DirectStream DAC MKII Beta Tester Reviews

@Vmax

Thanks Ted. Many symphonic pieces require Gapless Playback as does Pink Floyd Albums such as The Wall.

I did check my Roon EndPoint for Sonore ultraRendu. It is now called Resync Delay there. But it is set to 0ms.

I do think the cure is worse than the disease for those of us that never suffered Clicks and Pops. Maybe give us a menu feature to turn the fix on and off?

I know I preferred the DS not implementing it by bug.

This doesn’t sound like what I was hearing. Definitely no long gaps.

Hi Paul. That’s terrific news. Glad to hear things are getting sorted through the beta testing - the feedback is very encouraging so far! Will certainly stay tuned for updates :santa:

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This is great news! Can’t wait to be able to order the mkii to see what all the fuss is about!

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I just tested playing a Roon playlist that contains tracks with various formats. There was no sound cut off, clicks, pops or delays. My setup is the Nucleus feeds the MKII through USB. The MKII is just playing perfectly with over 125 hours and no problems so far. I would prefer a slightly larger display, but as long as I can see the volume level from 12 feet away, I’m ok with it.

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What’s the status for the units needing to be sent back? I received word from service last week engineering was working on it. Just wondering where things stand now

I believe we are waiting for another round of firmware.

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Thinking this is more a PST thing?: PST playing flash drive with mp3 & WMA files connected I2s to MK II. PST now indicating files playing @ 44/24 instead of 44/16. Same showing on MK II as it should. Close to 275 hrs on MK II and it is has worked perfectly and sounds fantastic. CD & SACD, all have shown correct bits on PST and MK II. Streaming to MK II shows correct bits also. 2.3.3 178 update installed. PST has current firmware 2.4.4.

I shipped my unit back one week ago and it is arriving a PS Audio today. I hope I get it back before 2023. :roll_eyes:

I have Christmas Music Playing form the Laptop to the mk2 via USB. I have heard a rare dropout that I have never experienced with the mk1. These are 16 bit 44.1khz files. It is very rare and I have checked to make sure nothing else is running in the background. This is just an observation and I will see if it persists. I can play all DSD rates up to and including 256. The drive supplying the music is a Samsung SSD 8 TB.

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What app are you using?

JRiver Media Center 29 and I do not have Auto Select enabled.

What driver are you using?

There’s nothing more I can do from a beta testing standpoint with my unit until it gets fixed. I can’t even leave it playing from the USB input because every time it encounters a file it doesn’t like, it goes silent and stays that way until it gets a long power cycle. So it’s not going to be turned back on until there a fix to try out.

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The good news is after the fix MK2 runs flawlessly. I’m sending my DS back to PSA tomorrow.

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Mine went back last week. Even with the MKII fresh out of the box, i wanted to sent the MKI back to PS Audio immediately, the improvement in the sound and performance was so profoundly better with the MKII.

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I reported yesterday a similar dropout experience running JRiver 30 while using the recommended PS Audio driver.

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You have to use the WHQR one with the mk2. I am using WASAPI. I tried the ASIO and wasgetting loud hash in the background when playing DSD. I will try again with DOP enabled to see if that changes anything.

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Today I unplugged my MKII in order to return to my original DSD dac. I needed to determine if I heard a change in the sound quality going back to the older setup.

Somewhat to my surprise, I did not have to do a lot of listening. I found the difference immediately noticeable. The sound of the DS1 – which I have always loved – was harsher than what I’ve become accustomed to through the MKII. Individual instruments were less distinct and the music overall sounded less relaxed. Bass was boomier.

This was true even when comparing streaming Tidal through my iPhone on the MKII and streaming Roon (with a Tidal stream) through the Bridge II on the DS1. That was a definite surprise to me. The MKII sounded better even through the iPhone connection.

I hope I can find a way to keep the MKII.

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