Hey All,
I just ordered a Direct Stream DAC from an authorized distributor and opted in on the Bridge II. I have been reading through the forums here and it sounds like the Bridge III has been in development for some time. Are we close to the Bridge III release/should I eliminate the Bridge II from by Direct Stream DAC order?
Cheers,
Tony
Tell us a little about your streaming setup? Will help in providing advice.
Hopefully, more forum denizens will chime inā¦but, I believe Bridge III and your DS Sr. with Bridge II are an apples and oranges situation. At least it was not clear to me that Bridge III will be a card that you can insert into a DS Sr.
Anyone else have better informationā¦?
My understanding is that the next release of the bridge will be āOctaveā it will be in house developed and will slot in place of the Bridge II.
Which all means it depends on your wants/needs. What are you currently using to stream? And are you happy with it?
I stand corrected, @Todesengel. See here: Bridge III Thread
You can look at it this wayā¦1. itās liable to be a while for Bridge III, 2. they always offer a trade-in 3. and/or thereās always a market for used bridges 4. If you prefer/need a network connection there are many options for devices that input ethernet and output any number of options that you could use in the interim and resell later.
Final release to the market could be a while for the Bridge III. Trade up or resale is always pretty good.
Or, depending on his setup and needs, a better option than the Bridge II altogether.
I wouldnt worry about it, as far as I can tell bridge 2 is still needed for roon and upnp streaming. Bridge 3 is litmited to PSA new streaming only. Bridge 2 is still the better input compares to usb imo.
Well itās not āneededā for upnpā¦there are a ton of other options for that and some less expensive as a new bridge. And the ābetterā part could end up derailing the thread :^ )
Not necessarily. It depends on his source and whether or not there are other connection options other than Ethernet. I just installed a Matrix USB to iS2 converter and it is in another SQ tier compared to what I was getting with the Bridge II.
If you donāt have another streaming source already and donāt want a group of other āboxes and cablesā then the Bridge II is a perfectly acceptable and simple solution. As others said you are looking at up to a year before the actual release of the Bridge III plug-in card and at that time Paul has already said they will do trade-ins. So at the price you probably payed for the Bridge II card keep your order as is.
Thanks all for the prompt responses! What an amazing and active community. This is my first PS audio component, I am switching from the Benchmark DAC 3 HGC to the DSD. The DSD will perform DAC/pre-amp duties. Primarily I use my set-up for PC gaming and was intrigued by the DSD up-sampling as most games output 16bit PCM 44kHz.
The DSD is going to be connected directly to my PC via USB, the only reason I considered the Bridge II was that I wanted the flexibility of the full MQA unfold as I use Tidal to stream (in addition to Spotify). I will keep my order as is.
Thanks again!
Tony
Your understanding is spot on correct. The next release of Bridge III will be in house and all Octave based.
Not very long and it will be time for Bridge 4ā¦ LOL #bridgetoofar
Actually, if MQA is important to you, you definitely want the Bridge II. Bridge III may not have MQA (or Roon).
And, Bridge III is an easy year away.
Iām in the same boat with ordering a new DSD with Bridge II. I was hesitant as well but decided one will always be waiting for the next best thing and just went for it. Mine should arrive by the end of the month if all goes well with shipping and weather.
I am in the opposite boat, as I just sold my Bridge II. I will ride out the next year or so awaiting the Bridge III by streaming to the network cards in my Melco N1Z and OPPO UDP-205. (The Melco renderer is OpenHome-compatible, and in my system OpenHome is much more reliable than the standard UPnP/DLNA protocol utilized in the Bridge II.)