Huge news!! Thanks for sharing. Haven’t heard anything about units shipping in Australia as yet, but will follow up (I have one ordered for the first batch to come in!).
Very much hope there’s time for the unit to come in before Christmas 
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Really?
What is your reasoning?
Value your input
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I 2nd that.
I third that, please explain why you are on the fence?
I know there’s going to be all sorts of reaction to below, but you asked what I thought, so I am going to respond as genuinely as possible.
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Production Ready - I feel the release into production sales of the MKII is premature. There are several features that I personally feel should be part of the initial roll-out.
- Balance control for direct to amp connections.
- Wireless/Wired updates.
- Selectable independent On/Off for inputs.
- The display needs to be sorted. You can’t read file format from just a few away.
- User defined input naming.
- The display and the wheel don’t feel like $8K USD to me. I suppose I can get over this since I’ll rarely use it.
I fully understand that some if not all of these may be fixed in future updates. But IMHO many of these are basic items that I have seen as part of the initial release of many other DAC’s in the past. Hence my opinion that the Production release is being rushed.
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Transparency - The lack of transparency on why some MKII’s don’t have problems, mine for example, while others need to go back for a H/W change.
- Within 100 shipped devices I am a little surprised there’s been this much variability. Has there been that much change in supply chain availability? Or is it the quality of the work at the board manufacturer?
- I wonder if mine is fragile and with a future update it may fail.
- Why is my unit stable?
- I would be more comfortable if I could send mine back for a final production unit when they are ready vs. wondering. I don’t mean sending it in for a tweak, I mean a whole new unit.
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Leadership - Accept for Ted, who is not an employee, though he’s clearly invested in this at a very high level, users did the vast majority of support. There has been very low participation by PSA staff in this thread. This really turned into a “free” beta for PSA.
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Beta Testers - Beside getting the chance to try out something new, there was no incentive whatsoever. It would have been nice to at least get free shipping for our trade-ins. I know this may sound petty, but we are in fact helping a for-profit corporation, not a charity.
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Value - With the transition away from Paul, it seems like there’s a finer edge towards releasing product without the polish of the past. I understand that Paul is concentrating on Octave Records, his sunset career. If I was Paul, I would be doing the same thing. The music he produces will far outlast any hardware produced during his tenure, it’s a fantastic legacy. But without him or at least his sense of craftmanship, I feel that with this product there’s been a slip more towards compromise then passion.
I wish all of you a very Happy Holidays. I do hope that however you choose to celebrate, you find some peace and joy,
Vince
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Vince-
Thank you
2 & 4 resonate with me…esp 2.
ive had no issues and often wonder why when so many others have had them. Despite my trial being trouble free I do wish I could exchange it for a newer post Beta unit
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@vkennedy61 spot on my feeling as well. I received my unit Nov 22 have not had any issues so far but I’m only using PST for an input. If and when I start using other inputs will I have issues two years from now. I to want to see transparency and would rather have vetted hardware. I’ll be reaching out to @aaronm to see when PSA will answer our concerns.
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I maybe, been focus on doing my part with the beta and haven’t do critical listening (also letting it burn in). But if my USB problem doesn’t get resolved I may return mine. So far my reporting went into a black hole… so I guess my issue isn’t very important to PSA. Hopefully I hear back from PSA soon.
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Hi, a really honest appraisal. In reading the postings it does seem we have something missing - 100 units shipped and we’re hearing from far less than 100 users.
Do we in fact have a very high “success” rate if - perhaps 70 or so users haven’t written in? Perhaps only PS Audio knows.
I’m pretty sure @tedsmith said a while back that changing the display so it was easier to see the input & file format was pretty simple & just a change to the software. It was on the list of issues for general release.
I have to assume the beta testing has fixed the bugs that were there, or PS Audio will lose its customers who get a unit that doesn’t work. I just can’t see that risk being taken.
Perhaps @Paul and @aaronm, you can say what changes and improvements have been made following the feedback from the beta program?
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This is the post #1906 and probably the most important of all. Thank you Vince for your clear and honest report, all of us that know your loyalty and respect to PS Audio can understand how difficult would have been to post it!
If I was Paul I would appreciate too. I encourage all PS Audio team to take this as the opportunity to clarify any questions and comments of Vince, I consider a real act of transparency and love to this brand, mainly because comes from a trusted and experienced member of this HiFi Family, part of its, part of ourselves.
I think that the aim is at the end of the day to let PS audio guarantee a better service to customers, a better product to people like me interested in purchasing a MK II (as I asked above in this thread in fact I would like to be assured about units sent to my dealer and that I won’t need for sure to send back mine if I buy it now) and a better point of view to observe, (re)think or improve on internal processes.
Let me thank once again Ted for his work and certainly confirm I’m still really convinced to buy the MK II, looking forward to read what Paul will post about.
Meanwhile, thank you Vince!
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I have the same concern, but I am not in the market for the MK II.
I disagree with the transparency and management “criticism” though.
In the end, I expect this to be a fine product.
However, I strongly encourage PSA to take the time to get it “right”.
My $.02.
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Vince,
I am not a beta tester, but as a PS Audio fanboy I have read every comment in this thread. I have resisted posting until now.
What concerns me is that PS Audio designed the MK II using components A-Z, but when they tried to go into production, some components of A-Z were no longer available or had a one year wait, so PS Audio had to redesign the MK II and substitute components that were not their first choice. Maybe the second string components are just as good, but maybe not…
I’ll be waiting for things to settle out before I buy a MK II. Meanwhile, I’ll still be looking at the Holo Audio May KTE, dCS Bartok, Berkeley Alpha or whatever new DAC may come down the pike.
Thanks for your assessment!
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Wow, yes, all of this has been strange. For me I could not believe the claim that audible from feet away hum from hi-end audio components was normal or to be expected. That’s simply not true, and as I suggested walk into any brick and mortar to see for oneself.
But weirdness aside, at end of day sound quality is most important. If it sounds amazing, that’s what matters. If it is better than all other $8k dacs, then I’m possibly still interested.
But the fact that so few are posting impressions (15? maybe 20) might be concerning, though perhaps not surprising given the chilling reaction some of those early posters who were not heaping praise received, or others wanting to discuss.
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Out of 100 units shipped, why is it the feedback only comes from a handful of users? I have a DS Sr. and nothing moves me to the Mk II yet. All I hear is the same rhetoric from the same users long before the the Mk II was released. This part really puzzles me.
The other part that is still under my skin and causes me great consternation is the ‘Noise Harvester’ that is still on the PSA web site. While PSA flogs this I find it hard to take PSA seriously and the groupies in the PSA cult.
This particular thread tells me the Mk II was rushed out the door much like a Microsoft or Apple update where they have to come out with a revision 30 days later.
I have been an IT consultant for the past 19 years managing and designing the network infrastructure for many companies. My reputation is preceded only by my performance so I am biased. I look for this same type of integrity in other companies, PSA included.
I am a strong believer in the philosophy, ‘people never change, only the circumstances around them’. I read Paul’s 99% book and would have expected something different after all these years later.
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I forgot about this symptom. Is this still being experienced?
If it was, would anyone dare to raise it after being told it was being blown out of proportion?
Who said it was normal or to be expected? Most seemed to not have the problem. I can’t hear mine. Seemed like a lot of folks piled on that did not have one, just on principle. Then (I think it was Sixpack whose unit was noisy) seemed to say it wasn’t as bad as it had been made out to be. That does not mean I think it is acceptable for your unit to be audible from across the room.
I’d also be curious to know if anyone has actually listened to all of the gear in a stereo store with no music playing, just to see if they could hear any hum from all of the units.
The other thing about this imagined store scenario is, if I worked at a store, and came in in the morning and heard one of the units humming, you KNOW that would be back to the manufacturer on the first truck. It wouldn’t remain in the showroom.
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Yes, they would.
There are not that many wall flowers on this forum, IMO.
And this forum has more credible and earnest participation than any other like-minded group I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
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Re: the poster who mentioned that PSA should set a standard protocol for beta testing.
They kinda did - in a general sense. I recall a missive from the Mothership asking the beta community to focus on functionality and not so much to a a comparison of SQ to the MKI. There are soooo many possible permutations and combinations of gear in the wild that it would be a near impossibility to anticipate all of them. Well, an impracticality at least.
There’s simply no way of predicting all of the ways an audiophile might want the DAC to work for them. That’s why I purposely dove in and did not read the manual. Still haven’t.
True story: My last gig was as a division director at a small manufacturer of art materials - a company that was more like PSA than you would think. Artists would routinely call in with product questions and complaints. One artist persisted in complaining about problems she was having with her work that involved “sponge painting.” Thinking she was referring to a decorative technique using a sponge as an application device, our owner asked her to send in examples of her work. Turned out she was literally painting sponges. Ya’ can’t make this stuff up.
Weather systems, civilizations, markets, and large groups of humans are all examples of “complex dynamic systems.” As such, they produce unexpected “emergent properties” that arise spontaneously and defy prediction. File them under Rumsfeld’s “Unkown Unknowns.” Contemporary project management/ new product development systems address this uncertainty through a variety of approaches that attempt to corral unexpected outcomes through “smart fast failure” vs. “slow stupid failure,” which is usually product testing in a closed environment. Even Elon Musk occasionally blows up a rocket during development, but he eventually did figure out the Buck Rogers thing of having them land vertically.
BTW, In participating in the beta and following this thread, I don’t think I saw one post complaining about SQ. In fact, quite the opposite, I’m glad i got mine and I dropped of my old MKI yesterday.
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If you worked at Sinopia, my wife may have paid half of your salary 