No pitch forks here!! I understand this is all about reducing noise in the MkII DAC, by going external. Fair call. But with it being intended to be a partner for the MkII DAC, could you please arrange the outputs so they line up with the inputs for the MkII DAC to avoid cable spaghetti?
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Great point, I hate when the cabling is a mess because the hardware wasnât thought out well!
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Roon Core â RAAT â Streamer â Digital (USB / SPDIF / etc.) or Analog out (XLR / RCA)
Doesnât matter what âlosslessâ format is on the Core, what arrives at the Streamer will be the exact same as RAAT becomes the common between all formats. This is one of the main reasons why Roon recommends separating the Core and the Streamer across the network. Still, people say they can hear a difference. HQP has similar requirement but uses their own protocol called NAA (which PS Audio may want to implement as well).
I know it is early but I assume Octave Server â Octave Streamer will provide a âcommonâ transport regardless of source file / stream format and for the same reason as Roon. Another reason to keep the two separate so you donât have to worry about / hunt between different lossless file containers.
Separates forever!
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I have my Roon Core on both a QNAP TS-473 (4 x 2tb SSD) and an Innuos Zen Mk3. Either way, the data goes from the Innuos to the DAC via an CAT 6a ethernet cable. Either way, Iâve not noticed any difference.
Roonâs advice is here.
None of the reasons for having the server and core on separate devices affect me, and my set-up is fairly typical. For example, I donât use any of Roonâs DSP and it is only used in one room, very occasionally two, at the same time. An i7 is a big noisy chip and fans cause unwanted vibration. Innuos for example, and they are not alone, use the Intel N4200 chip, even on their Statement machine, as it generates less noise/heat than an Intel i3 chip. They advise that if you want to use multiple rooms and DSP at the same time to get a Roon Nucleus+.
The Grimm MU1 seems to have got Roon sorted in one device rather well.
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PS Audio has a long and painful history with this kind of software/hardware. Back in the early days of the Bridge 1 with the PWD, they developed server and control point software called eLyric. They spent a lot of time and a ton of money and, while it had some very nice features, they never got it to work quite right and ended up pulling it. (Some of the issues were with Bridge 1 itself, which were generally resolved with Bridge 2.) I give PSA a lot of credit for trying again with Octave and am not surprised that they are playing things closer to the vest until they know exactly what they are going to be able to deliver. This is just a different beast from amps, preamps, DACs, and similar hardware.
All that said, count me among the confused as to what to expect in the first and later streamer/server units. I can wait to find out, but it ainât easy.
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Yes I know, Iâm even still affected with Bridge II myself, which practically never worked flawlessly since 7 years, at least with Jriver (and it wasnât really Jriverâs fault, as things changed with each Bridge firmware update forth and back, the one bug fixed, the other reoccurring again etc.). I agree, SW on user interface level is a different business than amps and regenerators.
But the reason I wondered about the communication differences with Octave were just the little information available considering the upcoming early release date.
Stop the âfile format pissing contestâ!
Please invest all that time in standardizing on a high quality file format such that more money can go to the artists.
We do not need file formats that:
- are rarely available
- only available for the most expensive equipment
- not available for streaming
- most music is not available in
All that just hurts the music industry and certainly does not contribute to enjoying music for customers.
Even with a PS Audio DAC it proofs to be a major challenge to feed it bit perfect with DSD.
If there is a single file format standard, every equipment manufacturer can concentrate on providing the audiophiles the best hard and software to enjoy the music.
Now the music loving audience and artists likewise get the nasty feeling of being divided and conquered by the audio equipment industry. Just stop this nonsense!
You must be joking,right?
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Just to present another point of view and with no intention of being argumentativeâŚwhen I stream from my PC to the original Bridge via my X1 Gateway router I have not experienced any problems since April, 2015 when I bought the DS DAC and the Bridge.
Granted JRiver was something of a PITA to set-up properly but since then I havenât had any complaints. Iâm wondering if in the transition from the Bridge to the Bridge II something didnât get broken.
The one or other thing worked, stopped working, worked again etc., depending what was fixed or reintroduced with new firmware. Until now gapless doesnât work with DSD and other high sampling rates. But it worked with the previous Bridge II Firmware (which again had other bugs).
The firmware is frozen with the original Bridge and I had forgotten about gapless. Your points are well taken.
How did you survive childhood?
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I donât care what format will become the standard, but the industry should just agree on one.
Maybe when downloading bandwidth is irrelevant for eveyone, not only for folks like me who already pay for more, it will be so. DSD for everyone, yeah! That would be cool! Until then, I simply assume that the Octave streamer will handle any PCM variant⌠FLAC for me, but apparently AIFF for others on this thread⌠PLUS DSD from my NAS. I do not want analog out though as I already have a PSA DAC. I want to use that I2S HDMI in socket! For me that means no Roon. But I do need a PSA app to select what to stream⌠Would love to see screenshots of the app. Gladly would I help test too!
The vast majority of music is streamed as mp3, via Spotify, apple or YouTube. The vast majority of music (over 99%) is recorded using PCM, which was a standard agreed over 40 years ago. It has been standardised by common adoption for decades.
MQA proved that even with the support of the 3 major record labels, a streaming service with a few million subscribers and a lot of manufacturers including the required hardware, it was impossible to force music consumers in any significant numbers to adopt a new file format.
No one gets hurt by alternative formats, except investors (see MQA) and musicians who choose/agree to have their music distributed in formats most people canât play.
I find it amusing that whilst audiophiles basically defined HD as 24-bit, now that lossless streaming is becoming more popular, HD is redefined as 16-bit, as for the vast majority 16-bit is HD compared to mp3. So 24-bit on my Amazon account is now called Ultra HD.
All this shows is that audiophiles and everyone else just arenât singing from the same hymnbook.
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It is up to the audio industry, but in the technical world I work in, standardization has always boosted progress.
I really donât know where you are coming from.
MPEG is an internationally agreed compression standard.
See wiki: MPEG ISO/IEC_JTC_1/SC_29 â Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information (ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 29)
PCM is just a coding system and there are numerous standards for implementing it. There is no need to agree on a specific bit-rate and frequency given just about every DAC chip can convert data up to 24/192.
It would be a bit like saying all cameras should have 24mp sensors. It serves no purpose.
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Hi, I thought it might be handy to capture what is known and not known about the Bridge III / entry level Octave streamer so far, based on info from PS Audio in this thread. Very happy for newer / better info to come forward!
Knowns
-
What it will do:
- provide a standalone streamer in the Perfectwave range
- complement the DS MkII DAC.
-
It will on the market slightly after the DS MkII DAC.
- The Bridge II will have no further updates.
-
Roon: Yes, an endpoint, just like Bridge II
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Power: It will have AC in so it will not benefit from a DC converter
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Outputs: will be galvanically isolated, will definitely have I2S
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Inputs: USB, ethernet & wifi connectivity
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Size: Itâll be a little bigger than a half size chassis, roughly the size of a Mac mini
-
What it wonât be: a cd ripper, or have inbuilt storage. Rather, this will be in a higher spec Octave unit after the Bridge III
Unknowns
- How it will sound compared to Bridge IIâŚ
- But it will have some advantages over the Bridge II, through reduced noise from the standalone set up, its own sonic lens and galvanic isolation.
- Says @Paul, âNo firm details yet but should be both affordable and sonically excellentâ
- Outputs: only I2S is confirmed, but in principle, the outputs of the Bridge III will line up with the inputs for the MkII DAC to avoid cable spaghetti
Iâm a little bit confused.
PS Audio team said the streamer will be wifi connected.
Does it mean that it will be wifi connected to a core (macmini for example) or wifi connected only for streaming purposes from internet?
Not a digital guy, sorry for my question.
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