MATRIX AUDIO Element M Music Streamer Combo User Guide

MATRIX AUDIO Element M Music Streamer Combo

Packing list

1. Product x1
2. Remote x1
3. USB cable x1
4. Power adapter x1

Parts and name

Front panel

1. 6.35mm headphone jack
2. Remote control sensor
3. Display
4. Menu button
5. User-defined button
6. Volume/control knob/standby knob

Rear panel

1. RCA left channel output
2. RCA right channel output
3. XLR right channel output
4. XLR left channel output
5. Coaxial input
6. Optical input
7. IIS LVDS input
8. USB Audio port
9. USB Host port
10. Wi-Fi antenna
11. LAN port
12. Grounding terminal
13. Power input

Display screen

Main interface

1. Status for NAS devices
2. Status for USB storage devices
3. Status for Wi-Fi and ethernet connection
4. Input channel
5. Sampling rate
6. Assistant information
7. Volume bar
8. Output mode

Volume control interface

1. Current volume dB level
2. Volume bar
3. Output mode

Input channel interface

1. Input channel
2. Unselected

Output channel interface

1. Current output mode
2. Selected

Remote control

1. Standby
2. Mute
3. Volume+
4. Volume-
5. Filter
6. Coaxial
7. Optical
8. IIS
9. USB/Network*

Connections

Connect to power

elements uses a 12V DC power ad. 1.67A (output power not less than 20W). Please use the supplied power adapter or a high-quality external linear power supply. The quality of the power supply will affect the sound quality. pter which output current not less than According to the grounding conditions under actual use environment, choose whether to connect the ground terminal on the back of the device to other equipment used at the same time, to eliminate the AC noise that may be caused by the undesirable ground loop.

Connect headphones

The 6.35mm headphone jack on the front panel can be connected to a variety of 160-6000 earbuds or head phones.

Connect to input source

Connection for front-end devices including S/PDIF output signal through coaxial and optical port; Connection for digital interface products of Matrix through lIS prot

Connect to active speakers or AMPs

In order to avoid damage to your devices, please turn off the active speakers or amplifiers before you connect them to element i.

Connect to storage devices

There are two USB HOST ports on the rear panel to connect with standard mass storage USB devices. Each USB ports provide up to 500mA of current to external devices.

Connect to LAN

Please use ethernet cable to connect element i to your network router (recommend using CAT-5 or higher version shielded ethernet cable), and let elementi in the status as shown below:

It is advisable to set up the router as DHCP server, and this function will allocate the device IP address in LAN automatically.

Connect to WLAN

1.  The Wi-Fi antenna of element i is not removable. Adjusting the antenna direction can change the Wi-Fi signal reception.
2. Let element i in the status as shown below:
3. Scan the QR code below to download MA Remote app for your iPhone, iPad and And roid devices, and follow the configuration wizard in the app to connect your elementi to Wi-Fi and explore more exciting functionalities.

Play

Basic operation

1. Power on and off Connect the power adapter, press the knob on the device or the Standby button on the remote control to turn on the device, the screen will light on. When the power is on, press the knob or the Standby button to enter stand by state.
2. Select the input source Press the menu button ‘=” to switch to the channel options menu, then rotate the knob to select between auto, coaxial, optical, i’s LVDs, USB Audio and Network, you can press the knob to confirm the selection. Under’AUTo’ mode, element i will automatically scan all digital in put channels, the first connected input channel will be locked immediately. It will continue to scan other channels until the current channel signal is lost. When there are several input channels being connected, element i is always locks the signal which is detected first. The order of input channel scanning is as shown, COAX OPT IS LVDS Network USB When selected ‘AUTO’ channel and the input signal being locked, it will show the auto scan mark beside the channel name. As shown, Optical *1 O PCM44.1 When using network related music source such as AirPlay, DLNA, Roon or MA player, please select Network input channel.
3. Select output channel Select the output mode between headphone output, line output and ‘AUTO mode by pressing the “= ” button on the front panel, press the knob to confirm. When ‘AUTO’ mode activated, when the headphone is connected to elementi, it will automatically switch to head phone output, and vice versa when the headphone disconnected, element i will automatically switch to line output mode
4. Volume control
5. Volume adjustment The volume can be adjusted by the knob For * and the key on the remote control, the screen will show the current volume level at the same time. Line output and head phone output have independent volume control level, a lso, the line output can be configured as fixed level output. CAUTION: FIxed output’ means that the device outputs signal with maximum level at OdB. Before selecting this mode, please make sure that your power amplifier or active speaker has been adjusted to a lower volume level. If the amplifier or speakers do not have volume control, DO NOT set up to “Fixed output’ mode, otherwise this operation may damage to your devices and harm your ears.
6. Mute In playback status, you can press the ‘Mute’ button on the remote control to activate mute; press the “Mute’ again or turn the volume knob to exit mute. There will be a mute icon on the screen when mute is activated.
7. Hearing protection In order to protect your hearing and avoid damage by excessive volume, when the volume level ofa single-ended headphone is higher than -30d8, the volume will be recovered to -30dB after element i reboot; if the volume is lower than -30dB, it will return to the same volume level as you set last time.
8. Filter settings When element i is playing PCM or DSD music, users can select the digital filters to get different sound performance. Users can switch on the 2nd option in setting menu or add the Filter setting to shorteut key ‘O’ on 9th option to fast switch it. The current selected filter will display in the assistant information area on the screen, and the encoding mode of DSD audio is also displayed there. O PCM Filter MOD 1
9. Auto sleep and wake up element i will enter sleep mode when the current selected digital channel has no input signal and no operation for more than 5 minutes. The following operations can wake up element i from sleep status,
10. Press the volume knob on the front panel of the element
11. Press the ‘Standby button on elementi or remote control
12. Recover the input signal of the selected channel or recover the signal of any digital channels underAuto Scan mode When element I has stopped playing for more than 5 minutes on the Network input channel, and no operation for more than 5 minutes, it will enter sleep mode automatically and will wake up by the following conditions:
13. Push music to element i through AirPlay or DLNA
14. Play music through MA player
15. Play music as a ROON endpoint
16.  Remote control Remote control uses a CR2032 button cell battery.Pull out the battary slot at the bottom to install battery and make sure to put in the right polarity. Please point the remote control to the remote sensor in the area in the following picture, the remote distance is about 8 meters and the battery life is about one year, please replace the battery if the remote distance becomes shorter or loses sensitivity.

Play music through optical, coaxial or lIS-LVDS port
When it is connected with front-end devices, which including S/PDIF output digital signal through coaxial and optical port or digital interface products of Matrix Audio through lIS port, the screen will show sampling rate and signal format of the selected input channel. Opticall* PCM44.1k Fiters If the sampling rate and signal format on the screen is not displayed correctly, please check if the cable is correctly connected or the front-end device is outputting signal.

Play music from USB storage devices or NAS
elements i can play the music from USB storage devices or NAS through MA player. Download MA Remote APP to get more detail about user guide. MA player is a digital music and streaming media audio playback system based on network control, it is developed by MATRIX. It can realize remote control on the mobile device under the same LAN. It can browse and play music tracks and automatically get album covers and artist information from internet. MA player supports a variety of lossless formats, and supports both DSD and PCM music files playback, which bringing you a brand new music playback experience.

Play music through AirPlay or DLNA
Atter element is connected to LAN with the ethernet cable or wireless, users can push the music from a smartphone or other mobile devices to it through AirPlay or DLNA. Connect the Wi-Fi of your i Phone or i Pad to the same local area network as the element i, and click AirPlay to select element i as an audio device, then choose and enjoy your favored music. Connect the Android devices and element I through Wi-Fi under the same LAN, and open the APP including the DLNA function, then play music and push it to elemental. The experience of using element i with an Android device is due to the compatibility of music APPs, not all the Android devices or music APPs have a DLNA function.

USB Audio
When the element i needs to be connected to computer as an USB DAC, please install driver for Windows 7/8/10 which can be found in Matrix’s official website, URL of the download page is: https://matrix-digi.com/en/down loads/, the installation process as follows,

Install the Windows driver for element

1. Step 1: Double-click the driver installation file, and click ‘Next’ ****
2. Step 2: Please select the installation path and click’lnstall’
3. Step 3: Installation is completed and click ‘Next
4. Step 4: Click ‘Finish, the driver installation i completed.

Use elements under Mac OS c

Mac OSX does not need a driver. Please select the audio device as element Series’ in System Preferen ces

Connect element i to mobile devices via USB port

Use Apple Lightening to USB Camera Kits to connect element i with ioS devices. elementi can be connected to an Android device with Micro USB or Type-C USB port via the OTG cable, but it’s not guaranteed to be compatible with all Android devices.

Setting

Repeat pressing the “Menu’ key to enter into the configuration menu, then press the knob to enter configuration items. AS shown: There are 13 items in the configuration menu as follow:

Lineout Mode Lineout mode can be set as, OdB Fixed: OdB gain, fixed OdB ADJ: 0d B gain, attenuation adjustable ( Default) Connect to active speakers, recommend to set as ‘OdB ADJ. Connect to power amplifier including volume control, recommend setting as “OdB Fixed

In order to avoid misoperation, switching from OdB ADJ to OdB Fixed requires a 2-step confirmation, press “O” button to confirm, other operations will cancel this setting.

PCM Filters

7 configurable digital filters with different frequency response curves, to set filters for different timbre

1. MODI fast roll-off, minimum phase filter (Default)
2. MOD2 slow rol-off, minimum phase filter
3. MOD3 fast roll-off, linear phase filter
4. MOD4 slow roll-off, linear phase filter
5. MOD5 brickwall ilter
6. MOD6 hybrid, fast roll-off, minimum phase filter
7. MODT Apodizoing, fast roll-off, linear phase filter

The frequency response curve of 7 different filters are as follow:

DSD Filters

Set the cut-off frequency of DSD digital filter 47kHz ( Default), 50kHz, 60kHz, 70kHz, AUTO

Suggestion:

DSD64-47k, DSD128 – 50k, and so on. When this option sets to AUTO, the DSD filter will be selected automatically.

Dither

Configure to turn ON/OFF the dither function, it can effectively reduce the quantizing distortion. ON (Default OFF

Jitter Eliminator
Set the internal time-base jitter elimination circuit for turn ON or OFF. DPLL Bandwidth

Set the DPLL Bandwidth Low:Low bandwidth High: High bandwidth Normal: Standard bandwidth (Default) o 6DPLL BandwidthNormal It’s recommended to set the DPLL bandwidth to default, when the quality of digital signal which output from front-end device is poor and the element i can not lock the signal stably, please select high bandwidth. The sound quality may be reduced in high bandwidth mode.

1IS-LVDs Port Definition T
here are two kinds of IS-LVDS port definition for option, two different definitions as shown bellow, TYPEA ( Default), TYPE B, TYPE C, TYPE D 7 LVDS Port Definition O TYPE A Please select ‘TYPE A’ when collocated with Matrix audio products.

Auto Sleep

When there is no input signal from the selected channel and no operation for more than 5 minutes, element i will enter sleep mode. element i will not enter ‘Auto Sleep’ mode when ‘Auto Sleep’ function is off. N OFF( Default) O 8 Auto Sleep N

User defined button settings

Set the function of “°’ button on the front panel. There are 4 actions available:

1. INPUT: Set “Input Channel Select’ as a shortcut, switch to next input channel by every pressing
2. OUTPUT: Set ‘Output Channel Select’ as a shortcut, switch to next output channel byevery pressing (Default)
3. FILTER: Set ‘Filter Select’ as a shortcut, switch to next filter by every pressing
4. INFO: Set ‘Product Info’ as a shortcut to display hardware and software information of the unit

Network
Type Select network access method for element i, when you select the option LAN, Wi-Fi is disabled and vice versa if you select Wi-Fi, ethernet is disabled. LAN: Wired network Wi-Fi: Wireless network (Default) 10 Network Type Wi-Fi

Remote control
If there are more than 1 Matrix device in the same place, in order to prevent one remote control from controlling multiple device at the same time, element i has 5 built-in sets of remote control address codes, which can be Switched under this option to achieve ‘one-to-one’ control between the remote control and the host. Enter Press the knob to enter the remote control settings as shown below, at this time, you will see the current remote control address code on the screen, press the button on the remote control and the screen will display the corresponding name. Hold the Standby and Filter buttons on the remote control for 5 seconds at the same time, the screen will display a new address code, press the 2 buttons again within 5 seconds to switch to the next address code, repeat the operations above to select the address code, pressor’o’ to return to the menu page.

Load Default
Press the knob in this option, all the settings will return to default.

Product Information
Push the knob under this option, the hardware and software information will shown on the screen.

Appendix

Audio file formats and sampling rate supported

• MA player supports the following audio file formats:
  • Mp3, WMA, WAV, AIF, AIFC, AIFF, AAC, FLAC, OG6, APE, ALAC, M4A, DSF, DFF
• PCM sampling rate support up to:
  • PCM 16/24/32Bit 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 352.8kHz, 384kHz
• DSD sampling rate support up to:
  • DSD 2.8 MHz, 5.6 MHz, 11.2 MHz More audio file formats could be supported through future firmware updates.

USB storage device requirements

• elements can use devices that comply with the USB mass storage standard, but cannot guarantee compatibility with all storage devices or memory cards.
• USB storage devices support FAT32, exFAT, NTFS formats.
• If the USB storage device is partitioned, each partition will be treated as a separate device.
• When using extension cable to connect a USB storage device may result in unstable connection.
• When using a USB hub to connect the USB storage device to element i, it may not work properly.
• Each USB ports provide up to 500mA of current to the peripherals.
• If USB storage device comes with a power adapter, please connect power adapter to the storage device.

CAUTION: Matrix Audio is not responsible for data loss, modification, or failure to the USB storage devices. We strongly recommend you backup the data in the USB storage device before using it on element i.

IIS-LVDS Port

The IIS port of element i is a standard 19-pin HDMI connector. It uses four sets of LVDS differential signals to transmit lIS data. It supports up to 32Bit/768kHz PCM signal input and 1Bit/45.1 MHz DSD signal input. The PCM format is the standard IIS format, the DSD format supports the original DSD format (Native DSD) and the DSD format of DoP encoding. The lIS port of element iis compatible with TYPEA, B, C and D. These are4 different interface definitions, which can be configured in the 8th setting option. The port definition as shown below:

Technical Specifications

Digital Input

COAXIAL &OPTICAL
PCM 16-24Bit/44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz DSD DSD64(DoP)

IIS-LVDS
PCM 16-32Bit /44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 352.8kHz, 384kHz, 705.6kHz,768kHz DSD DSD64/128/256/(DoP) DSD64/128/256/512 (Native)

USB Audio
PCM 16-24Bit/44.1kHz, 48kHz. 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 352.8kHz, 384kHz DSD DSD64/128 (DoP) DSD DSD64/128/256 (Native)

Line Output

XLR

• SNR:                               >-127dB
• THD+N:                        <0.00025%@1kHz 0.00027%@20Hz-20kHz
• Frequency Response:       20Hz-20kHz +0.05,-3dB@150kHz
• Crosstalk:                        >-143dB
• Output Level:                 4.0VRMS@OdB

RCA

• SNR:                             > -120dB
• THD+N:                      <0.000409%@1kHz 0.00045%@20Hz-20kHz
• Frequency Response:    20Hz-20kHz #0.05,-3dB@100kHz
• Crosstalk:                     >-114dB
• Output Level:               2.0VRMS@odB

Headphone Output TRS 6.35mm Definition:

• SNR:                             >-11ldB@2VRMS
• THD+N:                       <0.0006%@1VRMS
• Frequency Response:     20Hz-20kHzt0.1-3dB@47kHz
• Output Impedance:       <0.60 Output Power: 1320mW@330, 248mW@3000, 124mW@6000 (1%THD) Gain:+12dB

Network

• LAN:          10BASE-T/100BASE-TX
• WLAN:      2.4GHz, IEEE 802.1l a/b/g/n standard

USB Host

• USB 2.0 High-Speed
• Each port provides a maximum of 500mA current

Power Supply Power

• Voltage: DC12V<1.67A (or output power larger than 20W) Standby Power
• Consumption: < 6W Sleep Power Consumption: < 10W Max Power Consumption: < 20W
• Weight 1.5kg

Precautions

• This product is for indoor use only.
• For full ventilation, it is recommended to reserve a space of larger than 5 cm around the device.
• Do not cover the air vents with stuffs such as papers, tablecloths, and curtains to obstruct ventilation.
• Do not place stuffs with flame, such as lighted candles, on the device.
• If the device is used in tropical areas, please be careful to prevent insects from entering the machine through the air vents.
• The device must not be subject to water droplets or splashes.
• Please do not place stuffs filled with liquids such as vases and cups on or near the device.
• Do not put stuffs around the device power plug and the AC power socket, in order to disconnect the power supply easily when needed.

The product with Hi-Res Audio logo is conformed to the High-Resolution Audio standard defined by Japan Audio Society. This logo is used under license from Japan Audio Society. Being Roon Ready means that Matrix network players transparently discover and connect to Roon without any configuration, and bit- perfect audio is delivered from Roon to your network player. PGWA001Vi.0

References

• IIoT Devices and Services for M2M Networking | Digi International
• Matrix Audio

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