It’s not. I feel bad for it.
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It is getting pretty annoying, having to be ready to hit the pause button when switching formats. Don’t think I had any damage risk yet. But I suppose I know the address in Colorado to receive the bill.
More embarrassing for PSA was when a visitor was “driving” the tablet last weekend and suddenly there was a blast of white noise. They made certain comments about all those videos online being “a lot of marketing”.
PSA, release the fix please.
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any gear that damages another gear means to the street
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I just read the Stereophile review. I don’t go for the cult of the reviewer, I’m not much into reviews beyond product features. What I got from that review, and I only skimmed it, was that Mr Atkinson thinks good DACs should all measure well, however they are designed (whether chip-based, FGPA, resistor or RingDAC), and the better they measure the better they are likely to be.
I don’t doubt Ted’s explanations because I don’t understand them, but I have a $600 FPGA DAC and it measures superbly and performed extremely well in my main system.
I can’t imagine this review will influence anyone who buys on the PSA brand name, it would have put me off because of the measurements, I did not consider the DSD DAC Mk2 because of the lack of a streaming option and the price. Mr Atkinson mentions in the first paragraph of the review that the Mk1 was “computer friendly” with an ethernet input and that he used the Mk1 with the Bridge and Roon. That’s how I would want to use the Mk2 DAC, without an extra box (I have no space for an extra box anyway) and the cost with that box gets to £10,500 compared to £4,100 for the unit I bought (which measures much better).
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Let me see where we are.
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Precisely.
Thanks for sharing your experience , it helps to decrease my anxiety awaiting my MK2 and reading this thread after about two weeks 
This constant noise reminds me of one of Paul’s daily blogs when he mentioned that with good resolving system this kind of noise (that time Paul referred to tape noise) is perceived as completely separated from music itself and therefore kind of not degrading the music. The problem here could be with lower resolving systems where the noise would be modulated to music by system imperfections.
Tape noise is within the audio band. The noise being dicussed is ultra sonic, in the range of 300khz it is not audible in any way. The mk2 is quiter than the mk1 if you press your ear to the tweeter. Tube rush is more noticeable than the artifacts that get through. So much ado about nothing.
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Well, that on again, off again “friend” of mine (Paul) has come through for me! Got notification my Mk II is arriving tomorrow, a month early! To throw in an ironic twist he made sure it’s arriving when I’m enjoying some fresh air in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Grumble … grumble. I’ll have to come home earlier than planned to play with it. Good thing my wife stayed home to receive it …
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Still waiting for my MKII to arrive in Norway…should have been here beginning of May…sigh😰
Hope they not shipped it with a boat.
My mk2 arrived on Friday, been playing with short pauses about 46hours now.
Comparing to my original DS DAC (with X4400 transformers and PSU upgraded with top Mundorf cap.) , both fed by Matrix-USBRegen-RPi4-EtherRegen and Roon.
Curiously enough I’m getting green light on I2S i’m using (was thinking it will be green only for PST).
Burn-In observations:
Right out of the box with first tones I was surprised with warmer presentation (like energy moved from upper mids more to lower mids (was not sure i like it though), but also treble having more energy when asked for (good). After first about 6 hours (I let the MK2 burn in while I was away) the sound got to overall balance I was familiar with so I made first focused listening and found glare on female voices so decided to try shorting plugs and interface covers from my MK1 (MK2 main power off). Whoa, glare gone away (I was thinking it could be also caused by raw not burned in device, but apparently not and the MK2 is still sensitive to this).
After about 20-24hours the sound got to the very positive shape, I did not found any obvious anomalies any more (like mono sounding kick drums on recording where I know it should pan horizontally as it was case when right out-of-the-box).
I will probably still need to treat the remaining new connectors on MK2, but already I can’t hear any glare but who knows
Physical temperature of MK2 on it’s sides was subjectively quite higher than with MK1, but then I put Ceraball feet under MK2 which made more space under mk2 than with original feet (about double) and it seems helped to decrease temperature to more familiar level from MK1 (it was placed on the same Ceraball feet).
Next step will be to pop out AM fuse from MK1 and find good orientation in MK2. I’m curious to hear this as for the MK1 it made quite significant improvement.
I just tried lifting ground on I2S Input from Matrix and then also on Output to preamp + also tried lift of shell on Output to preamp. I was able to get better sibilances on problematic tracks, but it also seems I have lost some dynamics, so I need to play with it more to find best match. Does anyone know if I can get into MK2 menu and lift grounds with remote? This would help me with comparisons a lot
Overall I like the MK2 very much, it is apparent even before optimal burn-in that while keeping the fluidity and “analog-like” quality of MK1, it has more authority and precision than MK1, with more clarity and air, the result is more real and life-like. Soundstage got more precisely/steadily placed and you almost think you could touch (with long hand ) the singer or any of the instruments. Nothing is collapsing at all with complex and loud music, no strain or artefacts anywhere, I can hear it loud as it should be, clear and all separated on it’s place.
Thank you Ted and PS Audio !
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Maniac, I’m pretty certain those features are only accessible on the component, not the remote.
You have great listening ahead of you. Just wait til you have 600 or 700 hours on the Mk2. I wish I was kidding, but it sounds so much better after 500 hours or so and keeps subtly improving.
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I’ll be interested in following your impressions as your Mk ll breaks in. Please continue to keep us informed.
I stopped continuous burn in somewhere around 550 hours on my dsd Mk2. Also swapped my speaker cables to Fidelium (wow!!!). My system has never sounded so good. Beautifully detailed, musical and the sound has its own stage, detached from the speakers which have sonically “disappeared”. I thought they had already done this before with the Mk1, but no, this is the real deal. I stream direct from my Roon Nuc+ via Inakustik Referenz USB. No loud noises switching between DSD and PCM. 44.1/16 sounds superb. Happy camper here. My wife is also deeply impressed!
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My MKII finally arrived today after long waiting time. I did not have any streamer so I bought a Matrix Element S streamer. Problem is that when I hook up the streamer with USB cable the MKII shows a red light and there is no sound. PS Audio DMP works fine with I2S and sounds great even before burn in of the MKII. I2S from the Matrix Element also works fine, green light and showing correct bits and frequency. Also sounds great🤗Cannot figure out why USB is not working. Is there a compabilty problem with the USB output from the Matrix and MKII? Any suggestions on the problem?
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Not sure if there’s any compatibility problem, but after you hook up the Matrix, try powering down the MkII and powering back up. Also, make sure the Input Power for USB is set to ON.
Don’t know if helps… The streamer manual has a little asterisk note about needing to select the “USB channel” and that USB out will not work if the other outputs are active.
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Thanks…got it! Restarted both Matrix and MKII and put USB to on in setup but still red light. Had to choose USB DAC output in the Matrix setup to get green light on the MKII. Problem was then that streaming from Qobuz did not work. Then after power off and restart of the Matrix it suddenly works perfect…
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Thanks for the followup.
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Hmmmm. Make sure you have a standard setup USB cable. Some aftermarket USB cables have the power line disconnected.
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