For all Mutec gear
An introduction to the Mutec 1.1+. While there previously existed a version with USB, the 1.2, this is no longer is produced and so the 1.1 acts as their entry level DDC.
The Mutec 1.1+ is very clearly aimed at a pro audio market. It comes very well protected in a plain box and the only accessory you get is a power cord. The manual is printed paper sheets stapled in the top left corner. Clearly no money has been spent on fluff here, all of the price is in the gear.
The unit itself has a slightly old fashioned look with its oval led lit buttons. Function is simplistic - press menu button to select function, press select button to choose option - but it does the job and is very adequately explained in the manual. Personally I found it to be a lot better looking in person than in renders or photos - it fits nicely with the rugged industrialism of an RNHP for example. It is sturdily built and feels well made.
Inputs are AES/EBU xlr, AES coaxial, spdif optical or spdif coaxial and it has two of each for outputs.
The job it does is to take any input digital signal in and does one of three things with it. Option one converts it and outputs it to all the other outputs (so AES xlr to all the others except the two AES xlr outs for example). Option two will simultaneously receive any two inputs and send them to each others outputs while turning off the remaining inputs and outputs entirely. Lastly option three takes each input and outputs it losslessly to each of its own two outputs - acting as a straight digital distribution amplifier. In the first two modes the signals are isolated and reclocked as part of the format conversion. It is not clear to me if this is the case in the third mode!
The 1.1+ is ideal if your signal is not arriving in your chain via usb and you need to send it to several dacs with a variety of inputs. For anything else it is likely not the best option. In the US a cheaper simple pro distribution amp such as the MSC-AES/SPDIF might be a simpler option for consumers. In the EU there is a lot less overlap between pro and consumer and I could find nothing equivalent readily available.
In my use case I have AES out from a pi hat and the Mutec 1.1+ allows a much cleaner signal to be sent to two dacs and two dac amps. If I wanted a lossless or even a reclocked signal and a digital distribution amp this was the most efficient and best value option. It works well and having spent more than a year looking at different options - either imported or more consumer type DDC I am now very happy I have chosen this. It certainly hasn’t hurt the sound quality in my system and has solved several connection issues in one handy box.
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I’ve got a MC3+ USB that I use for my main desk, to send out to a mojo mystique evo pro, and receive from a crane song hedd quantum for a desktop mic (yes it’s overkill but I don’t have any other use for it at the moment lol). Great interface overall for bang for the buck, very versatile, and performance can be improved further with the addition of the ref10 which I might consider later on (but don’t really think I can justify it for now)
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How has it been so far?
its really made such a substantial improvement to my system overall, way more than i would have ever thought. Almost all harshness in the sibilance region that ive been experiencing and have come to remember which songs have such harshness to either avoid or prepare myself, are now not harsh at all. Only a few exceptions to that which i just chock up to not the best recording, one that i can think of off the top of my head is Adele’s 30 album.
So that’s the most notable thing for me so far, but heres the thing. I havent been able to figure out what is the result of the Mutec and what was potentially already there but maybe I wasnt able to hear it as clearly, given how crappy the USB from my desktop must have been. I also got the Yggy and the Mutec in within a week or two of each other, so im not sure what is responsible for some of these things. What i do know is that i am absolutely in love with what I am hearing, and its by far the best ive heard my system.
Ive still yet to revisit the HD800s since getting bothe the Yggy and the Mutec in, so that should be really fun when i do that soon. Been exclusively listening to the TH900MK2 PW since getting all of this gear in, and right when i was thinking that maybe there was too much treble for me, the Mutec got rid of that harshness almost completely across the board and now i love the headphone so much more than I already did.
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Adele needs to find a new studio/engineer, I think. On good gear, her albums aren’t as enjoyable, which is unfortunate.
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absolutely agree
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I’m just shocked that Adele 19 doesn’t seem that long ago. Sigh.
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For real, the only album I liked sonically was her live performance at the royal albert hall
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I meant to post this question here yesterday BEFORE I actually ordered one, but oh well.
I was interested in the Mutec MC-3+ USB primarily to allow me to connect my PC to my Mojo DAC using a S/PDIF or AES cable (because Mojo recommended those inputs over USB), and from what I’ve read, the Mutec’s reclocking should also help everything sound better.
Is there any benefit to also connecting my PI2AES to the Mutec too? I thought it might be more convenient to have both sources go into the Mutec, and have one AES cable going to the DAC, but I wasn’t sure if I should also expect a bump in SQ. I’m asking because I only have one AES cable and was wondering if it’s worth buying another one, just to try it out.
Something like this:
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It does for sure imo, actually using my mutec with the mojo currently
I never thought about that but that’s a cool setup, would allow you to easily run a streamer or use pc audio with little hassle, could be very convenient. In terms of quality, it’s possible it could sound better although I’ve not tested something like that so I can’t say. But definitely try it out and see what you think, will be curious on your thoughts there
I’m actually using the aes input to take in a signal from an ADC from my microphone setup for my desk, when I get the chance I’ll have to try using it as just a pure reclocker with a streamer or something
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Thanks! Can I ask if you’re using AES because you consider it better than S/PDIF?
I have a DHLabs Silversonic D-110 AES / EBU cable that I currently use with my PI2AES, which is hopefully good enough to prove that my Black Cat Digit USB → Mutec → DHLabs D110 AES → Mojo is better than Black Cat Digit → Mojo.
Assuming I like the Mutec combo, I’ll then need to figure out whether to get a second DHLabs AES cable or something better.
I’m currently using a tara labs rsc air evolution aes and that is great, although I tried a snake river boomslang spdif and honestly was also pretty nice, but aes is my preference if possible. For the other dac/adc (crane song hedd quantum), I have it connected with that snake river into and out of it, and an oyaide db-510 clock cable between them
I think it’s really going to come down to what your source and dac likes better and if which cable is better or not
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I see that Snake River has a used Boomslang BNC to RCA cable (which i think I’d need since the Mutec only has BNC and the Mojo only has RCA) in their demo section for $395 vs $625 new.
Do you think Snake River is generally a step up from DHLabs or are they comparable?
Step up imo
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Thanks again, I decided to get the Snake River since it was such a bargain. Having a S/PIDF cable will give me more options to put the Mutec through its paces.
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The Mutec surprisingly arrived a day early. I’ve only been able to play a few songs, partly because I just went through 2 hours of a tornado warning in my town, with the power going off and on a few times.
I left my Black Cat Digit USB cable connected directly to the Mojo, and then connected the Mutec, using a Supra Excalibur USB and Silversonic AES cable.
After playing one song (‘Marlene On The Wall’ by Suzanne Vega), I can hear a significant difference between the USB cable and Mutec, where the USB sounds etched in comparison.
I’m assuming for now that the Mutec is removing a layer of glare, but I suppose it’s possible that I’m hearing the difference between the Black Cat and the Supra/Silversonic combo? My Snake River Boomslang SPDIF cable should arrive on Thursday, so I’ll try different combinations of cables to try to better understand what’s going on.
I have to admit I was initially underwhelmed, preferring the original sound of my USB cable, but after playing a couple more songs (‘Fast Car’ by Tracy Chapman and ‘Sultans Of Swing’ by Dire Straits), the smoothness of the Mutec is definitely growing on me, and the etched sound of the USB is becoming irritating. It’s probably a similar situation to someone who’s spent decades with their TV set to vivid mode, and is adjusting to a professionally calibrated TV.
I have one question for @M0N or @j.fopps (or any other Mutec owner). Would you mind checking this picture and confirming my settings are correct? As mentioned above, I have USB coming in and I’m using the Mutec to reclock the signal and output via AES. So I’ve set the mode to "internal + reclocking’, the reference to the top 3 options and the clock multipliers to 1. I couldn’t figure out a way to set the clock out, but maybe that setting isn’t relevant?
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You might have sensed a touch of disappointment in my previous post, because there was something about the sound of the Mutec that I didn’t like. Switching USB cables solved that. Feeding the Mutec with the Black Cat cable gave the sound a little more texture and energy than I was hearing with the Supra USB cable.
Now, when I switch between the USB cable and Mutec, I have a preference for the Mutec. Where the Black Cat had a slight glare on it’s own, that glare is gone when combined with the Mutec.
And I like the Supra cable better without the Mutec. The Supra is brand new and today was the first I used it. I find it a little laid back compared to the Black Cat, but I was enjoying listening to music using the Supra earlier in the day. However combining it with the Mutec seems to result in too much of a good thing, a little too soft and laid back, at least for my preferences.
The only issue I have with the Mutec is a slight delay when I change from redbook to a hirez song or vice-versa, resulting in a second or two of silence. This doesn’t happen when going from redbook to redbook or hirez to hirez. I don’t have this delay when using USB directly into the Mojo, so it must be the Mutec, but I’ve been able to get around it by having Foobar upsample redbook to 88 kHz.
Edit: changed my upsampling from 96 to 88, because I think it’s meant to be a multiple of 44.
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I think that’s pretty common with stuff like that (anybody correct me if I’m wrong). The spring has this delay when you enable its PLL and are not using the USB input.
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