I find that I get a more magical better sound for restarting my DSD Mk1 every week or so. The sound is always nice but a few hours after I reboot my DS I find the sound more magical better sounding for up to a week. Does anyone else notice this?
This has been reported previously as the FPGA FW load varies impacting sound slightly. Once you have “good” sound no need to reload/cold-boot.
Personally, I just listen to the music and don’t obsess.
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I have the most recent FW and the sound is always good. I just get amazing sound for 5 days after reboot. I only turn off dac for 30 seconds.
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I’ve been told that rebooting my dac once a week is like demagnetizing or degaussing the dac and that there’s nothing wrong with the dac. What I am experiencing is perfectly normal and no problems. The sound I am getting is quite spectacular.
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This is a perfect example of “if it works for you, do it”.
No harm, no foul.
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I remember reading somewhere about audiophiles who, in the dry months, water the outdoor electrical ground to their breaker box. They swear by the sound improvement in their systems. I’ve never tried this, but it seems reasonable that it would work and there’s some science to back it up as a concept. I can also see how periodically rebooting a DAC would produce better sound. I’m with @RonP on doing what works for you 
Sounds like I should welcome my power company’s frequent outages. 
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Problem with power outages is the surge that happens when the power comes back on.
A power surge is what took out one of my cd players years ago. But in the end it ended up being a good thing. The player that got zapped was a Raysonic tube cd player, decent sound but not great. But since Raysonic had gone out of business and parts were no longer available I was able to get my homeowners insurance to replace the Raysonic with a much more expensive and better sounding Ayon cd player.
So I guess I should thank my power company for their unreliable service.
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You should actually file a claim with your utility company.
I tried that first and they said because it was a weather related incident and not any fault of theirs they weren’t responsible.
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They are responsible for brownouts.
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Depends on the cause. A high impedance fault caused by a traffic accident, e.g. downed distribution line, may not be covered by the local utility and certainly may result in a local brown-out.
Best advice, should a brown-out occur immediately open the main feed breaker to your local distribution panel. Once power has been restored and is stable re-close the feeder.
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In 2018 our utility company (PGE) fried our solar string inverter when the power came back on after a downed power line was repaired The replacement cost for new inverter was $2,500. I filed a claim and within five business days of filing a claim the PGE adjuster called me to tell me that they would pay full cost of the replacement.
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Did you add additional protection to prevent recurrence and did they upgrade theirs?
This year we are replacing our nearly twenty year solar system with new panels and will be adding a whole house circuit breaker.
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Surge supressors at the utility tie in may be a wise move as well when upgrading.
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If restarting your DAC works to improve your sound, congrats, you have the least costly entrance into the rabbit hole.
I may have noticed this effect too—when I leave town for more than a day or so, I typically turn off and unplug my entire system. When I return it sounds so good. I’ve always put this down to me having missed my system while traveling.
I private messaged Ted Smith who assured me that what I am experiencing is perfectly normal and that I shouldn’t worry about it. Apparently many people experience this phenomenon. He recommended that the on/off switch at the back of dac be easily accessible.
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This is so true and consistent with my experience. When going on business trips, I was always pleasantly amazed at how good my TV picture looked and how great my stereo system sounded when I returned. I’m not sure if it’s the short term nature of our memory or simply the contrast to whatever we were exposed to while away.
Maybe the next time I contemplate an upgrade of questionable need, I should take a trip somewhere for a few days. Naw… that’s just crazy talk.
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You need not take a trip. Just turn off your dac for 20 seconds and then turn on. It may take a little while but once your dac maintains its temperature the sound will be better than before.
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