New DS owner, share your experience of the DAC running in from new?

Again with the noise!?! I’m so lucky!.
I wouldn’t change the cables. Why should there be such a difference between two PSA dacs that suddenly the cables are the problem?

With a long run any cable effects are magnified. The worst case is high capacitance interconnects, a long enough run can roll the top off of anything.

So, since I need the attenuator engaged to get the underlying noise level to an unnoticeable level and, since the attenuator “robs a bit of life out of the music” according to Paul and “flattens the soundstage” according to Dirk (both observations corresponding to my own listening tests), what I’m left with is the real possibility that no amount of further burn in of my DS will result in it sounding as good as it’s capable of sounding.

I’m therefore left with the prospect of having to purchase a preamp to insert into the signal path to correct the degradation caused by the attenuator and allow the DS to sound the way it’s supposed to, right?

Question: What’s the best (preferably balanced) preamp at the most reasonable cost that will do this?

Isn’t your SIM an integrated amp?

It is, but since my whole reason for going with PSA for source gear was the superior, precise and lossless volume control to get around the inferior potentiometer based volume control of the Simaudio integrated amp, I now use the Simaudio purely as a power amp.

Eventually I’d like to replace this amp with a simple power amp but first I have to find a way to get my new PSA source gear to sound right.

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I would send it back under warranty.

If the photo on the SimAudio website of the rear of the 340 is the same as yours then it appears that the “pass-through” input is A2. If you are using the one pair of Balanced inputs then you are using the gain stage of the 340 unless the “pass-through” input is assignable. I see no direct input to use it as a straight power amp.

You’re absolutely right. I’ll have to get out my RCA interconnects out and try the “pass through” feature available on this amp.

That could easily solve the whole problem I’ve been having!

Hope it works!

Thanks so much @dawkinsj. You suggestion worked beautifully. I’m so embarrassed. Once again I’m exposed as the total tech dummy that I am.

The 340i has an input that can be set as a “pass-through” to bypass the gain stage of the amp. Once I switched to that I was able to disengage the attenuator and then my sound stage and imaging were back in spades and completely noise free.

The only downside then becomes having to go single ended instead of balanced and there does seem to a bit of a loss of detail to the sound when I do that with this amp.

correction: the 340i’s “pass-through” bypasses the gain controller section of the amp not the gain stage.

Aloha Paul,

By the DSJ being more hot on the upper ranges than the DS, are you referring to above 6300?

Mahalo Nui from Maui

My DSJ landed three days ago and it’s been on playing music straight for the last two days. I won’t make any pronouncements on sound quality yet, but I am noticing a bit more clarity in overall sound than the Hegel HD20 I was using. The soundstage doesn’t seem to have opened up yet. I am mostly using the Bridge playing tidal through Roon and my music on the NAS. Weirdly, it’s Sonos on an optical connection that seems to have the biggest improvement. It’s almost night and day right off the bat. If I have the Attenuator setting on In I get a completely collapsed and faint barely audible sound. I have it on Out and it seems to be fine though the volume I find I have to turn it up much higher than I had to with the Hegel. I am using the same cables as before.

Quick question on the display and settings, the display only shows the sample rate. I can’t get it to show the music tracks. I’ve changed the setting to volume and bridge but it only shows the music track for a split second and then switch permanently to the sample rate. I’ve tried powering off and back on, but the display won’t change. What am I doing wrong? It feels like there’s a simple solution and I am too dense to figure it out. Appreciate any help I can get. Cheers!

There’s an option to select which screen is the “default”. Press and hold the button on the opposite end of the display from the knob. Then repeatedly press the button till you get to the right screen (sorry I don’t have my DSJ nearby so I can’t give you the exact text.)

Thanks Ted! If it’s the Menu View you are referring to then I’ve tried setting that to Bridge but to no avail. It shows the track and goes back to sample track.

Sorry, I’m not a bridge user so I can’t help further, PS Audio support should be able to answer definitively and perhaps someone will chime in.

I don’t know quite how to relate it to a frequency. Let’s just call it upper midrange. It’s very slight but in direct comparison between the senior and junior, I think the senior is smoother, more open, and without any hint of change between frequencies. The junior on its own is just a stunning DAC. Period, end of story. Only when directly compared to the senior do you become aware of a slight exaggeration in the upper frequencies. I could—do—happily live with either of them because they are great DACs by anyone’s standards.

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That has been my experience as well. I’ve been rather surprised by how few people seem to have noticed how the attenuator sucks the life and the ambience out of the music.

And yet the manuals for both DS DACS states that there should be no loss of sound quality with the attenuator engaged.

But I agree. With the attenuator engaged, the DS is a pretty so-so sounding DAC.

Have you tried level setting with an SPL meter before and after?

I am not challenging you per se, but small differences in volume can really change the perceived characteristics of settings or equipment in general. I have a … I dunno, 30 year old Realistic SPL meter that is just invaluable for this kind of comparison.

Here is the way I do it whenver I compare stuff: Set the meter up in the middle of the room on a camera tripod, or near your listening position (this is not that critical). Play a 1Khz test tone to where the volume is “suitable”, adjust the meter settings so the pin is somewhere in the middle. Don’t touch the meter, leave it be… don;t move it. Play music. Change your settings and repeat 1Khz tone. You may want to note the positions of your volume controls to make it easier to jump back and forth.

This really helps you understand what is going on. Relative volume changes our perceptions. (Specifically, this is the only way to quickly assess a piece of equipment’s dynamics compared to another since dynamics confuse our perceptions of loudness and therefore how we set volume.)

PS: remember in the '80s where speaker makers had to make their speakers jump off the showroom shelves? They would “up” the treble so when A/B’ing, their speakers sounded “better”.

Peace
Bruce in Philly
s-l640