renderer and USB cable bring to the table? Seems like a step backward;

Yah, you can leave the core where it is. The Asus becomes an end-point.

It’s not a step backward sonically - otherwise I wouldn’t suggest it. The sonic improvement is quite stellar if you enjoy the challenge of the build.

Ok; go on, i’m listening, sounds fun :slight_smile:

Find an Asus PN50 with a Ryzen core of decent performance - the key is to get a core that won’t have to work hard. If it works, it generates heat which can become noisy.

Add 8GB of memory. I use an m.2 drive for the OS and inserted a 4TB Samsung SSD for my library of music. You can try pulling the music from an external library if you want to use this as an end-point. In my testing, using this as the server with the music library locally performs best. Ethernet can be pretty dirty.

Install Ubuntu - I use the latest build. Add the ROON Ubuntu core.

This is where the fun starts - throw out the wall wart that comes with the Asus PN50 and build yourself a proper toroidal power supply. If you’re handy and know your way around DigiKey / Mouser you won’t have any problems. Something like this is perfect

The σ11 regulated power supply

Build yourself a nice cable from the PSU to the Asus - we went LEMO to barrel.

Sit back and soak in the fidelity of the sound - it’s quite shocking how much better it gets.

Hi David, when I’m using the net port I don’t see it upscale to dsd1024 automatically. Have you adjusted other settings? Thanks!


Anyone can help? I’m using the MA3 Ethernet port, Roon dsp function is disable, I don’t see dsd1024 on signal path is that normal? Thanks!