He has measurement to show… what does PS Audio have? exactly… nada…
So far we are still waiting for Paul and co. to show us their measurement where it’s supposedly done correctly and will show that Mk2 is quieter than Mk1. But I am not holding my breadth, I think it’s established by a number of independent measurements already that Mk2 is worse than Mk1 wrt noise.
I wish to exclaim that I have not peeked at measurements for any audio item I have purchased in the last thirty years. My ears tell me everything I am interested in knowing. Besides, anything below one percent distortion sounds exactly the same.
No, wait…… That came out wrong! How Stereo Review can I get?
I had the MK1 stock with bridge2, MK1 stock without Bridge2 , MK1 modified a little, and modified a lot with Richards tweaks. With the highly modified MK1 and stock MK2 side by side the MK2 was a clear winner sonically. I traded the highly modified MK1 in on the MK2.
Yes the display is small and the menu structure is awkward but my $24k Playback Designs DAC doesn’t have a screen at all.
Their sales model is simple. Try it for a month. If you dont like it then send it back. Whats not to like?
You are my hero. We have all learned a lot just watching your end of the street.
To be honest, I’m becoming ever more happy that I don’t obsess about noise measurements. It’s something I can’t hear. Not worrying about it frees up a lot of time & energy.
I upgraded from MKI – which I loved – to MKII, with full faith in the trial policy. It didn’t take long to decide that I enjoyed the MKII much, much better.
If there’s noise there, I just don’t hear it. Could it be better without this invisible noise? Maybe, but I’m too busy enjoying music to worry much about it.
A lot of what I listen to others classify as noise.
It’s just background noise from the nay sayers chanting with the cult leader.
Pay no attention. Sooner or later they will go away.
I wish it was as easy as degaussing.
Please remove the “we”. We are not waiting for anything except more great improvements as Ted writes updates.
I feel bad for those whose amps are susceptible to the ultra sonic noise but this is a known issue with the DAC and they have 30 day return.
Other than that the measurements are meaningless unless you care about measurements more than listening. There is another site for those.
Totally fine to take the approach that listening is everything and measurements are meaningless. I have no issue with that stance.
But let’s be intellectually honest and admit that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim mk2 is much less noisy than mk1 without proof in the face of Stereophile and other independent measurements detailing the contrary, plus promising measurements to prove your stance and not delivering. Let’s remember that was done.
So again, no issue if say measurements are garbage and just listen. But don’t claim bias or that revered reviewers are wrong without proof. If you have the proof, show it.
The reviewer broke his own cardinal rule doing measurements before listening. His sonic impressions were definitely affected by the bias set up by the measurements. That is the biggest issue.
So what was he wrong about with his review? He has 50 years of experience. I think he knows what he’s doing. You are contending he could not be objective because he measured first? Um, ok.
PSA is a huge advertiser in Stereophile and the magazine has praised PSA products in the past. The suggestion that they’d be biased against PSA is funny.
And even so none of that addresses the point of my post of not having it both ways (claiming less noisy without proof when lots of evidence to contrary)
I never said they were biased against PS Audio. My statement is very clear what was wrong with his review. Him not liking what he saw caused him to overlook how exceptional the mk 2 sounds, which is even more true with Massive software.
No proof is necessary. They’re under no obligation to disclose anything.
If you don’t want one then don’t buy it.
If you do want one then get the 30 day trial but be prepared to keep it as they are a bargain for the price.
Not that hard to comprehend really.
I don’t care. But when the Stereophile review came out lots of people here were saying that the review was wrong and that the measurements were inaccurate. Paul claimed that mk2 was less noisy than mk1 and promised measurements to prove. Many were attacking the reputation of John Atkisson, arguably the most famous audio magazine reviewer in the world. I don’t think that’s right if you can’t back up those claims, that’s all
https://www.stereophile.com/content/playback-designs-mps-5-sacdcd-player-manufacturers-comment
This has been discussed before, but it seems appropriate to provide a brief reminder of why the traditional noise measurements for a DSD-based DAC can be confusing or misleading. I have provided a link to the Manufacturer’s Comment from the Stereophile review of a Playback Designs SACD player (with built-in DAC) because the comments are really helpful in understanding why it can be hard to perfectly correlate measurements with listening impressions.
Given the comments from Jonathan Tinn and Andreas Koch of Playback Designs, it should be obvious why it is not possible to provide any simple traditional measurements that relate noise levels (especially ultrasonic noise) to sound quality in DSD-based DACs. Demanding that PSA produce these measurements seems rather silly. It’s not that measurements don’t matter at all - it’s just that traditional measurements may not tell a complete and accurate story about how to make a DAC sound great.
Many weeks ago
Still looking for that degauss button.
Meitner seems to have it figured out → Meitner MA3 Integrated D/A processor | Stereophile.com.
Michael
Just a note - I noticed that PS Audio stopped advertising in Stereophile prior to the release of the DSD MKII months back.