Sure wish some Bridge II info would leak out to the peasants. I have followed every single attempt by PS Audio to solve the gapless problem over the past several years. I love bridge I (very stable in my system) but can’t wait for gapless over the bridge. I listen to a lot of live music and the gap just breaks the mood. Plus the second side of Abbey Road…
It is up to Paul as to what is shared with respect to Bridge II at this point.
But Beta is percolating away!
If you liked the old bridge you will love the new one. It’s sound rivals a caps server over usb . So I think the bridge is winner in sound quality . It gives me the imaging and details I love about the DS dac. I do not do gapless but the B2 does and some use it. So relax and enjoy all,is moving along very fast and the wait will be well worth it.
Al
Feel free to share whatever info and opinions you wish. All I wanted to make sure of was the readers of the forums not be swamped with the minutiae and goings ons of the beta round. We will hopefully have a new firmware to test soon enough that addresses some of the issues now that Dennis is back.
I do not mind at all distilled opinions of the Beta Testers being shared openly, for better or worse.
amsco15 said Sure wish some Bridge II info would leak out to the peasants. I have followed every single attempt by PS Audio to solve the gapless problem over the past several years. I love bridge I (very stable in my system) but can't wait for gapless over the bridge. I listen to a lot of live music and the gap just breaks the mood. Plus the second side of Abbey Road......One thing the 'peasants' would like to know is about gapless. Of all the things the new Bridge II does and doesn't do, gapless seems to be rather flawless. Certainly it has been for me.
When can we expect the bridge on the market
Kindly/Ingemar
Thanks all. Can’t wait for the Bridge II to be released. I’ve started to save my pennies!!
Hard to say when it’ll be released. Depends a lot on how the testing goes. But certainly in 2015.
“One thing the ‘peasants’ would like to know is about gapless. Of all the things the new Bridge II does and doesn’t do, gapless seems to be rather flawless. Certainly it has been for me.” - Paul
Same here. Just smashing!
Is there any difference in Sound Quality when using the Bridge II to feed server-based audio to the DirectStream DAC, as compared to (for exampe) using a Sonore Signature Series Rendu? T’would be nice to save some pennies and some desk space and have everything in one box. I would be using a PC-based JRiver server with JRemote, looking to feed the DAC (as a DLNA renderer).
Jelion, I can’t answer that (as I don’t have a Sonore), but what I can tell you is there is much less “difference” in sound for the Bridge II and the other DS inputs, compared to the original Bridge. To me (I think one or two other testers agree), the original Bridge - while very very good - always had a bit of a distinct sound to where you could make it out. It some way it sounded better that the other inputs, but there was also something about it where it was easy to know you were using that input. The Bridge II, in the same way, has a number of qualities that produce sound in some ways better than the other inputs - but also does not have that characteristic where you might say “yep, those bit do sound great, but I can tell I’m listening to the Bridge”.
IOW, it sounds pretty good!
I don’t have a Rendu either (but hear nice things about them). It’s really too early to make much in the way of sound comparisons. One thing to keep in mind is that these are still early days with Bridge 2. As we learned with Bridge 1, firmware changes can make a difference. We’re currently focused on functionality. By the time B2 is officially released, I expect that it will sound at least as good as it does now (which, to me, is at least as good and probably a bit better than B1), but it might sound even better. But then, there always seem to be a few folks who like a different firmware version or even different hardware.
Take me to the Bridge…
amsco15 said Take me to the Bridge......Let's hope you don't mean 'Bridge over river Kwai'
If I didn’t have a Bryston BDP feeding my DS, I’d wait for the bridge. If it is priced near the B1, you save many $$$s. Hope it is a winner.
Sound wise the B2 is a winner for sure. If a 6 k caps sever only sounds marginally better that’s a winner for me for sure. I am honest in my views both good and bad. The new bridge is damn good for DS . It may have a few kinks to be worked out but a very good future ahead. As I am not a feature rich guy but absolute sound is my priority and it feels that . As my caps over usb beats it’s , it’s only marginal so a winner and far cheaper. When it’s up,for sale it’s a no brainer to buy and use. I hope when it’s released someone here who can write does a great review on it . The setup deserves it .
Al.
Frode saidamsco15 said Take me to the Bridge......Let’s hope you don’t mean ‘Bridge over river Kwai’
James Brown thing.
Where is that confounded bridge?
alrainbow said Sound wise the B2 is a winner for sure. If a 6 k caps sever only sounds marginally better that's a winner for me for sure. I am honest in my views both good and bad. The new bridge is damn good for DS . It may have a few kinks to be worked out but a very good future ahead. As I am not a feature rich guy but absolute sound is my priority and it feels that . As my caps over usb beats it's , it's only marginal so a winner and far cheaper. When it's up,for sale it's a no brainer to buy and use. I hope when it's released someone here who can write does a great review on it . The setup deserves it .Al.
The Bridge 11 SQ is improved significantly over Bridge 1. In my case I use PC with WinSVR and Audio Optimizer. When I was first testing I was using my regular Desktop running windows 10 and JRiver, I noticed an improvement in SQ right away even compared to my WinSVr driving Bridge 1.
When I got my Windows Server operational with Bridge 11 the SQ took a decide step up and now that I have been tweeting the setting on the server I have been able to improve the sound even more. In other works for me using the Window Server is still a major enhancement to SQ vs a regular Window PC.
Based on the improvement in SQ let alone Gapless makes Bridge 11 a no brainier upgrade.
I am wondering, now finally reading about this new Bridge II. For those that are testing it, is there any difference in sound quality between FLAC and WAV? Does the Bridge cope well with transcoding? It would be interesting to see if the Bridge II can handle pure FLAC with same SQ as WAV (by having enough power), and not using transcoded FLAC to WAV by server.
Currently I am in the process of converting all FLAC to WAV as it remains a difference with Bridge I.