 Het doet alles wat je nodig hebt om een zet van headphones, actieve speakers of een amp en passive speakers te drijven. Het doet de NLA streaming, MQA en functiont als een Roon Endpoint of Airplay Renderer. En het ziet er goed uit. Driftend door het headphone trend, meer en meer de sokole headphone amps komen op de markt. Zoals je weet, ik hou niet van het luisteren van headphones. Ik voel me locktop en isolatieve en heb deze voeding te ontdekken als claustrophonisch. Maar onder deze headphone amps zijn er heel mooie ontdekkingen die kunnen functioneren heel goed als digitale frontend voor een conventional stereo. Zoals de Element X bij Matrix Audio. Laten we kijken hoe dat werkt. De Element X is connecteerd over RCAO XLR cables naar de analoge ingang van een amplifier of power amp, drijven een zet van speakers. Om de streaming function te gebruiken, de Element X moet connecten met de netwerk over een netwerkkabel of wifi, zodat het met streaming services en radio stations op de internet kan accessen. Als je muziek op jouw computer of nas speelt, kan dat ook geplaatst zijn. En er zijn verschillende manieren om dat te doen, waarom later nog meer. Remote controlervolum, inputselectie, filters en stand-by kan worden gedaan door de heel mooie bekende metalremote controler te gebruiken. Controleren in de streaming function is gedaan door een smartphone of tablet te gebruiken depending op de manier waar je werkt. Deze ga ik terug. Een andere manier om te werken is de computer te connecten direct naar de Element X. Genereer de beste manier om dit te doen is om een USB kabel te gebruiken, maar speedup of tosteling kan ook gebruikt zijn. Even beter dan een USB zou zijn om een i-squared S output card in je computer en dat te connecten met de i-squared S input op de Element X. Om muziek te spelen, run je een audiophile muziekplayer zoals Aurevana, J River, Rune of Equal op de computer. De andere digitale sources kunnen ook connecten, zoals de tosteling output van je cd-player, tv set, setup box, dvd player of een game console. Bekijk dat de i-squared S input gebruikt als een HDMI kabel, maar kan niet connecten met de HDMI output van een videodevijs. Om de tv, setup box, game console of dvd player te connecten moet je de speedup of tosteling output van deze devices gebruiken. Om het over het hoofdpapen te spelen, gebruik je 1 of 2 van de 3 hoofdpapen connecten op de front wanneer de output van de Element X wordt veranderd om de hoofdpapen of balanspapen in plaats van line-out. De sterde anodise aluminium houding is U-shaped en heeft kooling profiles aan de zijkant. Het maakt 340 x 281 x 50 mm excluding de feed en 60 mm including the feed. Het maakt 4,2 kg. Op de front rijdt de stand-by-button, de rotary encoder dat functiont als volume control en dubbelt als een input-device voor scrollen door menu's, de input-selector, de output-selector en de display. Op de linker 3 hoofdpapen, een 4 pin XLR voor balanspapen en 2 combinatie 6,3 jack en 3 pole XLR-connectoren voor iederke single-ended hoofdpapen of balanspapen met 2 XLR's. Op de rear vinden we de IEC main socket dat accepteert iederke 115 of 230 volt op de positie van een switch in de bottom. Dan de network socket en, als alternatief, 2 sockets voor de geïncluïde wifi antenna's. Dan 2 USB-A-sockets voor storagemedia, houding muziek, een microSD-card voor storing muziek en een USB-B socket als audio input van een computer. Een i-squaredes input op HDMI, 2 tostlings en 2 spiddips complete digital inputs. De output's zijn available als single-ended on RCA en balanspapen op XLR. Het neemt op een screwing 28 screws om binnen te krijgen waar we een simpele metal frame zien, wat is fijn, by the way, de sturdig ouderhuising maakt het een solide constructie. Directe na de AC input zien we de mainsfilter, de toroidisch transformator en de rest van de linea power supply met fijn componenten zoals de Nishikon electrolytic capacitors. Dit geeft de basic voltage, waardoor lokale voltage regulaties garantieven perfecte stabel, low-noise, lokale voltages. Dit lowerboot zorgt voor alle digitale interfacing. We zien een XMOS USB receiver, een microchip USB controller en een Xilink processor. Boven de digitale interfacing zien we de streamer als een separate plug-in unit met op de top in piggyback style de wifi radio's. De digitale audio signalen zijn aan de digitale to analoge versie done by the pro version of the ESS ES9038 and clocked by the Crystek CCHD9950 ventoclock crystal. Signal is then separated in left and right balanced analog channels with in between an output stage for the single-ended output. It's worth mentioning that a special hybrid volume control is used. It combines digital volume control that is more precise doing smaller steps and analog volume control that does the big steps so the digital system always has sufficient resolution. The technical design lets you expect good measurements, but that's not the case. The measurements are very, very good. Let me show you the linearity. It represents the relation between the digital level and the analog level. The turquoise line represents the measured relation between the digital and analog signals. So if the digital signal dictates a signal of minus 120 dB on the horizontal scale, the analog output should be at 120 dB below the maximum output of the DAC on the less vertical scale. The green line shows the deviation and uses the right vertical axis. As you can see, there is next to no deviation at minus 120 dB while many technicians stop measuring at minus 120 dBs. Even at minus 140 dBs, the deviation is only about plus 1.3 dB and that's most likely due to noise. For that's the nice thing about this measurement. You see the amplitude error that causes distortion, although the audibility of this is rather low. You also see the noise floor for then the analog signal can't drop deeper. But you can also see that the jitter must be very low, since with low-bit converters like these jitter can also have effect on the linearity. Now let me warn you that despite what others say, there is no way to measure the perceived audio quality. I have reviewed equipment that measured badly and sounded fantastic and vice versa. A good reviewer should measure to detect design errors, but should always judge audio equipment by ear. There are many ways to use the element X. Let's start with Matrix Audio's implementation of NPD. This is the basic music player of Linux and it is bit perfect. Not only that, it can be controlled by numerous free NPD apps. But Matrix Audio offers a free app too, that has device specific functions. Let's start it up and go to the settings. Here you can set the language to either Chinese or English. Define what must be done when you start playback. Some browse modes, screen timeout and for instance start an update if necessary. Help, troubleshooting and technical support can be had here too. When we select library along the bottom of the screen we see the album on the external hard disk connected to one of the two USB-A sockets on the rear. Album hard was present on the hard disk, but many files might have been too large to work with the MA app. The first time you access that disk, it will take some time to read in all the albums. The same goes for artists, but once read in, it shows pictures of most artists, something that is not present on the hard disk. The MA app is not the most responsive app, but it does work and it has a nice feature. The virtual remote, that not only works when using the MA app to select the music but also when you use DLLA or Roon. So let's take a look at DLLA. As said, you need to have a DLLA server running on a computer or NAS. There are countless DLLA server programs available for Windows, macOS, Linux and NASs. Many of them free. I use Minimum Server 2 that for basic use is free while a paid version offers more versatility. In contrast to many DLLA servers Minim Server only does audio and therefore works with more audio specific metadata fields. I have Minim Server running on the slowest, simplest Synology NAS, the DS119J, that holds an 8 TB drive, that during testing was also synchronizing with my music from another computer. For DLLA you also need a DLLA controller that nowadays is an app on a smartphone or tablet. I use Glider on iPad. It's not free, but it's the best I know. It looks like this. Let's see what music source we will use. The Syn8T is the NAS I just described, so that's selected. Let's go back to the library, select artist and tap the S along the left side of the screen. I wanted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which after a short hiccup appears. Let's jump back to the artist starting with an S and select Sting. Here four albums are found. I select Nothing Like The Sun, which is still my favorite Sting album. As you can see, the combination of Minim Server and Glider works like a breeze and also works fine with the Element X. And remember, the NAS was syncing music at the same time. Working with Rune is just as easy. Set up the Element X in the Audio Setup menu and you can select it from the Zones menu. Using AirPlay is even simpler. Just select the Element X in the AirPlay menu. Every digital to analog conversion needs a reconstruction filter that filters at half the sampling frequency or less to avoid distortion due to aliasing. For CD, that's 22.05 kHz, but usually 20 kHz is used. Unfortunately it's not possible to have a filter dat let 20.000 Hz past en fully blocked 20.000 plus 1 Hz without smearing the signal out over time. So a compromise is needed. And as with all compromises, there is no absolute truth, especially with audio files. Place three audio files in a room and you have four opinions as the saying goes. Matrix Audio therefore offers seven different reconstruction filters that can easily be set from the infrared remote control. They all have slightly different role of characteristics that, as such, should have little influence on the sound characteristic. As you can see, the difference remains within 1 dB up to 18 kHz, which is absolutely inaudible even for those that have ears capable of still hearing 18 kHz. And there won't be many that do and can afford this level of equipment. It's not these frequency responses that give audible results but at time smearing these filters' cores. Let me show you some examples with filter 1. Top row shows a square wave of 1 and 10 kHz and the lower row shows two pulses. All fours show that there is ringing that follows on the signal. The 10 kHz square wave looks rather distorted. This filter is called fast roll-off minimum phase filter and is the default filter. Filter 2 is the slow roll-off minimum phase filter and it shows less post ringing and the 10 kHz square wave still looks rather distorted. Filter 3 is named fast roll-off linear phase filter and now we see both pre and post ringing while the 10 kHz square wave looks somewhat more like a square wave. Filter 4 is called slow roll-off linear phase filter and looks like filter 3 but with less ringing. Filter 5 is the brick wall filter and looks a lot like filter 3. Filter 6 is called hybrid fast roll-off linear phase filter. It shows a slight pre-ringing and has almost the post-ringing of filter 1. Finally, filter 7 is called apodizing fast roll-off linear phase filter. I won't dig deeper into this. I just wanted to show that there is more than just the frequency response. I have not tested the headphone output since I am not a reference in this field. Matrix Audio specifies the output power at 1150 milliwatts in 33 ohms, 308 milliwatts in 300 ohms and 152 milliwatts in 600 ohms, all at 1 percent THD. The LAN connection does 10 base T and 100 base T. More than sufficient for audio and often less noisy than 1000 base T. Both the 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi bands are supported and the A, B, G, N and AC standards are offered too. If you want to use a 2.5 inch USB drive, make sure it's a low power version which most of them are nowadays. If such a drive doesn't work, it's likely due to higher power consumption of the drive. The 3.5 inch drives always have an external power supply that often is noisy. The use of, for instance, i5 i-Power 12 volts DC power supply will in most cases improve the sound quality or rather deteriorate the sound quality less than the included power supply. This is especially the case when the drive is directly connected to the audio device, in this case the element X. FAT, FAT32, AXFAT and NTFS file formats are supported, although some reservations are made in the manual concerning some unmentioned story devices and memory cards. The element X DAC can handle normal PCM formats up to 32 bit 768 kHz and DSD 1024, but only if the interface used does support that. Speed, even tostlink, are limited to 24 bit 192 kHz PCM and DSD 64. USB does PCM up to 24 bit 768 kHz and DSD up to DSD 256 over DOP and DSD 512 native. Rul supports 32 bit 768 kHz PCM and DSD up to DSD 256. I suppose the same goes for DLNA, but I lack the files to check that. And you can wonder how relevant those extremely high sampling rates are, given the very limited availability of program material. The sound quality is to a degree defined by the choice of filter and after some listening I decided to use filter 2 for it comes closest to my ideal of good sound. But from experience I know that non-audio file listeners rather go for a somewhat sharper sounding filter and that's fine to each his own. Then I compare playing music from a USB drive connected to the Element X and controlled over the MA app with playing music from a DLNA server for on the small NAS and from the Roon server. I also tested the speed of input using an Auralic Aries G2 streamer. And there were notable differences. The best result came from using the Aries G2 streamer. Matrix Audio's Dutch distributor Bulls Audio had already noted that I should use the I2S input if I could. But I have no I2S streamer. I know from experience that the speed of output of the Aries G2 using the Ether region switch is of such high quality that it can't be beat by the I2S streamer, as I know. This way the Element X produces an impressive sound quality that exceeds that of the Mitach Brooklyn bridge connected the same way. It's not a giant difference but the Element X is more open and more relaxed. Connecting the syntax power supply to the Mitach changes that and then the authority and lack of stress makes the Mitach win. Prices of the Element X and the Brooklyn bridge are about equal at 3.000 euros. Adding the syntax power supply to the Mitach makes it at 1.000 euros more expensive and thus no fair comparison. Using the MA app and the USB drive was second best en might be the best way to use the Element X for most users. It's also the most practical and affordable way. Just copy your music on a USB drive and connect that to the rear of the Element X in your set. You still get a very good sound quality in its class too. Using one of the network options is just slightly less convincing and that goes to the Mitach too but it's still of a sound quality that was not available in this price category only a few years ago and nothing to be ashamed of. The Element X is extremely versatile and even in this rather long video I'm not able to cover all possibilities. Important is that it's a very good sounding DAC and digital preamp given the price. A direct comparison with the Mitach Brooklyn is not possible since the Mitach also offers an analog input that can be used as line input or MC or MD-Phono input while the signal remains in the analog domain. But the Element X offers I2S input that with a medium price stream can produce better results than SPDIF or USB. The rest is all within the margin and to a degree up to personal preferences and goals. I'm sure that when you choose the Element X you'll be pleased you did. Which is a fine line to finish this video with. There will be a new video next week if all goes well at Friday, 5 p.m. Central European Time. Since you don't want to miss that subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. If you like this video give it a thumbs up. Many thanks to those viewers that support the channel financially. It keeps me independent and thus trustworthy. If you like to support my work too the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I'm Hans Beekhuyzen. Dankjewel voor het kijken en zie je in de volgende show of op theHBproject.com. En wat je ook doet geniet van de muziek en blijf safe.