Hope your friend didn’t come back home too much sad, then! Enjoy your modded unit, you saved your money.
It seems you are new on the forum, lots of veterans here are liking the MK II more than the MK I and these guys have spent last years modding it, take a look at the dedicated thread! Ted himself, the designer, stated that it is superior. This is the reason why your comments are appearing different from the general consensus from other members out there.
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I am guessing that there’s something wrong with the MKII. I suggest your friend call PSA on Tuesday and get some advice.
Well speaker toe in certainly changes treble tonality and various DAC‘s can sound different there, but alone for the reason that a setup must be able to cover different sources and because toe in is usually set once for imaging reasons and rather in connection with amps than sources, would let me solve source tonality differently.
But concerning the problems you heard with the Mk II, they are of a kind (hole in the middle) which imo must be connected to some other quirks than normal SQ differences.
Fair enough.
Cheers.
I am testing a dCS Bartók and have found I need to toe my speakers a bit more inwards to optimize what I want to hear. Going back and forth between our MKII and the Bartók takes a few minutes. I put painters tape on the floor for quick alignment.
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You may just have to unplug the Pink Faun, give it minute or so for the caps to discharge, and plug it back in again. That is a much deeper reset than just using the front panel sleep switch. Once in a while things go wonky here and Roon stops working until I deep reset the PF.
Hope this helps
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@APS Do you know which firmware version / FPGA version are on your friend’s Mk II?
That could affect playback quality, though this is the first I’ve read of someone describing the Mk II soundstage negatively as you have.
Thank you, I’ll give it a try tomorrow for sure. Tonight I’m happy enough via USB, being the first day with the MK II couldn’t expect more…
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Agreed. My new Mk2 is pretty special too. Enjoy your staycayion listening to your new gear!
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Ehm I’m in the basement cavern, while you have wonderful windows… psycho consequences of this tour de force might be different!
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It’s back to work in the morning for me and some other things to take care of this week so most likely no more listening until next weekend or later.
I do have it running a playlist continuously until I get back to that house. The unit should be well broken in after a week of continuous playing.
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mkii is outstanding. More of all the things we love in this hobby….and it will get better as time goes on. A masterpiece!
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The MK2 in my system is fully broken in, and it is superior to DS in every way. The sound is fuller with no hole anywhere. I got a fuller image and sound stage between the speakers than from DS. I adjusted my speakers, so they toe in less. It is not because I have experienced any problem, but because I did not lose any fullness and gained a wider soundstage.
Both of my BHK pre and M1200 have tube inputs, so I have not heard any brightness in my system either. I went away for a two-day trip during the New Year celebration, and I just turned on my system for a couple of hours. I love the system even more!
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Person 1: “Are you looking forward to going home?”
Person 2: “Yes.”
Person 1: “Nothing like sleeping in your own bed.”
Person 2: “Actually, I miss my stereo.”
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I thought it was just me.
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AND??? 
About the Bartok I mean
YES 100% LOL 
Bartok? Ops, bye bye, I go away… see you later!
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I will have to collect my thoughts into something coherent. I have it for a little while longer before it goes home.
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It’s well known that if a component sounds bright, that toeing the speakers out a bit (if they’d previously been directed directly at the listening position) will have the effect of reducing the brightness. So that can happen.
But obviously this is an experienced user who’s tested better dacs and found them all to work well with his optimized arrangement, not to mention all of his current sources including DS1, so suggesting he upset that apple cart doesn’t make sense.
The source is only one part of the system, obviously. Not everyone here but several have all PSA gear, including amps and preamps. The BHK are reported to be warmer sounding, so perhaps a more neutral DS2 is a better match for the all-PSA setup, and is one of the reasons why so many on the forums prefer it to DS1. Just a guess. But several others have different amps as well and most or nearly all also seem to prefer DS2 to DS1 (which isn’t surprising – the new and more expensive dac damn well better trounce the 8 year old dac).
At the end of the day it’s all personal preference. If you think the DS1 sounds better, keep it.
Still waiting for more comparisons to other companies’ current dacs. When someone can compare DS2 to Aqua La Scala Mk2 or Weiss 501 or Chord Dave or MSB Premier or dCS Lina or Auralic Vega G2.1 or …, that’s when we’ll really have some useful information for those of us open to non-PSA dacs (and willing it pit DS2 head-to-head versus serious non-PSA dacs). Maybe it’ll happen when the non-US dealers get the DS2 in stock and can set it up in an A/B against others. If you’re only interested in PSA dacs, well, then the choice is pretty easy