Metrum Acoustics AMBRE Roon Digital Bridge

Reference:

1917

Condition:

New

NEWS: Metrum is working on native integration of Qobuz Connect. However, the Metrum Ambre music streamer already supports Qobuz Connect via Volumio (with a Premium subscription). Exceptionally good sound quality and Qobuz’s native user interface!

At Metrum Acoustics we are fanatic about building the best Digital to Analogue converters because of our love for making digital music sound sublime!

Because of this dedication to perfection we can truly appreciate listening experiences like ROON software.

Roon looks at your music and finds photos, bios, reviews, lyrics, and concert dates, and makes connections between artists, composers, performers, conductors, and producers.

What you get is a searchable, surfable magazine about your music.

And as we believe a DAC, Digital to Analogue converter is the heart of your music setup, what else can we do than to build a ROON end point which will allow you to direct your digital music through our device in order to get the most sublime sound available!

INTRODUCING AMBRE

We have been working under the radar to create a high quality, as you can expect from Metrum Acoustics, ROON end point, named AMBRE.

AMBRE will be as sweet as the name sounds, a sweet little device build with high quality components in order for you to get the highest quality sound when using ROON.

AMBRE is ready to roll, and she can be ordered in the store! Available immediately.

The AMBRE, Digital Bridge acts as an elegantly simple but hugely powerful interface between your digital music and your DAC.

The hardware platform in AMBRE enables you to stream high res music files from network attached storage, connected USB drives, online streaming services through the powerful ROON platform, outputting bit perfect audio direct to your DAC.

As you can see, AMBRE will have similarities to our award winning entry level DAC, the AMETHYST.

The AMBRE By Metrum Acoustics comes with all the connections an audiophile can wish for, and when hooking it up to your network it is a plug and play device.

The connections:

LAN (local area network) input: Connect an UTP cable with your local network. The Ambre is made as a Roon end point and cannot work as a standalone device. The Ambre expects a working Roon music server on the same local network.
Coaxial Output: A 75 Ohm coaxial cable should be used to connect the Ambre to other digital audio equipment like a dac for instance. The coaxial output has a galvanic isolation and can handle a maximum sample rate of 192 kHz.
AES/EBU digital output: When using the AES /EBU digital output a special 110 Ohms XLR cable should be used to connect the Ambre to other digital audio equipment. The AES/EBU interface has a galvanic isolation and can handle a maximum sampling rate of 192 kHz.
Optical output: A standard Toslink cable can be used to connect the Ambre to other digital audio equipment. The max sampling rate of the Toslink interface is limited to 96kHz.
I2S output: The I2S connection is probably the best way to connect digital audio equipment over short distances without intervention of all kind of interfaces like AES/EBU , spdif or Toslink. However still I2S is no international standard in terms of ruggedising the format or the connectors used. The I2S standard is optimized as an interconnection between Metrum Acoustics products but will work in most cases in conjunction with other gear. If your Metrum Acoustics product has the I2S option installed you can use a simple UTP cable to connect both devices.

And once connected, it is setting up your ROON environment,

and from here on you can choose your destination and is the AMBRE fully operational! Enjoy the music by Making Digital Sound Sublime!

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Product Details

Reference 1917

Attachments

Ambre User Manual

Download (1.1MB)

Designer

Metrum Acoustic at a glance

All Engineering (AE) is a company with a history of innovation in many fields within the world of electronic design. In the audio industry AE is primarily known today for its brand Metrum Acoustics. In the electrostatic speaker field their experience dates back to 1989 and gradually over time broader electronic applications have evolved.

A diverse range of acoustic system products have been created during this period, always relying on sound electronic design principles. Digital signal processing has played a significant role in more recent developments.

In hi fidelity audio AE’s attention was initially drawn to the limited availability of certain componentry. Established manufacturers supplying these key components decide how signals should be processed. No alternatives are available and therefore this greatly influences the sound image that is realised.

Current trends among manufacturers are to use the technique of ‘oversampling’ or ‘upsampling’ within the digital to analogue chipset itself. This forces designers to utilise this method of signal conversion for their own products. It also means that many brand systems use the same building blocks and consequently sound the same. The sound images created by such systems can actually betray the componentry that has been implemented.

These sampling techniques were introduced to fulfil the need ‘to smooth’ the conversion process from digital to analogue and prevent phase distortion. Particularly during the years following the introduction of CD replay, conversion methods proved insufficient with regard to sonic artefacts. In response strong filtering methods were employed and the oversampling technique was born. These techniques however had disadvantages which manifest themselves for example in areas of transient response.

Today there is a growing view that ‘non oversampling’ or NOS for short, offers many benefits but without the compromises mentioned above. AE dedicated considerable time and attention to researching the NOS premise and found its audible benefits valid up to a certain point.

The question then remained how to remove these sonic artefacts without resorting to oversampling. This question was answered by the first product made by AE the NOS mini DAC Quad, a digital to analogue converter designed and manufactured with modern high speed industrial grade chipsets, free from most of the disadvantages of the past. These techniques are improved over time and used over the entire range of products. The most important result is the sound, which was never so close to the analog origin.