Most of the discussion here is about using PS Audio Direcstream Sr. or Jr. DACs thus my statement.
The CDM4 module arrived last Thursday; I installed it later that evening and the CDT seems to be working perfectly. All in, it took two weeks to get the replacement part. Installation is breeze. Remove the top case screws, unplug two cables and then you can remove the CDM4. It took less than 10 minutes to reinstall it.
Not at all unhappy with the product support.
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great news! hope it is straight sailing from here.
BTW, what streamer/server are you using that was bested by the CDT? I have sonictransporter i5 and mRendu.
M
I have several systems. In room I use for late night listening, I preferred the sound of a CD played through the CDT MK2 through the DirectStream via a Shunyata AES/EBU when compared to the ripped version of the same CD. The balance of this system (this is my late night listening room) is a PS BHK Signature amp, Spendor SA1s. The NAS is a Synology 213+. For higher res via QBOZ, the DirectStream/Bridge II combo is superior.
Overall, however, I prefer the sound of the DirectStream DAC/DirectStream Memory Player combo via IS2 in my primary listening room (LS27, ML336, Maggie 3.7s).
Hello. New DS Sr owner here. Just moved up from a PWD MKII, which was a move up from a PWD MKI. The DS is presenting something that I haven’t experienced with the first two dacs. (BTW the DS is sounding amazing).
I also am enjoying a Jays CDT2-MK2 which has worked extremely well with both of my PWD units.
My question involves the display when I turn the unit off using the switch on the back of the unit. If I just touch the logo on front everything looks to be fine. But then, if I reach around and shut the unit completely off with back switch, the unit powers down but the display starts to flash. The entire display flashes white - no blue background or any words or pictures - just white. It flashes once every two seconds and just keeps flashing.
After watching it flash for about five minutes I decided it wasn’t going to stop and I’d had enough, so I reached around the back and disconnected the A/C power cord. It kept on flashing. Not even totally removing it from an electrical source would stop it from flashing.
Playing around with it I discovered that disconnecting the I2S cord from the back of the unit stopped the flashing. Conversely, without being hooked up to electricity, if I re-insert the I2S cord the display will start to flash. If I unplug the I2S cord from the Jays but leave it inserted in the DS the problem stops, so it would appear this is caused by the Jays to DS connection. Same problem with both I2S sockets.
My I2S cord is from Morrow Audio although I substituted a generic cord and the problem continued. That little icon is showing.
Can any of you other Jays owners duplicate this? If you can duplicate this does the new Jays connection part fix this?
Do I have a problem, or an inconvenience? If the only problem with this situation is that whenever I turn off the unit I have to unplug the I2s cord, I can live with that. On the other hand, even though the unit looks perfectly normal if I push the front logo button and the unit goes quiet, could something nasty be happening to the DS that I don’t see?
If so, maybe I’ll have Morrow build me some balanced cables.
Thanks,
Toolbox
As you found the I2S input is the culprit. Your I2S source is providing 5V over the HDMI cable, as is the DS. When you power the DS off your source is providing 5V to the DS which generates the symptoms you see. The best thing is to see if you can get your source to stop providing 5V. Some have modified thier HDMI cables, others have carefully taped up the 5V pin on one end of the HDMI cable.
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Thanks Ted!
Just one quick queston. If I continue to use the I2S connection while I wait for the adaptor to arrive, am I running a risk of damaging the DS unit?
Thanks again.
I’d unplug the I2S before you turn off the power with the back switch on the DS. Otherwise if the I2S is providing 5V, as opposed to, say 3.3V there little chance of a problem.
Thanks Ted. I appreciate the help.
Hey this is a message to the Jay’s Audio CDT2 MkII owners that were participating in this thread. I’d gather you all acquired those little custom HDMI->HDMI adapters from Jay’s to solve the pin 15 pre-emphasis issue? Did this adapter defeat pin 18 the +5v supply as well? Was there going to be a better solution forthcoming so we don’t have to put that cheezy adapter in-line with our premium HDMI cables?
Hi Vince,
I am using AES/EBU out of my Jay’s Audio and it works great. I heard no difference with the HDMI+adapter out and forgot about it.
Not sure how exactly the adapter works. You can contact Jay’s Audio, they are very responsive.
Never heard of a better solution other than tweaking the HDMI cable itself.
Maxim
Thanks Maxim. I reached out to Alvin at Jay’s Audio last night and they now have a better remedy than that cheezy in-line HDMI adapter for the pin 15 and 18 compatibility problem. I guess they did a board update to incorporate a larger DIP switch on the HDMI output. The new DIP switch allows the pin 15 and pin 18 outputs to be defeated.
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I can’t see the entire dip switch, but according to the manual on the Jay’s web site, there is no switch for pin 18 AND it has 5v applied. This is significant because, in my experience (oppomod I2S card), 5v on pin 18 definitely interferes with DS Dac sound quality -it sounds very unusual spatially.