@cxp how do you think it convert a DSD to PCM? and to your comment about uncompression. All that business is processing… 
@proch
That is only due to the fact that you are telling it to do that because the Streamer can’t take in DSD. You can send DSD to Strata, Strata will do nothing with it.
This has no impact on PCM material.
Ask PS audio for a bridge that is compatible with DSD 
Does the resolution of the files have anything to do with the success rate of getting through an album? We are looking into why it seems the bigger file types are causing more trouble. It’s obvious why they’d be more troublesome, but why exclusive to the connect app and work well with Audirvana.
Audirvana and other software like it processes your files before they get sent to your renderer. maybe I should have used different term but the implementation of processing Flac, WAV, or any other file varies from vendors to vendors.
I would only see the processing of Audirvana as beneficial. There is no benefit to having the bridge unpack the FLAC files. Regardless the data coming from Audirvana will be bit perfect.
Also I have noticed that PS Connect loads about 2 minutes of music in (edit) Strata memory, that is huge and potentially raises the noise floor. The Sonore products to my knowledge purposely load 10s to keep the RAM usage low and the power consumption of the RAM low.
Audirvana and DLNA only loads 30s of material to the Strata, while higher than I’d like, it’s better than 2 minutes.
@jamesh from what I gather, it appears to be a combination of a buffer situation and Stata getting the file to be able to play it. I don’t have any more info, I wish I could see the log files on the app and Strata. On Audirvana, you can visually see on the UI that it quickly buffers the file with a gray bar around 25% then start playing when you see the blu bar while the gray bar completes. That why it’s a memory hog because it stores the track in memory.
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@cxp In my previous comments, I was saying that I had preferred the PS Connect app and Strata process my high-res files natively instead of me using another software and hardware to do its job.
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Yes, just clarifying that audible differences are not due to processing or changing data. This most likely comes from changing noise in the bridge.
Are you WiFi or Ethernet? Can’t remember.
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The Strata appears to be pretty sensitive to networking setup. If PS Connect sounds better it would suggest the noise from Strata bridge taking streams directly in meshes with your network setup however you have it.
Keep in mind however that Strata’s signature changes a lot in my experience whether you are hooked up via a switch, router, or WiFi. Netgear switch is fuller bodied in my system while the Cisco was transparent but possibly too thin…
If you experiment at all with your networking configuration I would keep comparing PS Connect vs Audirvana.
Has anyone used the Strata with JRiver, streaming DLNA over WiFi and specifying the Strata as a DLNA renderer? Sounds like this is what folks are doing with Audirvana. I use Jriver.
Update on switch and cat cable evaluations.
Funny thing, I thought the Cisco switch was better… I was wrong… every upgrade I’ve made has degraded SQ. Adding Sbooster, upgraded BAV power cable, PS power port on common AC line switch is plugged in. One hypothesis could be that Cisco is not isolating the upstream router noise effectively and as I improve the power that issue keeps creeping up and up. Or maybe it has really bad AC leakage or some other noise issue that is now put up front.
So I went back to the Netgear switch GS105 which I hadn’t tried with Sbooster and it’s much better.
Cisco switch has bad sibilance issues, F sounds are lost, no body, punch, impact at all. Sounds like someone has EQ’d the upper mids up and everything else is gone. Netgear is musical and full bodied, not muddy. Pretty good for $30.
WiFi is better than the Cisco Switch; however Netgear with Sbooster beats out WiFi by a good margin.
Cat6 BJC is my preferred cable as both the BJC cat6a and cat5e have muffled character.
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Good Morning,
I have had my Stellar Strata for about six weeks now. I use it to drive a pair of Focal Aria 936s. The Strata replaces some Classe separates that were about 25 years old. I was impressed with the clean and effortless sound of the Strata right out of the box. Sonically, I have no complaints at all. Highlights were its handling of music with some dynamics to it (a lot of pop falls into this category). It seems to have a particular strong point from the mid-bass up into the midrange, that’s where the soul of most music lives. Bass control is good. Interestingly, the Strata drove the Focals well at low volumes; to me this is an important feature because sometimes you just want some good background music. The music filled out at considerably less volume than I remember with the Classes on the same speakers. And, my wife likes the Strata. She likes the clean looks, she likes the ease of connecting to Spotify, and she likes the dimmer switch on the display.
However, I am upgrading to an M700 stack because the room is rather large and the PS Connect app wasn’t particularly impressive. I would have someone (preferably a nontechie) read over the owner"s manual to clean up some of the instructions too.
This is a great product.
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Have a Strata on order and am curios if the beta program led to any hardware changes or was it all about software bugs. Thanks All
Welcome! Just software updates. There has been no discussion of any hardware changes needed.
How do I know that Strata firmware update completed? I followed instructions but unsure if successful.
I’m using a NETGEAR GS208 but with the stock Wall Wart. I have plenty of current leftover on my homebrew 5VDC LPS. Maybe I’ll try splitting the power between my 3 miniDSP’s and add the Netgear into the mix.
So interestingly I went back and checked J Swenson’s posts in A Style and many of the Netgear switches measured well with blocking AC leakage of upstream network gear. For optimal performance however, the SMPS has to be grounded or have LPS.
This could be what I’m hearing, good isolation.
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Got my Strata couple hours ago!!!
So far, only tested with my dedicated 1-Bay NAS storing a copy of all my music (mostly FLAC files).
So, obviously, very very preliminary impressions so far…
Setup:
Could not have been simpler! Plugged both Strata and NAS to same 1GbE switch, installed PS Audio app on my tablet (Android), launched app, and could select audio source within 1 minute. Only 30-seconds snag has been figuring out how to change source (to bridge). Could not find on app, so used the physical button / knob on the Strata.
Android app:
Very usable and mostly intuitive. Would be nice if it displayed “status” somewhere, including active input, filter, etc. (also allow for changing inputs and filters from the app).
Another suggestion for improvement of the app: I have a LONG list of folders (each folder is artist). List is literally hundreds artists long. Would be nice if on the scroll bar on the right users can touch a letter to skip over to that letter. What I mean is if I want to play Metallica, I would have liked to be able to jump straight to the “M” items without scrolling through 500 artists who are alphabetically before M…
Sound quality:
Again, I have 1 hour “burn-in” so far. Not surprisingly, it does not sound better than my Sprout100 (yet). Obviously not what I am expecting eventually… For now, sound stage is super-narrow, mids are congested and muffled, and bass is pretty anemic! Playing on my ELAC UB5 bookshelf speakers, BTW.
So… beta testers out there: did you experience similar sound out of the box? and how long did you burn it in before noticing significant improvement?
Did you have bass before with the Sprout?
@zachif
What is your switch?