DMP 3.07 firmware released

enough already. i need to find a better use of my time.

Dumb question. Is the DMP the only transport I can use with the DSD that will read data discs or is that feature common these days among SACD players and transports? I have owned only PWT and DMP for so long and have built up such a cool discs that I couldn’t live without that capability.

If your data discs are Redbook then the Nuprime CDT-8 works via I2S and sounds great. It also has it’s own upsampling engine.

2 Likes

Dumb question # 2. Not sure what you mean by redbook format. They are FLAC or DSD files that I have burned to discs much as they are stored on hard drives. There are individual files for each song using WIndows naming convention. The storage media is some for of DVD. Some are DVD +/- R and some are DVD +/-RW. Standrad Memorex or Verbatim discs I bought at Office Depot.

Thanks!

Redbook=FLAC it doesn’t do DSD discs. Per the Sony licensing agreement DSD transmission over HDMI/I2S is only allowed in the same family of products which is why you see the OPPO guys jumping through so many hoops to get their transports to work for DSD with the Directstream DACs. The only couple of SACD/DSD discs I own are Dual layer so it is fine for me that it doesn’t play SACD’s. To do what you want you are either going to have to live with the DMP/DS combo or move to Esoteric.

1 Like

“” Nice setup. What speakers are you using?
I’m really enjoying my Von Schweikert VR 35’s, even more so with the PS Audio gear, especially after the last DMP update. I’m hearing subtle inflections in vocals and details in the music I haven’t heard before. “”

Those are very good speakers that you use.
My speakers are Shahinian Diapasons, omnidirectional loudspeakers: which I have used since the early nineties after hearing them and from speaking to Dick Shahinian at CES (Manufactured: Long island / New York) I have had a few pairs over the years and my current models are 3 years old. I use two pairs: – front and rear . BHK preamp, BHK300s for the front Diapasons and I initially used one BHK250 driving the rear Diapasons then I added a second BHK250 at the start of this year.

But I have someone interested in buying one of the 250s and I will buy another pair of 300s for the rear speakers.
For me, I can’t beat the realism of sitting within music all around, and especially so, when the speakers are omnidirectional…

Obviously, this setup is to my personal taste – but it’s all about our own personal preferences at the end of the day …

And, like you, I am well over the moon with the improved sound quality since loading 3.07, just as you described … To me, it’s like there’s a cleaning up/off some high frequency distortion hence better focus and insight to the music. I find 3.07 to be so much more musical. It has really surprised me.

1 Like

““Now I’m out of here. I asked @Elk to remove me from the forum system but he said it wasn’t technically possible to do that. 'Bye.””

…borders crumble every day the fault lines are showing and all I thought was here to stay slowly is going…

Cheers, Brodric. Bye.

1 Like

Wow, I can’t imagine the grand experience of basking in the soundstage of 4 omnidirectional speakers, being driven by 2 pairs of BHK 300 mono blocks. Would love to hear that setup.

2 Likes

The Nuprime is a cd only transport. Files recorded to CDR are data disks. Redbook is the CD audio standard. The CDT-8 should play CDR data disks. It will not play DVD’s though.

I own the DMP and DAC and pre-amp so obviously I am a fan of and good customer of PS Audio…I have had good service when i encountered a problem with my DMP and had it replaced…that said this whole situation is extremely troubling to me. This is an expensive piece of equipment at 6000 dollars and as such should not provide this much trouble to owners. Imagine if you bought a TV or Ipad etc and had to deal with this kind of malfunction?..you wouldn’t tolerate it,nobody would…at some point this has to be fixed to the point where you can simply place a disc in the DMP and push play with the confidence that it will work without hassle and you can simply listen to music…anything less is unacceptable

5 Likes

I just downloaded and updates my DMP to v3.07 and found it would not do so using an SDHC or SDXC type of card, but when I copied the files to an “old fashion” SD card, the install worked without issues.

I did find that Amazon offers these “old fashion” cards, bought a new supply for future updates.

Loaded 3.07 with no problems. I’ve only had two listening sessions since updating but I played discs I know fairly well. I had no issues with CD’s or SACD’s. I must admit the improvement in sound quality was a nice surprise. Almost like a firmware upgrade for the DS. I also noticed I’m turning my pre up a little louder than before the update. I know that I used to listen to a certain CD at around 37 on the BHK and now I take it up to 41.

Not the greatest analogy in my opinion. Apple, and assumingly LG/Sony/Samsung is what comes to mind with modern TV manufacturers, are in an entirely different league and tenure. Hardly fair or relevant to impose similar expectations on a family-owned business such as PS Audio with their understandably limited (not necessarily a negative) resources. If you want to compare PS Audio’s products with a similarly resourced/sized company, then that is reasonable. And no, I am not criticizing your discontent with your PS Audio experience. As a small- medium business owner, I understand constraints and doing things differently may make all the sense in the world, but human resources are expensive and in limited supply. What seems obvious may be, but that alone does not make it possible or feasible when dealing with non-global brands.

quite silly,i own numerous products from smaller brands that work with 100% efficiency…the excuse that ps audio is somehow not a large enough company that I should expect it to function properly is ridiculous…if i buy a samsung tv or a smaller name brand i expect them both to work without issue…i do not believe even ps audio themselves would offer the size of their company up as an excuse or they wouldnt be in business very long…let me once again state that i won the dac,the DMP,the pre amp and other ps audio products so i speak as a fan…i am doing ps audio a favor by expecting their products to work flawlessly just as i am doing a restaurant owner a favor if i have a bad meal and i tell him…get it right!

2 Likes

Not silly at all. You mentioned Apple specifically. You made no comment about smaller companies in your last post, so thank you for bringing that into the conversation. That is all I am speaking to.

Being upset is your right. I still believe your analogy was unfair to PS Audio. You did not compare them to one of these other small companies you later mentioned. You compared them to Apple and that is not fair.

I have had both positive and negative experiences along the way of high end audio equipment ownership. I would love to know a company that produces a DAC or transport with the sound quality of a DirectStream DAC and Memory Player at the same price level. I know we are talking about functionality here but sound quality has value and cannot be ignored. Would you prefer a better sounding DAC and transport or ones that are not quirky? I personally would choose sound quality every time. So, my gripe with other DACs/Transports that I have had prior to my PS Audio gear is, “Damnit , why in the hell can’t you make a DAC/Transport that sounds better than everything else?” And if there are similarly priced equipment that functions flawless, but doesnt sound as good, why not criticize those companies in a similar way?

I have read a lot of negative comments about functionality but I have to believe the only reason we deal with it is because they are the best sounding for the price. Otherwise, you can simply go spend two to three times more and get the best of both worlds. But the vast majority won’t.

1 Like

i own tons of audio equipment from small and large companies…i expect the equipment to work in either case and will not accept less due to company size…truth is I wont bother naming other mid sized products i own but suffice to say i expect them all to work flawlessly…i do not even think ps audio themselves would offer up such a lame excuse…ps audio is not a fly by night company and most of their products work just fine…the DMP does not,fix it…that is the bottom line,…it is a 6000 dollar item

4 Likes

$6000 is a value, relatively speaking. Have you shopped around for other respected DACs lately?

Apple is a Trillion dollar company that is software-centric. PS Audio is not even a radar blip compared to Apple’s NET worth and PS Audio is not a software-first company at all. Yet you feel they should have the same level of success with reliability when comparing the functionality of the DMP to the iPad. Really?

Make no mistake. I am not insinuating that company size is an excuse. You made that proclamation. But your comparison was unreasonable and PS Audio should be evaluated individually with an understanding that they may have limitations beyond a customer’s understanding.

1 Like

You are bang-on with what you say.

It’s irrelevant to go with the size of the company ! If you building a 6K product and you are up to the task of building said product - then selling it worldwide - it should work perfectly as described - it’s sold/bought as such - if it doesn’t work worldwide as described then you’ve failed. Simple as that. What else are we to believe it is ?

Financial constraints should have nothing to do with the failure of your product, ‘but if that is the case’, then the product should never have been conceived…

My mate has a DMP and his transport has issues and quirks that differ from my DMP - which has other quirks. We are really disappointed and concerned with the inconsistences between the same product.

mattc: was advising someone about 3.07 so I put my concern to him about this length of time it takes to power up the DMP from the rear power switch – “but I’ve had no reply”…?

When the DMP is switched on at the rear ‘nothing happens’ for a few seconds: - it’s as if the fuse has blown and/or the main cable is disconnected with everything dead, but eventually, it kicks in - whereas powering up my DS, at the same time as the DMP, both the blue light and screen fire up instantly on the DS but the DMP has flatlined waiting on defibrillators .?

… I would like to know from someone at PSA what the cause of this problem could be, which never happened before I installed 3.07… ??

3 Likes

Dirk, I also noticed the long power up cycle with this iteration. After I saw that’s how this one works, I go get a cup of coffee and don’t watch it - or simply leave it on. It may “look like” its doing (or not doing) something, but that seems to be how this version works. It’s clear with programming these things that there are a lot of variables. Whether it is inevitable that certain fixes have to result in other things changing, I can’t say.

As for the overall gripe-fest that this thread has evolved into lately, what would you all suggest? PS has created a comparatively inexpensive bleeding-edge product with incredible sound quality. Like Jeff, that’s Job 1 for me. I’ve been a harsh critic of the functionality in the past as well, but at some point, it seems like you are winding yourself up. They are doing all within their power to get this fixed. They had the misfortune of employing an engineer that was able to convince them he knew what he was doing. I don’t know about you, but I have been in work situations where that has happened before. They’ve replaced him, rewritten the code, and are regularly releasing updates, making strides toward fixing the functionality issues. By many reports, the sound quality is also improving. Try getting that with a fixed-architecture transport. You would have to be buying the new model if you wanted that improvement in a traditional transport.

Speaking of which - Paul mentioned somewhere above (I think) that there is a new model coming, and that we will be treated right if we should decide to trade up.

I guess one of the drawbacks (if you could call it that) of the degree of openness Paul and PS bring to their customers, is that we are party to stuff most companies would keep under wraps. We’ve seen the process in real time, warts and all. The other side of that coin is we get to be involved in the process. Intimately. Sometimes intimacy is tough ; )

It’s clear they test stuff to the degree that their staff and resources allow. I still sorta consider this “the new beta phase”, as this is totally rewritten code. Meanwhile - the entire time - it’s been one of the best sounding things I’ve ever owned, and it’s getting better.

5 Likes

You’re right and we’re nearly there. The next update will solve the inconsistency that some have experienced.

1 Like