Never had a problem with beta Massive, but… I’m always in for musical bliss!
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Hopefully for all of us (Ted included!) it’s all done, including running on our dacs before Christmas Eve. 
I second that emotion.
The sound improvement with Massive Beta is, as Al would say, “nice”. 
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Thanks Paul,
All the best to Ted. No pressure from me, then. Best to allow him the time to get it right.
Cheers
Phil
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Are we going to have a “massive” Christmas Eve this year? Let’s wait and see. Have a nice Advent today …
I’m hoping someone might be able to answer a question as I am finally getting serious about adding a MK ll to my system. It has been well documented here that it is important to use a preamp with the MK ll to avoid noise issues. I use a Freya in passive mode. I find the other modes color the sound. I’m wondering if this could possibly be a problem? In other words, does a preamp without a buffer or amplification qualify as a preamp to the MK?
If you are enjoying the sound there is no issue. Not all amplification is unable to ignore low level ultrasonic noise. A preamp is not a must for using the mk2 DAC.
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Will Massive gift arrive before Christmas? That supposedly eliminates the noise issue on Mk2 (a small percentage I believe).
Sorry, have also wondered about using a Freya with the MK2. If you try it, please let us know how it sounds / works!
I absolutely love my Freya in passive mode. I hope someone out there has tried it with the MKll. Last thing I would want to do is by a DAC that only works with low noise if I replaced it with another preamp.
You should at least consider taking advantage of the standing 30-day trial offer from PSA.
If you give them a call, you might even be able to avoid the “risk” of any return shipping cost.
Just a thought…
I know that the Manual recommends against using both RCA and XLR outputs at the same time, but the only reason given seems to be the lower volume level that gets generated via RCA transmission. I’m not planning to use both into the same system at the same time, but rather to use both outputs into two separate headphone integrated amplifiers (driving two different sets of headphones, each integrated having its own volume control), so that my girlfriend and I can each listen through headphones at the same time. Would there be any harm in using this setup - either to sound quality or toward risking component damage?
I think the reason not to use both balanced and unbalanced at the same time is mainly that the balanced becomes unbalanced. You won’t do any harm but you won’t get the best match/impedence.
Thanks!
I have a preamp with only unbalanced inputs and outputs. It has two sets of outputs. It is designed so they can both be used at the same time, however, at the same volume setting. I would check with PS Audio before you use the balanced and unbalanced outputs at they same time,
Sorry for being so dense but I thought the buyer always paid shipping costs.
Correct. However, like I mentioned, if you give them a call, you might be able to work something out and avoid the risk of return shipping cost.
I bought my MKII unit before the Stereophile review was published, and I think it was around August that Massive Beta came out - seems to be a real struggle to get the final Massive version released. Could there be hardware design considerations contributing to the ultrasonic features described in John Atkinson’s review that are not easily mitigated with a “simple” firmware upgrade?
To best of my knowledge the ultrasound noise to John Atkinson was concerned about was fixed by the Massive beta release. What Ted did there was to get the software for a stable 7th order sigma-delta modulator to work on the Mk2. I certainly would not call that a “simple” software upgrade.
As Paul said recently Ted is trying to get the final production version of Massive ( the 7th order SDM ) done. It has been my experience when I worked in R&D that getting the last little bit of a major development effort done can be exasperating. Why this is the way it goes I cannot explain. 
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