@tedsmith So my MKII DAC did not ship this week. Reading thru this forum, I am OK with that so long as I have it for Christmas. The AirLens is scheduled for even later. So I am reverting to my backup plan… HQPlayer to Raspberry Pi4 to MKII DAC via USB. Normally I upscale via HQPlayer in 8-channel DSD256 to feed an exaSound S88. But this seems disrespectful to Ted when playing stereo to a MKII DAC. Any recommendations on how to send tracks to the MKII DAC via USB and HQPlayer?
Folks:
I’ve been listening to USB through MKII. I have Mac Mini/Tidal to Curious USB to MKII to BHK Pre to BHK 600’s to Golden Ear Reference speakers. It all depends on the quality of the source material even through Tidal! My jaw dropped when I listened to Night Train by Christian McBride. The textures of the cello is stunning. Boz Scaggs’ voice is awesome in Thanks to You. Also check out the bottom end. Listen to Lucky by Kat Edmonson. Congratulations to the PS Audio team. Streaming can be fantastic via the MKII.
Thanks, but that’s not a consideration. Just try different paths and choose the one you like the best. HQPlayer does a good job of doing DSP. Tho there’s no perfect upsampling filter, other subtle setup differences may swamp the upsampling differences.
The Mk II is even less sensitive to the jitter and noise in the digital path, so I would just do what’s convenient, has the best sound, or has the features you want. Heck I often play SACDs over TOSLink driven by a cheap USB to TOSLink converter.
Great. Thanks John. That’s easy peasy.
PSA should place their manuals on a publically editable WIKI, like Wikipedia and allow forum members to contribute.
Did a bit of listening to mk2 after 125 hours. The details still great and bass extension. Still has not ordered up in depth layers though width went wider. Everything still a tight grouping.
My DS MK2 was in PSA lab for a couple of weeks, and I imagine it was used often in finding a cure, so it should have had a good break-in already. But I still hear improvement every day. I decided to try some experiments because I had no idea when it is fully done, but mine should be close to fully breaking in already (if not it will be a welcome surprise).
Waymenchen and I liked the SR Purple fuse in MK2. I like it so much that I bought one from Audio Mart. The fuse arrived yesterday (luckily it was briefly used), and I put it in MK2 and had the streamer running through MK2 for 20 hours before I listened to it (golf in the morning to keep myself busy). If you have one or two SR Purple fuses in the system, please switch it and put it into MK2 to try it. The SQ improvement will be huge, and it matches MK2 perfectly in my opinion! When it is first installed it may appear the sound is thinner, but it needs a few hours to settle in (even for an old fuse). If you plan to put an M-1 fuse in MK2, you may be highly disappointed. It was just not suitable for MK2 (different from DS). In my system the MK2 with M-1 fuse sounds heavy and lacks details. The combination sounds worse than DS even. My system now consists of two Purples and two M-1s which sounds better than ever (used to have three M-1s and one Purple). YMMY, but make sure one Purple is in MK2!
Also, I tried different I2S cables, AQ Coffee, AQ Firebird48, and AQ Dragon48 were the three I tried. The SQ difference among them was larger than that of DS. It was the same with power cords that I posted earlier like one thousand posts ago.
My experiment seems to show the MK2 tells more SQ differences in cables and tweaks. If you think about it, it does make sense. The lower noise floor and higher processing power of MK2 should make small changes more apparent. So, my unfortunate conclusion is MK2 does not make these differences smaller, it makes the difference more obvious.
Yes, when you first put the Purple in, it can lean towards the lean and bright side a little, but a with a lot more power, detail, and openness. Then as it settles in the lean and brightness disappears and all you hear is more music without the slight dullness the MI can cause. Fuses can make quite a difference.
Thank you for sharing this.
I was really curious how MK2 will interact with cables (was hoping it will be less than MK1) so it’s clear now 
I thought all of the inputs (including the I2S?) are galvanically isolated. That should make interconnect driven sound changes small. 
Supposedly it should have reduced the SQ difference, but there were clear differences when I compared them. I didn’t unbox DS to compare so my assessment of a bigger difference was from memory bank more than a year ago. I should not state MK2 makes a “bigger” difference without comparison side by side with DS. After all there were many changes made to my system since I last compared the cables with DS.
So, I should have said the MK2 made the difference “easier” to hear instead of making the SQ difference bigger. There are too many variables for me to make that conclusion 
Galvanic isolation doesn’t negate the effects of better or worse cable design and materials.
Perhaps these topics are better for a DS2 Tweaks 'n Mods Thread? Plenty to be getting on with here, sorting out the beta issues.
Hmm, I think that would be pretty desperate, risky, and unprofessional. I get the idea (use free labor like they are doing with beta testing (easier than hiring test engineers), which most companies do themselves), but remember, some would not be so positive as most forum members.
I do not consider being a Beta Tester as being free labor, I consider it an honor to be chosen. Yes, some very large companies do their own Beta testing. The Beta testing that is being done is mostly about trying to break the software in the MK2. My wife who is a retried IBM Distinguished Engineer ( Ph.D. computer science ) led several large SW development programs. When they thought the SW was good enough they always gave it to other internal SW groups to see if they could break it. It is the way software is developed. Since Paul wisely puts a 100 units into Beta testing it would be hard for him to do all the units internally since I doubt the PS Audio has 100 employees.
For what it is worth, these are the typos in the manual that I reported to PS Audio already:
- Page 5 of 24 aka “iii”: Galvanic isolation aids in the reduction jitter and unwanted audio artifcats.
- Page 17 of 24 aka “3 pages after 7 and one page before 8”: DirectStream MK2 provides the ability to connect those inputs to gound through the front panel display.
- Also, the page numbering is wonky after page 7. The page numbered as 8 is four pages after the page numbered as 7…
I recommended the use of sbell czech
PS: Yippie! Just got my FedEx notice. My MKII is on its way to me!
Yeah, no worries, definitely everyone who signed up to be a beta tester is excited to do it, I’d imagine.
I know I am. It’s fun to be part of the development process and to put beta units through their paces. That’s why I test every input, output, option, etc. available with as many different pieces of upstream and downstream gear I can to help make sure the production units work properly when people buy them. Obviously I can’t test every possible configuration because I don’t have every other possible piece of equipment but with 100 of us banging away at it we cover a whole lotta bases. I think PSA makes great products and am happy to help make them as good as they can be.
For the purpose of storing FPGA loads so that you can easily switch them under the system sub menu I recommend the 32gb Sandisk Cruiser. It is very small and will be able to stay in the back panel input for it without getting in the way or getting damaged. They are very inexpensive and are readily available. They are USB 2.
Just ordered!