I lost track. Did you finish your audiophile man cave yet?
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He’s still trying to determine where to park his Ferrari (BMW).
Between the speakers or along a wall… decisions decisions.
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Ah ah ah! My friends, I’m enjoying so much both working hard on my room (I’m at the last mile) and reading your posts!
Hope one day to invite you here for a drink and good music.
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Or at least the zoom tour package with curated wine selection listing.
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Now that my Mk2 and its M-1 fuse have broken in and seasoned I have played around with ground lifting and seem to have the very best sound with either of the two I2S I am using lifted, the other grounded, all other inputs grounded, and the output (XLR) and its shell both lifted.
Great sound with just a tiny bit of bass heft missing. . . I’m a drummer and a bassist (and to a lesser extent a pianist and guitarist) and I love a bit more bass heft than the system now has. That said it is more naturally balanced. This is such a great DAC!
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I ended up with the same grounding arrangement that you have. (The fuse is an SR Purple.) I will say, though, that the difference among the various grounding/lifting setups was subtle.
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I agree it was subtle. But at this point in our audio journeys I think for most of us the changes lie in the realm of subtleties.
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Hi, I have been trying to follow all the grounding or not grounding. I have a Direct Stream MK ll and wonder if anyone finds that too bright may only be with DSD 256 where Qobuz High Def may not be.
I did recently go back to grounding my USB for now because I have found for some 256 it’s too bright for my ears if I turn it up. And I’m waiting a while to see how this effects.
Using the FR30’s.
I do like my new DAC.
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I’ve a new amp and have done some experimenting again with ground and lifting and like both grounded and lifted with my PST via I2S, and grounded for my NPC via I2S, and all other inputs and outputs grounded.
So basically I have come to the conclusion that if the source is galvanically isolated then lifting the ground on the DSD Mk2 is best, if the source is not, grounded is best.
With the PST I still miss just a bit of bass “heft” with lifted, but it’s less so with this amp than its predecessor(s). That’s good news as there is a wonderful ease to the playback sound. It will be interesting to see how this pans out when the Massive firmware is installed.
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I’m finding that the two transports I have used with the MKII that are not gal isolated, my main PWT with an i2s and an Oppo with coax, both sound hideous with grounds lifted. Bright and fatiguing. No thanks. I think it was very wise for Ted not to have these shipped with default grounds lifted.
Received new mk2 and paired with DMP, single ended output to pre-amp. For my system if output ground is lifted it will create small but noticeable hissing noise and the sound is being too bright, thus I keep the output grounded. However, when shell is lifted the sound is more lively without that hissing noise / overly brightness. For input I tested I2S grounded vs lifted, keep all other inputs grounded. I2S lifted gives more details. For now I am staying with I2S lifted, output grounded, shell lifted. My mk2 is very new and It will gradually open up. I may change the input and potentially shell back to grounded when mk2 is fully broken in for the sake of balanced sound.
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There is a great live recording with Dr. Art Davis and Hilton Ruiz called "Live at the Jazz Unite’ " with the Hilton Ruiz Trio, Vol. 1 and 2! The label is called Jazz Unite’. It was issued in 1981.
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Thanks for the rec.
Hello everyone,
I’m a new owner of anything PS Audio and of the Directstream DAC MKII.
I’ve been playing around with the Lifts and I’m trying to train my ears to hear this sort of thing. There are clearly affects, I just can’t always clearly understand all of what is happening.
How have people landed? I’m wondering how things have shaken out as time as gone on.
Also, any other tips for this DAC they’ve found? Thanks everyone, appreciated reading through this discussion.
McCoy
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Welcome to the forum. I got my MKll this past January and when I tried lifting grounds I couldn’t hear any differences. Just recently I decided to try again by lifting the shell of my XLR outputs. I definitely heard a difference this time. More details and enhanced soundstage. Later I tried lifting the ground of my coaxial input. I think I heard further enhancements but I’m not positive. Anyway, it certainly didn’t harm anything so I left it. But remember, these matters are system dependent and might be different in yours.
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Welcome! Over time I have tried all the different combinations of grounding and lifting. I only use the two HDMI inputs, one for my PerfectWave SACD transport, the other for my NuWave Phono Converter.
To be short and sweet: all the lifting seemed to make my system sound brighter and be a bit more fatiguing. Lifting the XLR shell may be the least so and sounds pretty good, but my ears in my room prefer all input and outputs grounded. Experimentation for each of us I think is key to understanding the effect and discovering the different presentations of each configuration.
I tend to prefer “shutting off” the USB input as I’m not using that and think there is a shade of richness that provides. I also tend to prefer the wifi being off as I don’t use that and there’s a subtle shift towards warmth perhaps with it disabled.
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My observations, too. I tried a spell with ground lifted and got irritated. I felt I could breathe again when I grounded them again.
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I found some interesting discussions on this forum:
My left monoblock is about 6 metres from the BHK Pre, and currently running off a completely different power circuit, not the P20. (I have to run cables through a limestone wall which is a pain). When I had ground lifted, I suspect the 6m XLR created an issue. Maybe I’ll get a 6m power cable so that the left BHK300 runs off the P20 (it used to when I had short XLRs and long speaker cables).
Everyone’s set up is different!!
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In the GROUNDING discussion, most (all?) said these expensive grounding boxes do nothing, but of course few have tried them in their systems just like many other discussions. I could only read three pages before it bored me too much. There was only one guy who had tried three boxes in his system and heard nothing different (except on one component with minor improvement). I suspected people who heard the difference did not want to post there.
I bought a $200 grounding box from AliExpress, and it should get here before Thanksgiving. I hope I will hear no difference, so I do not need to upgrade to a $2000+ unit, and to get more in future. 
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I was lifting the ground of the I2S input from the PST. After switching from Gold Lions to Apos Ray tubes in my BHK Pre, I switched it back to grounded because it was a tad too bright for my tastes. It took me a few days to realize. The only other input I use is the USB from an Aurender N200, and that has remained grounded.
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