New Metrum Acoustics Baby Ambre

Looking forward to getting your views.

Yes, this little Roon endpoint has piqued my interest too.

  1. It’s here:

  1. It’s running Ropieee (good):

  1. It uses the HifiBerry Digi+ Pro device driver (not surprising, since the Baby Ambre sports the same WM8804G chip);

  2. It runs RoonReady, but is uncertified as of yet;

  3. It works. :slight_smile:

More this weekend, after I’ve done a bit of listening. I’ve got a Pi2/Digi+ Pro sitting next to it, so I can do a bit of comparison.

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Oh great it’ll be fantastic to hear a first hand opinion on how possibly this device may improve the physical sound of the pi feeding a DAC. Thanks for your feedback.

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Rene, any update you can give us? I am interested in upgrading my Digione, and before I go with a sig, I would love to see how the Baby Ambre performs.

Also, will it work with wifi?

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So… This is a two-headed tale. The good news first: the little Baby has been nothing but excellent: rock stable and faultless.

On the audio front all is well as well. I hooked the Baby up to the optical of one of my Phantoms, and compared with a Pi/Digi+ Pro on the other. Nothing earth shattering, but overall the Baby was a bit more smooth / rounded / musical while the Pi was a bit coarse and bland in comparison.

Something did not sit right though: with both endpoints, the mids were a bit thin and the highs a bit shrill (think crashing cymbals). When comparing Qobuz tracks (Redbook and Highres) directly through the Devialet Spark application vs. through either endpoint, it appears the S/PDIF connections on the Phantoms are a bit less excellent than I would like.

For good measure I powered up my old Meridian DSP5200 speakers, changed the Digi+ board on the Pi for an Allo DigiOne and hooked up both players with a Blue Jeans digital coax cable.

Much better. The Baby showed the same effortless smoothness, but with a nice, balanced sound signature. I preferred it to the DigiOne, which was a bit rough and overly lively.

So… This leaves me in a bit of a conundrum. I ordered a UPNP Bridge to play Roon to the Phantoms, which is excellent soundwise as it avoids using the S/PDIF, but is unstable at the moment (working with @agillis on this).

For now, it’s back to quality listening through Spark and a bit of Roon Radio 2.0 via Airplay – until the Phantoms finally acquire RoonReadiness. I’ll have to return the Baby, even though it’s an excellent little bugger.

A bit of a sad ending – but hey, life.

(If anyone wants one, PM me and I’ll shave €50 off the pre-order price as not to bother the good folks at Metrum. Otherwise I’ll return it by the end of the week).

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Nope – ethernet only.

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Is the Baby Ambre SPDIF output 192 KHz like the big Ambre?

I don’t know (don’t use it) for the optical TOSLINK out but Coax out sure does 192 kHz. Since both are S/PDIF you might have to be more specific. :wink:

Also, I never got a spec sheet or handbook with my baby Ambre it seems so I couldn’t look it up there.

Whooops, yep coax. I couldn’t find any specs on the Baby Ambre. Big Ambre does standard 96 KHz on the optical port.

Then yes, there it does 192, or so my DAC says. :slight_smile: