Finally back to beta test listening with the Strata. I’m at 4 days burnin. I desided to do low level music listening. I think everyone can relate that when you are showing your neighbors your stereo you turn it up load. But when you are listening alone I’ll bet you turn it down. I turned it down to almost background music level (I know I should be CRITICALLY listening)
Paul was asked once about low level listening and mentioned the old loudness controls.
So I listened to a bunch of music at a very low level and it was like having a really good loudness control.
Deep bass and highs were still apparent which I normally loss at low levels. Also the dynamics of the music seemed to hold firm, something I’ve always needed higher volume for. Here some detailed impressions. ALL AT LOW LEVELS
A Thousand Roads Soundtrack by Lisa Gerrard. Lots of percussive sounds with high native flutes. These sounded great with the tamber of the drums very realistic
All For You by Diana Krall Her smoky voice was very realistic and stunning.
Begin Again by Norah Jones. Her voice was right on with all the dynamics and harmonic structure you could want.
American Beauty Thomas Newman’s score has lots of lush instrumentation and incredibly deep synths. Everything came though as great dynamics.
Music for Unnaccompanied Choir by Arvo Part This great classic full choir sounded lush nad you could still hear the hall presence. The ensemble voices were textured and detailed.
Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla is a great recording. The violin upper harmonics were wonderful as well as the vibrance of the double bass.
One more quirk…just put on an album and turned the Strata to input 1 where I have a Stellar phono amp connected. The Strata power button started blinking on and off repeatedly and the unit stopped responding to any actions (neither the remote nor the volume control were functional.) The only thing I could do was power off the unit via the main power switch on the back. Once I restarted things appear to have returned to normal.
Thanks for the explanation, while I understand the approach, I disagree to completely abandon anyone using Roon from this product, or more importantly your streamer Octave coming up. Other options have the ability to do both, or at least to BOOT into Roon or the other software per user preference, or even connecting to Sonos as another option. As I said, having the option not only helps customers, it may also broaden the appeal.
Good luck and looking forward to the product official release and its success!
No offense but then just look elsewhere. PSA Made biz decision that works for them and u make personal Roon based decision that works for you. Everyone happy
Yup, I get it. On Octave we’re leaving the door open so we don’t leave people out. We’ll do what we can to include ROON when it is possible. In Strata’s case, it just isn’t possible.
Ok cool. That makes sense and great news. I have been holding off a dedicated streamer waiting to see what you guys come up with! Roon is a must-have for me.
I got my Strata late yesterday and have some preliminary observations:
As expected, the packaging worked fine and arrived unmarked.
I got a Phono remote, not one for the Strata.
I too am a Roon lover and have a workaround.
Installed in my upstairs system instead of a Mercury Kora integrated with EL34s, along with an Auralic Altair G1 and Focal Electra 1008 Be speakers, it mostly was better. Details were even clearer, vocals were more intelligible, dynamic range was stellar (couldn’t resist), and I had a smile on my face as I went through some favorites.
While the cabinet obviously does not quite match that of my BHKs, still it is perfectly fine and in line with the price.
More listening to come with other systems in the house.
James is correct. I am just not using the DAC and streamer within the Strata. I would prefer to use them as a one box solution, but my listening is integrated with Roon now.
Can someone explain what I should be seeing on the front display for sample rate? When I play a CD or DVD I get a steady number indicated but when I use a USB signal or stream music the display cycles on and off with the current sample rate. Is this just fine?
Using the PS Audio app and Qobuz, in my list of favorites, the albums that are hi-res are correctly identified but when playing them the app always says CD 16 bits/44.1Hz as does the screen on the Strata. When I used bubble UPnP it always correctly identified the bit rate of the album playing. Is there something wrong with the app or am I missing something?
When you first select the Qobuz app you will see a green menu bar on the upper left of the screen. In that menu is a list with Streaming. You have to go to that and select HiRes.
It was mentioned above that Filter 2 is actually SLOW on the Menu display (Min in the manual) but I just noticed that Filter 1 indicates FAST (Slow in the manual) and Filter 3 indicates MIN (Fast in the manual.) I don’t notice any significant differences when toggling through the filters but it would be nice to clear up the confusion.
WiFi vs Ethernet = pretty big differences here. Ethernet tested with WiFi off. I’ve also tested this with TV via optical - WiFi on, vs Ethernet. Similar change in sound.
One has a lot more body than the other. Anyone else notice a difference?