As my office Unitiqute 1 goes screenless, considering a Matrix Mini-I Pro 3. I would run it into a NAP 110 and Kef Ls50’s. As the Matrix also streams Roon Certified now, I could sell on the microRendu which is only doing Bridge software duties to feed the Unitiqute Roon. It will also fully decode MQA (I was recently gifted a free ongoing sub to Tidal by a director there). Reviews are generally outstanding, and the look, size and functionality perfect for the office desktop
I know a direct comparison of the Matrix and a Unitiqute would be a tall ask, but before pulling the trigger (price goes up Feb 18th) just wondering if there are any Matrix users out there, and opinions on the 110 match (I already have the RCA-DIN cable being used with the UQ). The problem is what to do with the UQ? Bite the bullet and get it fixed and send it on I suppose. It’s a great sounding unit, but getting on, and thinking about a change and the downsizing, and functionality. Love the album display on the Matrix. For $899, it’s a pretty loaded unit and great looking.
supposed to be very good, and I looked at this before I bought my new violectric. One thing to check is that whilst it was initially sold as Roon-ready, it actually wasn’t… this was back in Nov so hopefully sorted, but worth checking…
Well, I pulled the trigger. I figure with the price hike coming up even if I had to resell it I wouldn’t lose much. Will let you know what my impressions are. Coming from China so will be a few days.
It’s got very favourable review as a DAC and Roon on users are loving it and more so now it’s Roon ready. The only concern is the headphone out is quite high impedance so may affect the damping factor of low impedance headphones. But most seem very happy with it and it’s got balanced outputs to.
Strongly considering one for my headphone setup to simplify it further and it looks like a possible path to change the Atom and get a better Naim amp and ditch their streaming platform as I only use Roon.
It will be here on Wed - super fast from China! I’ll let you know how it goes. My only headphones, which I don’t use much, are 250 ohms (Beyerdynamic Amiron Home) so not concerned about the headphone output. They sound so so with the UQ anyway (great with the DAC V1 in the living room). Might pick up a balanced 4.4mm cable for them at some point. Not sure if I can have a balanced XLR to DIN 4 cable made to go to the 110, and no idea what that might bring vs RCA to DIN.
Pro version. I have this free ‘lifetime’ gift of Tidal that was given to me late last year, so the pro version has MQA decoding (and a better clock). Even though ethically I don’t believe in MQA, and think Qobuz sounds a little bit better, I figured it’s best to hear what a full DAC decode of MQA does, as I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak. I will also try the Matrix both being fed Roon via LAN, and with the microRendu 1.4 via USB. Hopefully can ditch the mR altogether. This is for the office system, where there’s HDD fans, printer, etc running so it’s not audiophile sweet spot listening, but the near field, wall mounted Ls50’s can be quite revealing. For me the biggest question will be is it more or less fatiguing then the UQ over long listening periods.
You can only use single ended to the 110 so just use the line outs, balancd wont bring anything unless its goign to balanced. Its only benfical for long runs or if you get a lot of interference. For Headphones it allows them to be driven at higher volumes and this cn help hard to drive phones and can give slightly different presenttion does on my DAP anyway.