Right, then we’re on the same page. I concur with sixpack1 and didn’t mean to direct my question to you personally (if that’s how it seemed).
This JA review thing from the past few months may be put to rest, e.g. as far as our emotional involvement goes. I’m sure everyone involved has seen some kind of learning curve, hopefully.
When PSA comes forth with a FW and a fpga that delivers on the promise of the MK2 and JA does an updated review like he is supposed to, faith is restored and we’ll all be happy campers again.
despite the general feeling here that the JA review was quite negative, he did place the pre Massive DS2 he reviewed in Stereophile’s Class A in the current issue I received yesterday…gotta mean the Massive moves it up to Class A+
I think the description Denny used for the noise of Massive, “swirling” is a good one. I never tried the factory reset though. I’m listening direct to BHK300’s with a volume between 30 and 70, and have retuned to Antero for the time being.
I would like to suggest that PS offer an interim solution; two version of the release, one optimized for full volume and another optimized for customers using the Dac’s volume feature.
I’d be happy to have a version of massive that might sound a little different but offers an improvement over Antero, until a solution that satisfies everyone’s use can be found.
Are you talking ultrasonic or audible? I agree there is a reduction in ultrasonic noise but I am not seeing any reduction in audible noise, this is a bit disappointing given the claimed 10 dB improvement in audible noise.
The Massive update is available for download, but it is a beta version and the final version is supposed to be released in the next few weeks (hopefully).
I notice the word “hopefully” in Paul’s last post.
Seeing as the current Massive “Beta” release refuses to function on my unit, “hopefully” the final production version will function correctly on my unit.
Jamesh was made aware of this 4 weeks ago and kindly responded quickly, saying much work was going on.
“Hopefully” all will be good with the final version.
When you say Massive does not function on your unit do you mean that you have not been able to successfully load it or that is loads and initializes but does not function?
“Does not function” is correct, it will download, unzip, load but does not work as advertised.
To clarify on this, I emailed Jamesh at PS who kindly and quickly responded asking for more detail which I passed on to him.
James stressed that it was a “beta” release and more work was being carried out.
So the unit is staying with Antero 208 for the near future.
I was asking if these steps were being followed and what the results were.
After unzipping the file, place the unzipped contents onto the USB stick
Place the USB stick in the DAC’s rear and using the rear panel power switch reboot the unit. The front panel display should go dark and reboot.
Go to settings on the front panel and firmware versions. Does Massive appear? If it does, then you know you’ve correctly installed the firmware. Next, select Massive and choose to update. The display appears to do nothing, then it finally reboots.
Let me know if any or all of this is happening and then what the results are.
