I tried it in the past week and found the sound quality to be lacking in comparison to Roon. It has a long way to go and there is no way I will pay for this product at this time (30 day trial). In fact, I already uninstalled it from my sytem.
I will give it a try again in the future. Hopefully it will be a free trial again at that time, otherwise, I am sticking with Roon.
I’m jealous
. As a Roon lifetime subscriber, I think a part of me didn’t want to like Maestro more (sort of a reverse confirmation bias) but, in my case, there was a notable improvement (damn!). Roon clearly holds the edge at the moment on factors such as stability but I anticipate that gap will close with time.
You are not alone.
11.0.249
Amazingly fast! My 7TB local music library (4,270 albums) loaded within 30 seconds, and my AirLens appeared instantly.
Will check the sound and other things later today.
Thank you Paul, PMG dac/streamer With Maestro are working perfectly and connect really fast at turn on. No more turning off and turning on the dac to connect to Qobuz connect. Maestro sounds amazing and easy to navigate!
That made my morning. Thanks for letting me know and thanks for hanging in there! More to come!
I also get this zone limit when playing DSD and it’s been there always:
The device is an Airlens verified to DSD256. Airlens is then connected via HDMI/I2S to my Wavelight DAC. Airlens setting is Native DSD.
The DAC is also connected to the Mac via USB (used when I watch a video in a browser on that Mac):
The Wavelight’s display shows the correct sample rate i.e. DSD128 regardless of the zone limit. Can the zone limit be based on the “second” USB-connected Wavelight?
When playing back DSD files from Audirvana, the software shows the correct bit rate.
Lars,
You’ve diagnosed this better than the badge has. You’re right on every point.
Your DSD is playing at full rate — your Wavelight’s own display showing DSD128, and Audirvana agreeing, are the proof. The audio path is correct. What’s wrong is only the label Maestro is printing on it. And your hunch about the cause is exactly it: your Wavelight appears twice in the Devices list — once as the active USB DAC, and once more as a second, untested zone reading “44.1kHz / 16-bit.” Maestro is a single device showing up on two connections, and the badge is picking up that untested USB twin’s cautious 16/44 floor instead of reading the AirLens zone you’re actually playing through.
So this is a display bug, not a real limit, and it’s now filed as one — with your case as the clearest proof I have, precisely because your DAC’s front panel contradicts our own badge. Two things should clear it for you in the meantime: removing or ignoring that second unused USB Wavelight entry, or running the Devices format test on the AirLens zone so Maestro learns its true DSD256 ceiling. If testing that zone makes the badge read correctly, tell me — it’ll confirm the fix direction.
Thank you for the screenshots and the detective work.
Paul, glad to hear that it’s a display bug.
I’m sorry, but removing the USB cable between Mac and DAC and restarting both, made the unit disappear in the device list, but the badge is still wrong for DSD.
As for testing the 44.1/16 Wavelight device, no sound from Ella 
When I started out testing your great player, I did not have the Airlens so no DSD playback over USB. Later on I got my Airlens and chose that for output. Maybe the software are stuck with these initial conditions?
Anyway, no problem, the DSD music sounds great.
Lars
At least you tried it. I respect your conclusion.
Philip,
Your DirectStream MK2 does play DSD from Maestro. The setting you’re looking for is on the DAC’s own page in Maestro. Open Devices, select the DirectStream Mk2, and look under its capabilities: there’s a “Native DSD” line that reads “Yes (up to DSD128 via DoP),” and just below it a “Force PCM (disable DoP)” switch. As long as Force PCM is off, DSD is sent to the DAC as DSD, not converted.
If you’re not hearing DSD play as DSD, two things to check: make sure “Force PCM” is switched off, and note that over USB the MK2 tops out at DSD128 via DoP — higher DSD rates get sample-rate matched down. For DSD above that, the AirLens’s I²S path to the MK2 carries native DSD further than USB does.
Tell me which output you’re using and what a DSD track shows in the now-playing bar, and I’ll confirm you’re getting the most your setup allows.
Hmmmmm, thanks, Lars. Appreciate the report.
The telling part is that removing the USB Wavelight didn’t fix the badge; that rules out the simple explanation and points exactly where you pointed: Maestro learned your DAC’s ceiling once, back when it was USB-only at 16/44 with no DSD path, and never re-checked when you added the AirLens and moved your output there. It got stuck on the initial conditions, just as you said.
So the fix has two parts, both now filed with your case: the badge needs to read the zone you’re actually playing to, and a zone’s stored limits need to re-evaluate when you change outputs rather than freezing at first setup. You’ve done real diagnostic work here — thank you.
And the part that matters most: your DSD sounds great, and it is playing at full rate. The badge is the only thing that’s wrong, and now we know why.
Even more so for Yorkshire’s Samuel Smith Taddy Porter. Time for a return trip.
I have a year subscription to Maestro, since its inception, but for the last couple of months, due to struggling with Maestro, and via a link on this forum, I turned to VeraVox, which in my opinion sounds as good as Maestro, and is beautiful and smooth to use; for streaming, I run Qobuz via Jplay into VV, it’s stunning, and direct hard disc audio files sound incredible.
Just my opinion!
Thanks!
Looks very promising.
Can you explain how VV can be used to stream? I didn’t think it worked as a renderer…
Hmm, looks like VV would need to connect directly to the dac.
Yes, I wouldn’t trust myself to explain sufficiently, but here in ‘Features’, in the UPnP / DLNA section, is a great explanation, which you may now have already read :
But, yes that’s true, for streaming, to use as a renderer, I am going directly from VV running on a Mac Mini, to my PS Audio DSD DAC Mk2, via a NA Muon2 USB cable. This direct connection replaced going via my PS A Airlens via I2s, since to my ears, it sounded as good without the Airlens.
Just my opinion!
