Did the pulsing go on and on or was it only a second or so?
I reacted fairly quickly to the anomaly, so I’d guess it continued for 5 sec until I was able to react and manually switch back to the usb input.
When you switched back to I2S1 did you happen to press it twice?
DIdn’t push the I2S button, to the best of my recollection, so I’m not sure of the auto select status… I wasn’t thinking about auto input select at the time. The input sequence as I remember it was: I2S #2 to usb to listen to streamed tracks / usb to I2S #2 to return to the burn in file / back to usb briefly, then back to I2S #2.
After this, I was not able to duplicate the issue, but did not pause the file playing through the PST to recreate the exact conditions.
I picked up the MKII at the factory last week and it had received all of the hardware adjustments and was loaded with 2.3.3.
Oh, with regard to the pink noise file on the usb thumb drive …
I have the PST set to repeat this track… When the track finishes and before it begins again there is a brief burst of noise… “pfft” … that occurs consistently. I’m not sure if (a) this is a bit of the pink noise file itself, or (b) if this has something to do with the PST or the DAC. I haven’t noticed this behavior with discs, but I haven’t used the track repeat function with discs, either.
@tony22 I’m impressed with the beta testers comprehensive work. Once theyve done the major work I’ll bang on it. I’m not able to dedicate the time beta deserves. I have one issue; a comment regarding the manual … manual we don’t need no stinkiin manual. LMAO! I love it! In fact we do need a manual. One that will provide answers to common questions e.g. what are those lights, symbols etc on the display? A section on technology, major players like the DSJ has. A bit of how’s tos and troubleshooting. All the good stuff a well written manual provides. I’ve found my PSA manuals useful. I’m expecting this manual to be useful too.
2.3.3 is the firmware (FW) version. Ted is talking about the FPGA version which is different. When you enter the settings menu, go right 4 times to the Versions submenu then go down once to see what FPGA version you have. Since it has the upgrades done it is likely 178
Oh, I absolutely keep the owner’s manuals in the listening room for ready reference if required.
I deliberately inserted my beta unit into my system without consulting the manual as a stress test to see how idiot-proofed, er intuitive, the MKII interface is. So far, I’ve been able to figure out most functions “millennial -style,” * which is by poking buttons and seeing what happens.
It seems iPhones as well as most techno toys no longer come with user manuals. You’re lucky of you get an Ikea-like quick -start guide.
With every software change on the DS there were always some who preferred the older software. Often (tho not always) something would change in their system and then they would prefer the newer software. Some of the changes certainly interacted with people’s systems in unexpected ways. Our advice was always to treat each new release of software like it was a new component in your system. You might want to change the toe in on your speakers, you may want to try a different cable or two, etc. This often fixed the apparent regression in the code (but not always for some systems.)
I don’t tune the FPGA code for specific sound attributes, I fix bugs or write new code which makes the system more mathematically correct, i.e. that it gets more faithful to the input data stream. With the DS multiple compiles of the same code could sound a little different so we (mostly PS Audio) would listen to, say, about 20 compiles and pick the one that sounded the most lifelike. With the Mk II the differences between multiple compiles are much smaller (by my design), tho we’re still evaluating whether grading multiple compiles might be worth it, so far it doesn’t seem needed. I only mention this because we don’t keep changing the FPGA, listen, change it again, listen, etc. to come up with a release. If it sounds wrong I try to find a bug and fix it.
Over time I’ll keep producing newer FPGA code which sounds better than older versions. If you don’t happen to agree you can choose to live with the previous code.
But I want to be clear: I do pay attention to reports on sound quality and use them to guide where I might improve the next code. I am paying attention to your report and will integrate it with other reports on sound quality. I’ll keep your offer to listen to newer FPGAs in mind should the need arise, as it has a few times in the past.
Thanks for the answers (and tho indeed I did want the FPGA version, I got what I needed from the rest of your answers.)
I have seen this a time or two with the auto input select, tho I believe I’ve fixed that for the most part. I don’t think the problem you are describing is that tho. I’ll keep looking for something that might explain it and if it should happen to you again, waiting just a little longer while it’s failing might give me a hint as to what’s going on.
The break-in process continues. The MKII is sounding better and better everyday. Today I played a couple of Peter Paul and Mary files through the USB input with my streamer, and the MKII makes voices sound even more full, natural, and present than any digital has a right to. The MKI was also very good, but not to the level of the MKII. It’s like listening to the best vinyl.
The sound thru the USB is really opening up. It has a sense of purity that I couldn’t get when I ran the Matrix thru I2S. No matter how good the Matrix is, there’s nothing like taking all those extra pieces out of the signal path. With the MKII, you don’t need to convert the USB to I2S, the USB is really that good.
And the quietness and freedom from noise is unparalleled! That’s one of the reasons you just hear more micro detail and resolution from the MKII than the MKI. I hope the MKII continues to improve with more break-in. I really cannot get enough of it.
I understand, but having been a beta tester in the past (for PSA among others), I’m feeling like this time I want to wait until any possible board spins are vetted and proven in the production line.
I should also have mentioned that when the UI lets users turn off unused I2S and USB inputs you might find that the differences you hear in this case might change.
Very good @hthaller. I was lost in the reference to some extent. I like your “idiot proofed” approach. I’m at a point in life where plug-n-play along with a well written manual hard or soft makes me smile.
The techno-toys are crazy complicated, with technology that rolls daily at times. Whatever happened to quarterly release cycles.
@hthaller is it a pfft or a tick? With my MK2 and PST via I2S I hear a tick when changing track or fast forward or reverse. Seems every time it makes a change CD to SACD switch as well.
Thanks for getting back to me Aaron. I wish it were that simple. Here is a picture of the directory structure for that thumb drive. As you can see, everything is in the root directory,
In addition, I can get to the updated FPGA code through the menus on the DAC but I am not sure if I should upgrade that while at such a low firmware version.
On a positive note, I have been able to play music over USB without any pauses or complete dropouts, however since I haven’t applied the updated FPGA code yet, I am not able to play DSD256.
I attempted to reproduce the “pulsing” behavior by pausing the playback of the thumb drive file while switching back and forth between the streaming usb input, but was no table to do so. Things worked OK.
So far, I’ve been mainly letting the unit burn in so have not fiddled with all input and file combinations. While attempting to reproduce the “pulsing” I tiioke the time to evaluate file and “red light/green light” functionality and uncovered issues with playing DSD files from the Aurender’s hard drive.
Again, this MKII has had the hardware tweaks and is loaded with 2.3.3 firmware. Since I acquired the unit in this condition, I have not had the opportunity to try other Firmware versions.
The “red/green” light appears to work. It shows green when connected to I2S and usb sources. I don’t have toslink or AES/EBU cables so I can’t test these inputs.
The MKII shows correctly displays the file resolution from I2S and usb inputs
64 and 128 DSD (DSF) files on the Aurender’s hard drive produce no sound through the usb input. The green light is lit, and the MKII shows 1x DSD as “176.4/24” file resoultion… 2x DSD file resolution displays as: “352.8/24”
Hi Res 192/24 files also play and the resolution displays correctly, but the MKII produces no sound.
44.1/16 files from the hard drive play fine from the hard drive.
Streamed hi-res FLAC files from Qobuz play OK, as well.
Ignoring USB for the moment. There are two ways the FPGA can receive DSD, either Native or DoP. In either case it detects the sample rate by counting samples and the bit width by looking at non-zero bits changing in the sample. If the input is Native DSD then nothing can really go wrong in that there’s no PCM at that data rate so it’s unambiguous. If PCM shows when trying to play DSD via DoP then either the source converted to PCM or there’s some form of processing, perhaps a volume control which is messing with the DoP flag bytes (the high eight bits of each PCM wrapped sample in DoP toggle every sample between 0x05 and 0xfa.)
I can’t be quite as sure that the USB chip isn’t doing something weird, but that’s not because I suspect that it is, it’s just that I don’t have as many miles on it yet.
If this were the Mk I I’d comfortably say that you will find something when you check all of your source settings. E.g. that it’s configured to convert to PCM or something in the path is applying a volume (e.g. replay gain) or some other DSP.
You can perhaps see if it’s DoP being mangled by turning the volume up while it’s playing and hearing if the music seems to be there but garbled and at a very low volume (down 48dB.) If so it definitely is something mangling the DoP.
When you say “Streamed hi-res FLAC files from Qobuz play OK, as well”, are you talking about things other than 44.1/16 working in the Aurender if it’s not reading from its own disk drive? For example, does 192/24 work when streaming but not when being read from the hard drive? Or are you talking about, say 96/24?
If you don’t have any luck with the above items we’ll see what we can do to debug the situation, but we don’t have an Aurender (but perhaps PS Audio got one that I don’t know about.)
Yes, hi-res Qobuz files stream OK through the Aurender. “Hi-res” meaning 96/24 or less. Offhand I’m not aware of files with higher res on Qobuz. If you (or other readers) can cite one, I’ll be happy to try it.
ALL of the “problematic” files on the Aurender hard drive play flawlessly through the Matrix via the I2S input on the DAC. Specifically, the PST is feeding I2S 2 and the Matrix is plugged into I2S 1.
When the DSF DSD files from the Aurender are fed to the MKII via the Matrix and I2S input, the green light is on and the file resolution displayed on the DAC display indicates “DSD.”
Aaron’s email on Monday indicated that:
“2.3.3 with muting, no audio – Please revert your unit back to 2.3.0”
Is this something I should try? I’m not sure from Aaron’s description if he is talking specifically about the muting issue or any situation with no audio. He doesn’t seem to address DSD and higher res files through usb specifically.
No, you don’t need to revert the software. The software bug was that running new software on some older hardware would be 100% muted all the time. The people with that problem needed to go back to 2.3.0 to get audio at all.
I don’t know the Aurender, but some other streamers have to be told what they are talking to so they know it’s capabilities or they get the info over USB from the device. Some use a table to look the device info up from the USB type and others poll for the USB device directly for its capabilities. So with many streamers playing with one unit doesn’t guarantee playing well with another, especially a newer USB implementation. Some streamers have separate configurations for each output device they’ve seen, and these may have to be checked for each device. Once again, I don’t know Aurender, but it’s getting more common to have many separate configurations in players and streamers.
PS Audio support should be able to help debug it and/or they can get engineering involved if it seems to be a USB problem.
