Bridge II Reviews

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magister said
raykok said Has anyone compared Bridge II with Bridge I + foobar2000(foo_out_upnp) in terms of sound quality? BI+foobar worked flawlessly for gapless.

The beta testers agreed that in general B2 has better SQ than B1. I do occasionally use foobar with the Bridge, but it’s been so long since I pulled out B1 that I am hesitant to say much. The advantages of B2 are a) gapless support, b) better SQ, and c) more reliable connectivity. If a) and c) are working well for you now, I think you would hear an improvement with SQ but it might or might not not be worth the upgrade price. Maybe others can be more helpful.


That’s exactly the dilemma that I’m in, upgrading just for an unknown improvement on SQ. Too bad that try before you buy is not something we have here in HK…

22

Just installed Bridge II. Installed easy and plays gapless perfectly!! Went right to side 2 of Abbey Road. I have a 24 bit version (usb Apple) that played exactly how side 2 of Abbey Road is supposed to play: seamless. Love it. Not sure if sounds better. The anxiety of getting Bridge II to work and messing with JRiver doesn’t exactly put me in a good mood to listen to music. I’ll have a nice listening session on Friday evening (Bourbon and/or IPAs sure help) and know better.

Two nits to pick. One, the entire screen refreshes every time you change the volume. This happened with Bride I as well. Two, playing a list of songs from different albums, the album art stutters. That is, just before the first song ends, the album art clears and puts up the PS Audio logo. After the next song (from a different album) starts to play, the art refreshes with the correct album art appears. Seems like it should seamlessly go from one album art image to another. For reference, JRiver running on a Win 10 laptop with JRemote as the controller.

Thanks for all the hard work getting Bridge II out there. I will be returning Bridge I!!

23

These are my observations following the installation of Bridge II. The DS DAC booted normally and was found by JRemote. Initially I assembled a playlist of 6 songs from two different LP rips. The first two songs sounded as if the frequencies below 500Hz were rolled off. The gaps between the two was minimal as if the LP were playing. The third entry (from the second LP rip) was skipped but the next three played without a problem. Also, the lower frequencies returned after the first two songs were played. At this sitting I went on to assemble a playlist of 35 songs. There were three other instances of songs being skipped in the playlist. I recalled some mention of this from the Bridge II beta testers. I recall their examples of this skipping occurred when songs with different sampling rates and bit depths came up in the list. My experience yesterday was that the skipping occurred when songs with the same sampling rates and bit depths. I did note that the song skipped was the first entry from a different folder in the NAS. Another words, if four songs were played from a certain source folder, the first would be skipped but the next three played sequentially. Concerned about this skipping songs, I removed the "DS DAC - Bridge II update SD card and Installed a blank SD card at about the halfway point in the playlist. This did not seem to have any effect on either the skipped files or the other issue. The other issue is: On three songs the last two or three seconds of the file sounded garbled. This had never happened in my nearly three years with the PWD and DS Bridge I combinations.
Except for the two songs at the beginning, the sound quality was superb. Different from Bridge I? I can’t say, perhaps because I was focusing on other things. The shorter gaps between songs on LP rips is an obvious improvement. The Bridge II just flat-out loads faster than the Bridge I did (reminding me of my Squeezebox days). That is an obvious and welcome improvement.
I am hoping to see some feedback from other forum members on how to resolve the skipped files and the grungy rough sound at the end of the song files that i experienced in my first session with the new device in the system.

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amsco15 said just before the first song ends, the album art clears and puts up the PS Audio logo. After the next song (from a different album) starts to play, the art refreshes with the correct album art appears.
Things work the same way for me. I believe that the disappearing art at the end of a track is related to gapless support--the Bridge is looking ahead while the current track is playing so it can start the next one without any pause if necessary. It's 'starting' the next track, so to speak, and therefore erases the previous art. There has always been a slight lag with album art for me, both with B1 and B2. Maybe Paul or Dennis can explain why, but I would rather hear the music start promptly than wait longer for the art to be fetched.
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magister said
amsco15 said just before the first song ends, the album art clears and puts up the PS Audio logo. After the next song (from a different album) starts to play, the art refreshes with the correct album art appears.
......but I would rather hear the music start promptly than wait longer for the art to be fetched.
Absolutely agree, but still.... The lag for new album art to load is about 20 seconds on my system.
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That’s within the range seen during beta testing. I wasn’t sure why it varies, but I was seeing load times ranging from about 12 seconds to more than 20. I wondered if it had anything to do with file size.

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I’m going to check next time I have a session with the Bridge–it would make sense that longer load time would be associated with bigger files. I too get times ranging from 10 to 20 seconds. I also wonder whether having the artwork embedded in the file, as I always do, is different from having a folder.jpg for the art.

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I have album art embedded in each song file (FLAC) and a folder.jpg file for each album.

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Just experienced a more significant problem: one I think some beta testers have experienced. Played an FLAC playlist back-to-back after a DSD playlist. The first song played a couple seconds then skipped to the next song. Is this going to happen every time the sample rate changes too? Guess I’ll find out soon…

Edit: JRiver 21/JRemote on a Win 10 laptop with a 1.5Tb USB connected harddrive. Very solid all Apple network with wired Cat 5 cabling. Skip happened when going from single rate DSD to 16/44.1. Just happened again going from 16/44.1 to 24/96. My Friday night playlist is full of everything and I mix it all up! Lots of sample rate and DSD to FLAC changes. I can repeat the problem by dropping in a different sample rate file as a play next song.

Sounds great but this problem is kind of an issue! Very few problems on Bridge I!

Edit II (final for the night): now album art is all hung up. With Bridge I, I would re-set the uPnP server from my iPhone or iPad: easy. Always fixed everything. Now I don’t know what to do. Don’t want to reboot the DS: PITA. Having bitched, please fix this ASAP, Bridge II SOUNDS FANTASTIC!

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Some beta testers experienced skips and others did not. Same with distorted sound. Dennis and the developers had a hard time reproducing some of the issues. They are obviously not done. I suspect they would appreciate it if people reporting problems indicated what their setup is (NAS, PC, MAC, JRiver, minimserver, JRemote, mConnect, BubbleUPnP, etc.) and when the problems occurred (types of files, resolutions, etc.).

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How can one tell if the BII firmware was loaded correctly?

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Still having issues as described in my earlier post. Do I have the correct Bridge II firmware installed? I did update after installing the Bridge II and currently, the DS says no updates are available; however I thought the current Bridge software was 2.x.x something.

Currently:

Bootloader: 1.13

Firmware 1.64

Bridge 1.23

FPGA 0.93

USB: 00.33

Rev: 0126

Thanks, Dale

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You have the correct code.

Dennis

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why does my b2 keep changing mac addresses it’s kinda annoying because then it gets a new ip and i have to reset all my stuff to the new mac and ip…i thought mac addresses were fixed

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The mac address should be unique and fixed for all network devices.

If you set your BII to DHCP it can get new IP addresses from the DHCP server (router), though if not reserved in your router IP table.

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My Bridge II impression.

The Good:

It sounds really good. It took a couple days to settle in after installing; however, it is an improvement over Bridge I's sound! I play lots of music. Big fan of all four major sides of American Music: Gospel, Blues, Jazz, & Country. One of my country favorites is Buck Owens. Big-wide mid 60s stereo. Sounds fantastic on the DS with Bridge II. I then switched to one of my favorite Jazz artists: Irvin Mayfield, "Love Letter to New Orleans." Several stand-outs but "Mo' Better Blues" is outstanding. The DS and Bridge II make this song really swing. Great detail but still very musical.

Gapless works perfectly. I played the second side of "Abbey Road" without a hitch and lots of live music too. I have a fun Rat Pack CD, "Live at the Sands." Lots of short segments with banter between Frank, Dean and Sammy. I stopped playing it with Bridge I due to gaps. No problems anymore!

It is very responsive on the network. Much less latency then Bridge I. The device wants to connect and responds to commands quickly.

The Bad:

Album art is slow. Takes up to 20 seconds or more to load album art. The bigger problem occurs while playing lists of music from different albums. The first album art loads (well after the song starts), then just as the song ends, the album art unloads and puts up the PS Audio logo. 20 seconds after the next song starts, the new song's album art loads.

I liked being able to re-set the uPnP sever from any connected device through the Bridge I IP address; however, re-setting Bridge II at the DS screen is not a big deal. I did have to re-set Bridge II once this weekend to get the device to show up on JRiver (not a big deal).

Changing the volume refreshes the entire screen including the Album art. This also happened with Bridge I.

The Ugly:

Changing sample rates or playing DSF files causes a song to skip. It will play a couple seconds of the song, then skip to the next song on the list. This is 100% repeatable! Playing a full album of hi-res or DSF works just fine (unless as part of a list with previous low-res songs). I play lots of song lists at home. We have big parties with lots of cocktails and dancing. I like mixing up the songs and have become known for my playlists among our circle of friends. I also have a huge collection of music. Mostly Redbook, but lots of hi-res stuff and a few DSF files. I can't add hi-res songs to the playlist and expect the playlist to work! I'm not sure, but I think this problem is a bigger deal for me then not having gapless. With Bridge I, all songs played every time no matter what I threw at it.

My system consists of JRiver (21.0.2 - latest version) on an older Dell Laptop running Win 10 with a 1.5Tb hard drive connected to the laptop via USB. I use JRemote as a controller. My Bridge and laptop are hardwired (Cat 5) connected (I have a switch next to the router) to my home network consisting of Apple AirPort Extreme router with a couple hardwired connected Apple AirPort expresses (DHCP disabled on the expresses). The network in my home is very solid. I have been running Bridge I for at least 4 years. At first I had issues with Bridge I, but upgraded my network devices and eliminated 99.5% of all Bridge I problems most people report.

I’m regretting, at least for now, sending Bridge I back right away. Probably should have waited a while but, in the end, would have sent it back anyway figuring this skipping problem would be solved. However, I am surprised this problem does exist considering the long beta development. I also understand the tendency to blame JRiver but there really aren’t that many options in JRiver for DLNA connected devices. It’s fairly straight forward to set up. I’m a big JRiver fan and have customized it the way I like things. I’m pretty committed to the program. Finally, I have run all of Ted’s bitperfect test files and everything does play bit perfect.

Thanks for reading this long ramble. I hope it’s helpful, Dale

37

Dale, Dennis is aware of both issues. I don’t know if the load time is something that can be shortened, although the time seems to vary depending on factors not yet fully understood. Not all beta testers experienced the res change / DSF track skipping. I recall it was seen more widely with earlier versions of beta FW but only for a couple of people with the latest versions. With the last versions it was not happening in my system.

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The skipping issue I heard from one beta tester and I cannot recreate it here with his setup. To help me what is your setup? Whar server and control point are you using?

The cover art is displauyed a soon as I can. The time is a combination of server and BridgeII and the time it takes to get from the bridgeII to the display board.

Dennis

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Thanks for the quick reply! I’m relatively computer competent and can follow directions pretty well if there are tests to try.

My system consists of JRiver (21.0.2 – latest version) on an older Dell Laptop running Win 10 with a 1.5Tb hard drive connect to the laptop via USB. I use JRemote as a controller. My Bridge and laptop are hardwired (Cat 5) connected (I have a switch next to the router) to my home network consisting of Apple AirPort Extreme router with a couple hardwired connected Apple AirPort expresses (DHCP disabled on the expresses). The network in my home is very solid. I have been running Bridge I for at least 4 years. At first I had issues with Bridge I, but upgraded my network devices and eliminated 99.5% of all Bridge I problems most people report.

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I will look into it as soon as I get my copy of jRiver 21. I pre-ordered it, but I have not gotten a download notification from them yet. I will check into it today.

Dennis