My biggest worry is Darren will no longer be picking firmware compiles for the best sound. He seemed to be fairly efficient and capable of selecting what was best. Though the last Mk2 firmware had me tweaking everything and the unit with absorber to address highs. The shorting plugs were a godsend. The ability to engage galvanic isolation earlier would have helped but even PSA took two months to communicate how to do that whereas we all assumed it came engaged. Wrong assumption.
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I believe Ted does all the sound magic in the MK2. Picking the build should be the easy part for a good mastering engineer.
Did Darren do this for all the MK1 firmware builds?
Yes and the MK2 and voiced all latest PSA amps and speakers.
All I can say is with the changes we made with our MK2, I could live with it the way it is for a long time. Ted stated no sound changes for at least 6 months to a year. Hopefully UI updates wonāt change the sound.
Updates I feel are the most important.
#1 Roon integration seems to be on Roonās side.
#4 better menu navigation (back to previous level especially)
#9 enable triggers. Having hardware that does not function bothers me.
#10 enable balance from remote.
#11 enable the power on/off for each input circuit. Get rid of shorting plugs.
#14 configurable i2s / AES.
#15 bit perfect test.
from the list above.
Hereās my 2p worth on a couple of things:
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as jkrichards says, his list will be personal to him - my current main priority is on Tedās list but not the jkrichards list so I hope PSA arenāt swayed by who shouts loudest
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we donāt know whether Darren picked the best compile in the past - as was said it may have suited the PS Audio system well but that might not be compatible with other systems. We also donāt know whether the very best may have been left for a future release (so that thereās always something better in the tank)
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PSAās system and room will be nothing like other peoplesā systems and rooms. We also know that everything gets better and better, e.g. Octave releases get better and better, the first ones must have been really awful (if we are to believe that they just get better and better)
Itād be great if PSA could publish their own list and indicate their priority, or rather, what will likely be in each of the next two or three releases (Ted will continue to do what he thinks best, Iām talking about the PSA software which was released with lots of functionality unimplemented).
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That has not been my experience. Rather, the mastering and/or recording have been a bit of a mixed bag; ranging from O.K./good to wonderful/fantastic. (None were āawfulā to my ears.)
I have purchased every release (as in, I have the entire catalogue) in SACD (with the corresponding data disc of various resolutions when available).
For what itās worth.
Regards
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This thread is a bit distressing.
I remember when the rule was to never buy the first year of a new model of car coming out of Detroit; too many 'bugs".
I also remember when the standard process was to drive your new car for 1,000 miles and return to the dealer with a list of issues for Service to fix.
Foreign competition fixed all that.
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Along the same lines we NEVER use the current version of our CAD or CAM software as it takes at least a year for enough of the new release bugs to be fixed. (although we pay roughly $12k / year for āmaintenanceā on both packages)
Then they are on to the next buggy general release to customers.
It is aggravating but also seems to be part of the digital life.
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I think you are right. I swapped from the Sonore to the Stack Link II. They are gone. I do get a small little pop, hardly worth mentioning when I start a DSD from PCM. But other than that they are completely gone. I will try the red when it comes. 6 weeks is Wed. this week. It should ship soon. I asked for more info last week but their site specially says expect to wait a few weeks for reply. Botth the Stack and Red are designed very similar. But Red is a DDC and uses I2S so going to see what that diff. makes.
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Same here.
Although my system is completely disassembled my MK2 was dead silent ho matter what stream / source / file type being played.
The source was my Pink Faun 2.16x Ultra > English 8 switch > A Capella III streamer (USB or i2s) > MK2 (is2s or USB input)
FWIW
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I have not had these issues with my setup [ Auralic G1.1>USB or PST>I2S to MKII] but I expected issues. But I expect that the DSD MK II architecture should allow the team to get it stable. Face it, we are early in its software lifecycle.
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I believe Ted himself stated he is not planning to do any updates to the sound for at least 6 months to a year. I don think many members want to wait a year to have the UI issues mentioned above fixed.
Chime in if you have something specific you feel needs attention thatās on Tedās list.
Would it be an idea to distinguish between (seeming) UI and FPGA issues? Thus resulting in two lists. Each has its own SW/build number and are worked on by PSA and Ted respectively.
If we also want a third one (no!), its category would be Hardware, I suppose.
I think Ted and PS Audio will know where the updates are needed. Trying to keep this topic as clean and neat as possible.
The track record for updates of the DS were very good. Besides one can always go back to the previous version.
Regarding Tedās list, not long ago he did a list that encompassed issues that he can resolve and issues that PSA can resolve. Ted will do what he can Iām sure and will be working with people to help debug his fixes, letās hope he is allowed to do an FPGA release soon. I am disappointed at the progress on the PSA written software. My comments regarding Octave were meant, do a degree, to be lighthearted.
No need to speculate so much everyone. The Mk II is much less sensitive to specific FPGA compiles than the Mk I was. With the Mk I I commonly sent PS Audio 20 compiles of a potential release and they (early on, Arnie, later Darren) would pick the one that seemed the most faithful to the original signal with a big emphasis on tone of the instruments, etc. With the Mk II I initially sent 50 compiles and when Darren was done he had picked the version I normally compile in development work.
What system we use to pick the best compile isnāt typically all PS Audio, itās the systems we have in our homes and know. My system has been posted a lot, hereās a slightly out of date version:
Inmate Systems - Audio Asylum
I donāt āvoiceā the sound of the system. I strive to do the least possible damage to the incoming signal. Indeed for various reasons Iāve had to do a couple of releases without really listening to them much at all. (One time I had blown both of my tweeters with a testing mistake (full level 80kHz.)) With each release I pick the weakest part of the system and see what I can do to implement that better. At times it might be something that Iāve been thinking about for a while and at other times itās something that customers have noticed.
Thereās no particular correlation necessarily between FPGA releases and UI releases. We much prefer to release them together and certainly will for major updates. It seemed like the FPGA was ready a while ago, but various supply chain interruptions, etc. delayed full testing and some non-sound related things were found which delayed the FPGA release a little more.
The UI doesnāt affect the sound quality nearly as much as it did in the Mk I. The display isnāt as noisy and therefor what the UI does with the display doesnāt matter as much, etc. The analog board is shielded from the control processor by multiple layers of ground in the Mk II, whereas the in the Mk I it was on the display board and āwas aimed right at the analog board.ā
Saying that Iām not going to explicitly focus on sound quality in near term releases only means that sound quality will be the major focus when the time comes. Each release typically gets better sound quality as a matter of course, but isnāt the driving force for maintenance releases.
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Thank you, Ted!
What would we do without you, Ted?! 