Mutec thread, MC / REF

Sovrce Gear
21

Looks correct to me although iirc mine would also have the audio light lit when playing music. I think that’s right but I can’t double check, but pretty sure you are good there

Unless you are taking the wordclock out to your dac (which you can’t do in your case), it’s not going to be used

Yes it’s common, that’s going to happen with stuff like this running in exclusive modes

2 Likes
22

Not a Mutec 3 owner but I bought a 1.1 specifically to run my pi streamer into via AES and reclock/distribute. It has definitely given an improvement. It’s very hard to pin down but I have done some limited a/b-ing. I feel like the biggest benefits have been in soundstage and treble presentation. There seems to be an increase of clarity over straight from PI to Dac. So personally I would say it is worth it.

4 Likes
23

I see that mutec has listed their 1.2+ and MC3+usb as what I traditionally use as a DDC

Music Source>USB>Mutec>AES>DAC

But theres so many models and some of them seem like they could also work as a usb ddc even tho theyre not listed as such?

I want to upgrade my matrix xspdif3 ddc but im having very tough luck finding a berkeley alpha usb for a decent cost so I wonder if a mutec could do instead…

But retailers are hard to find so I wonder if I should look for a 1.2+ or MC3+usb or maybe just wait for a berkeley or stay with the matrix?

Thanks

1 Like
24
  • 1.2+ is old and discontinued
  • Mc3+ usb replaces it (this is the one you want)
  • Mc2 and mc3 and mc3.2 are something else and not what you are looking for
  • Mc3+ is the same device as the Mc3+ Usb, the only difference is the usb has usb input alongside optical\spdif\aes inputs and the other only optical\spdif\aes inputs (but both can output optical\spdif\aes)
  • Mutec is good because it has usb\optical\spdif\aes inputs and outputs optical\spdif\aes, so you have more flexibility, other devices are limited to only usb input for example. I use its usb input for pc and optical input for TV and both output via a single Aes cable to dac, all inputs are on all the time so you don’t have to switch anything
  • To further increase the performance of the Mc3+ ddc, you can connect it to Mutec’s Ref10 Nano master clock or the more expensive Ref10, the difference between them the Nano can output 4 clocks and can be used with its internal psu or an external psu via 15V DC (4.3mmx6.5mm), the bigger Ref10 has 8 outputs and a better internal psu only and also with slightly higher quality clocks, you can further upgrade the big Ref10 itself to SE120 (even more advanced clocks) by sending your unit to Mutec
  • I like the Mutec mc3+ usb more than Singxer su6
  • Adding the Ref10 nano to the mc3+ made it perform better in all departments for me and was easily noticeable
7 Likes
25

Thank you very much! That was super in depth and exactly what I needed.

2 Likes