text: Compared to our typical desktop audio products, the X2 is a clear step above both in construction, material and rich display. The display is touch although don't expect it to be as sensitive or fast as your phone. Swipe to the left to open the menus and select your options. Or, you can use the metal, custom remote control that comes with the unit:
  What caught my eye was support for HDMI ARC so you can integrate the X2 with your TV through its ARC output. The second interesting add-on is analog Aux input. Beyond that, we have niceties such as dual Coax and Toslink inputs. And trigger support. These features make the X2 quite unique as far as this class of product is concerned. While I did not play with it, there is an app to use for local streaming. Instead, I used it as a Roon player endpoint to "push" my streams to it which worked great.
  During testing I ran into one bug: the filter settings for the DAC did not have any effect on USB input but worked with Toslink. I contacted the company and they gave me a fix the next day. Without it, the filter is stuck in slow roll off mode. Hopefully they will release this to general public soon.
  Matrix Element X2 DAC Measurements
  Using both USB and Toslink inputs, I ran through our gamut of DAC tests. Let's start with our dashboard:
  While SINAD of 118 dB is certainly excellent, it is a slight degradation relative to last general Element X:
  Fortunately still "provably" transparent so no impact to sonic abilities. RCA output is almost the same as XLR above:
  Performance naturally remains the same with streaming:
  Noise performance likewise is a hair below the last generation:
  Multitone distortion is superbly low:
  We see a slight hint of increased distortion in one channel of DAC:
  I have a new test where I show the distortion level at various levels by adjusting the volume control (instead of input digital levels in the past):
  Linearity is excellent as we would expect:
  I was surprised to find some signs of jitter but fortunately, not an audible issue:
  The usual set of DAC reconstruction filters are provided:
  I was puzzled by rather high level of attenuation. I have let the company know and they are investigating. This impacts wideband THD+N measurements as it doesn't get rid of the extra "images" of the fundamental tone as well as it should be:
  If done right, you would get the green line which is excellent.
  Back to filters, here are the frequency responses for each:
  I found a couple of issues here. One, which you all should check for me , was the fact that I expected the ripples in Apodizing filter instead of Fast Linear (teal color). Second is a usability nit: hitting the filter button on the remote causes the selected one to be before the current one. So if you are on filter 4 and hit the button, you go to filter 3. Everyone else just cycles forward to #5.
  Matrix Element X2 Pre-amplifier Measurements
  I ran a subset of pre-amplifier measurements starting with the dashboard (RCA In/XLR Out):
  I was disappointed by high distortion levels which bring SINAD down to just 87 dB. Hopefully your analog sources are much worse than this so the impact won't be that significant. Alternatively, distortion goes down if the input level is lower:
  Frequency response was wide indicating no digitization of input which is nice:
  Finally, SNR is good but I expect better from Matrix:
  Matrix Element X2 Headphone Amplifier Measurements
  I used USB input to give the best chance for the headphone amplifier to perform. Here is our response to 300 and 32 ohm loads:
  The message is that you have tons and tons of power and excellent response as power increases. So the company statement that there is no "difficult headphone" for it to drive, is true.
  I was however surprised to see non-zero output impedance in today's products:
  Matrix Element X2 Listening Tests
  I used the Roon player on my desktop workstation to stream my reference tracks to the X2. I listened using my Dan Clark Stealth headphones initially. Even using unbalanced output I was getting good response but performance went to another level using balanced output. There was incredible dynamics and fidelity to die for. Track after track sounded superb. I then switched to the more common Sennheiser HD650 headphone and boy, was that a delight as well. I always forget how good these headphones sound when driven hard. And this is without any EQ! Just great with tons and tons of headroom available. I had the volume level around 65 for loud listening leaving plenty of room to go even higher.
  The second generation Element streaming model from Matrix substantially increases the level of functionality with such critical inputs as HDMI ARC and analog. It now has a super powerful headphone amplifier allowing it to squeeze ever bit of performance out of any headphone no matter how inefficient. It does give up a bit of performance here and there but none got in the way of it producing a superb listening experience. It has a very nice display allowing it to be the center of your audio system.
  I am happy to recommend the Matrix Audio Element X2.
  As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
  Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/