Why not try j river it’s free for thirty days ,just a thought. There is a really nice setup.post on here as well.
Al
Ted Smith said If you have Adobe Flash you might try IE's "manage add-ons" ( ) and disable the Shockwave Flash Object to see if that's related to your problem too.Well, it looks like it's the combination foobar/shockwave/IE/DS. As soon as I disabled shockwave the problem was gone.
Quite unique though, I think. If you close/disable/replace any of the 4, all works fine (Chrome instead of IE, M-audio instead of the DS etc).
Thanks for your help, Ted. As a token of appreciation, also for creating the DS, I sent you a PM with a link to some files I think you’ll enjoy.
@amsco15, lonson:
in my postings concerning the DS I constantly wrote that I will never gut my PWD, because it is a real fine DAC and served me for years, beginning as a MKI, than the last two years as MKII.
To make a long story short, yesterday I called my PSA dealer and bought my DS-kit. A friend of mine helped me in assembling the DS. If he wasn’t there I believe I didn’t succeed. There were different issues, first of all the digital board didn’t fit into the holes of the backplate, because the digital RCA connector was to close on the board. Looking at the old board I realised, that the “legs” of the RCA were about one mm longer, thus the connector sat “higher” on the board. So we had to rasp the hole until the board fitted. Good thing is, that the washer covers even the bigger hole, so nothing can be seen after installation.
The remaining procedure was easy, so after about one hour we were ready to power on the DS. I’ve downloaded the latest firmware, connected everything and started the unit. After 15 sec the display showed…the original PWD design! And, even worse, no sound at all!
I flashed back to the original firmware and this time the setup took about 45 sec, as known from the PWD. The power button flashed while initialising and after the procedure the display showed the new DS design. And there was music…but only from the right channel! The PWD my friend brought with him played well on the other input of my preamp, so no issue with the other devices.
We flashed back to the new firmware and now we had the correct display design and music on both channels; but the left channel had only about half the volume of the right channel. I remembered that someone wrote that the balance settings might be the reason, so I unpacked the remote, ticked the balance button and…the sound was there!
We set up a test scenario by playing red book files via my Sonos into the DS via glasfiber and via RCA into the PWD MKII. Both units were connected with balanced IC to my preamp. So we were able to switch without any click or delay.
During the first 30 min or so we were not clear about our findings, but as the DS warmed up it became a dead race for the PWD. Everything what was written here is true, the DS is a game changer. The most impressive thing was to hear the dimensions of the room while Mercedes Sosa inhaled before singing the next part of “Misa Criolla / Gloria”. For about one second there was silence, but one could “see” the room. Very impressive!
Later we listened through the bridges, this time we listened to complete tracks on the one and subsequently on the other unit. This setup made the differences even bigger, although the PWD sounds better via the bridge compared to the RCA.
We started our session at 10 p.m., stopped switching to the PWD at 11:30 and continued listening (and smiling) until 5:30 a.m. While we had some German beers, the seriousness vanished a bit, and the fun changed to enthusiasm.
I really say thanks to my PWD for serving me that good over the last four years. And that he was altruistic enough to give his outer case (and some ingredients) to his successor, the DS. He’s not completely gone, he helped the DS to come to life.
Uh, I’m getting theatrical. Better to stop now writing and continue listening…
Summary: if you can get your hands on a DS, go for it!
Great story.
And with a happy ending. I was not sure it would be as things started out.
Great story Wolf! Theatrics or not, very heartfelt. I have trouble giving up old gear that has served well.
To the previous posts -
Aliaswolf,
Thanks for the great post and story. Sure hope what you say is true. I’ll know for myself soon enough. Sure love my PWD MKII. Listening to Dr. Michael White, traditional New Orleans clarinet player, and Miles Davis, Someday My Prince will Come on a hot, beautiful Sunday morning in Chicagoland. The music is lovely.
Sounded great last night too with the help of some fine Kentucky Bourbon. The DS is better? Can’t wait.
Dale
Hey Dale,
I’m in Bolingbrook.
I got the DS around the 4th of July. It does exactly what all the reviews say it does. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it as well.
Listening to Dr. Michael White, traditional New Orleans clarinet playerThis guy IMO does not have the name recognition he deserves.
The CD I have is “A Song for George Lewis.” It is the happiest music ever recorded!! I learned about him on the Hoffman web site. I posted about my love for NOLA music and out flowed a treasure chest full of great suggestions including Dr. White. Makes me glad to be alive!
Can’t wait to hear it on the DS.
I’ve been listening to this one a lot lately and I can’t wait to hear it on the DS as it sounds so damned good on the PWD Mk II. . . and there’s lots of little percussive and orchestral details that I would love to hear decoded by the DS. It will be in my first trial listenings.
Soon!
One more thing that came up to my mind yesterday: When we compared the DS with the PWD MKII in my rig, first of all we tried to set the volume even for the two units. In my understanding the DS has more juice in its output , so I expected to reduce the volume of the DS compared to the PWD. But surprisingly enough, we ended up with reducing the PWD to 86, while the DS stayed at 100. And yes, the internal switch was set to “high”. Any idea what I´ve done (or understand) wrong?
aliaswolf said In my understanding the DS has more juice in its outputIt is the opposite. More output on the PWD.
aliaswolf,
You might have that backwards. Most people report that the DS has lower output than the PWDII. That has been my experience, ranging from 5-10 ‘points.’ If the PWDII was at 60, I’d have to go at least 65 to get the same punch out of the DS.
DS volume at 100 is equivalent to PWD volume at 95. That is, the PWD’s output is a tad hotter.
Without making any assessments between the PWD and the DS I just want to point out that that’s a classic problem with matching levels - if one unit is more dynamic than another or one unit has a little more compression than another do you match by the peaks of the music or the troughs? I remember being with a group of people who were arguing about matching - one had a VOM the other an SPL meter - they got significantly different answers.
Louder is always better so I use a iphone app for spl meter it works pretty good .
al
[Head-Fi review discussion moved to its own topic]
Anyone know how PS AUDIO products fall so fast in value on Audiogon? There are two "brand new DSs for sale at around $4.5K. I’m about to order the upgrade at $3K. Seems crazy when PWD MKIIs with a bridge are selling for $2K+. I like buying through dealers or factory direct but sellers claim the units include a factory warranty.
Sorry to bring this up here but I can’t help but wonder how this works.
amsco15 said Anyone know how PS AUDIO products fall so fast in value on Audiogon? There are two "brand new DSs for sale at around $4.5K. I'm about to order the upgrade at $3K. Seems crazy when PWD MKIIs with a bridge are selling for $2K+. I like buying through dealers or factory direct but sellers claim the units include a factory warranty.Sorry to bring this up here but I can’t help but wonder how this works.
The one thing that strikes me is that they are kits?
Nope. Brand new in a box full DS units from seemingly reputable sellers.