I just got the same response.
I got no response to my email, but itās good to know itās still happening. I hope they havenāt lost track of my order.
Thanks to Jord from Pink Faun I just received a new USB cable to replace the previous one that didnāt work anymore with the Matrix. This one is working! So Iām back on I2S after a week on USB to MK II.
Even if right out of the box it sounds glorious, It makes me think that Matrix/I2S brings something more than USB directly.
Lots of details, punchy bass, maybe a louder volume. Revealing, clean and pleasant. More texture and fullness. Not a night and day difference but still something clearly evident.
The only thing I dislike: I was loving the warm feeling of USB and now it seems like I2S sounds less silky and smooth but the cause might be the Pink Faun burning in time I need to wait.
Iāll keep you informed.
I got my order confirmation on December 29 (order 254433) - still waiting on a ship date.
Assuming PSAudio is numbering orders sequentially, they saw 303 orders in the six says between @dlee 's on December 23 (order 254130) and mine. I donāt imagine they were all MK2 orders, but given the holidays, and the word that this super trade-in ends this month, I suspect the assembly folks are going to be busy.
Order conf on Dec 28, order #: 254286.
Agreeā¦more builderbots please!
FWIW, my P20 order (#255456) was less than 72 hrs to my doorstep. So hopefully those MK2s will fly out the door next weekish.
We posted transformer sweeps of all transformers used in both the DS and the MKII in the Modding the DS topic.
Watched this last night:
Very good info.
I guess itās time for us to get the MKII.
I canāt afford a Mk2. Maybe one day when the price goes down. I must say however that my fully modded Mk1 with the Edcor XS4400 transformers is sounding very nice. It is less than half the price of the Mk2 but it is a good sounding dac. The Mk2 must be amazing but I am not suffering with my modded Mk1. The VOCM mod is definitely worth the exercise.
Agree. The MKI is and will always be a great sounding DAC especially with all the mods.
The MKII is impressive. I just returned a dCS Bartok that I was able to borrow for a month. While they are both different, the MKII and the Bartok are peers. With the Bartok at twice the price of the MKII, I canāt see any reason to spend the extra money. Having heard the Bartok in itās home system before I brought it to our house, I was convinced it would win out over the MKII. Itās not that simple at all. For me it came down to the Bartok having an edge with bass and the MKII have a silky midrange and better range in vocals. Somewhere between Joni Mitchell and Gregory Porter I decided the MKII is staying in my systemā¦until the TSSā¦
Nice writeup Vince. I am really looking forward for mine and some other 3rd party reviews of the DAC around the web by the usual suspects.
Canāt imagine how scared I was reading this last post from you, phewwww! I can breath again, now!
did you use Bartokās built-in streamer option? what was the source for MK2 then?
Same-o on the Tambaqui. Itās going to be really hard to match the MK2 SQ for less than twice the money.
On the Bartok, I used USB, AES, SPDIF (Optical) via a DDC, I also used the built-in streamer. On the MKII I used both I2S (via a DDC) and USB. The streamers I used were a Sonore Signature Rendu SE and a Sonore Optical Rendu with a Farad LPS.
I think I tested every permutation. In the end, I thought the built-in streamer and USB were tied for the inputs on the Bartok. I personally prefer the USB on the MKII. Maybe the AirLens will change my mind.
In the last few days I also played with sending L&R via SPDIF from our Anthem 1120 to both the Bartok and the MKII to listen to a phantom center channel. While neither as good as real center, in our case a Focal Sopra Center, I was very surprised at how good both the Bartok and the MKII produced a phantom center. Iād call it a tie.
thank you
I had a chance to test Bartok with fully modded MK1 (Lundahl and many more). we used DCS network bridge and AES in both cases. modded MK1 was so close to Bartok!
Max, I had a modded MKI that I compared briefly to the MKII. I cannot do justice in words how much better the MKII sounds. It really is remarkable. If I hadnāt heard it for myself, I would be skeptical. The change in soundstage width and depth alone should be enough to convince anyone. Once you get past the soundstage you start hearing microdetails that werenāt there with the modded MKI. Especially instrument related sounds like small bells, clicks from the keys on a bandoneon, and in some cases very low, almost inaudible vocal harmonizing from musicians.