. . . and stillness when my ‘65 MGB would just stop in the middle of an intersection. . .
I was hopping and expecting a large response from the folks that have had the myriad of problems with the streamer section and display to offer feedback on the latest FW update that Paul mentioned last week… but, crickets!
Just adding to the brake-pumping on my 512 purchase.
That was a DAC update; the, useless to me, streamer update happened earlier in the week. The new 512 firmware had no effect, positive or otherwise, on the streamer’s ability to play DSF via DLNA/UPnP. I gave it a shot—no dice—then power-cycled the DAC to avoid any time bombs that might have been planted.
My display (continues) to be fine, as long as I don’t bork it by trying to play DSF files. At least, my theory regarding the times my display lost its mind is that it was causally related to whatever badness happened when trying to stream DSF, since bad display behavior has only occurred afterwards. It’s been normal since I stopped doing that.
The 512 sounds so other-level wonderful compared to my DSD Mk1 that I’ll just push music through my Aries until the 512’s streamer gets sorted out. When that happens, I’ll compare the two and use whichever sounds better, but I don’t care anymore. I don’t want a dosage bump to my blood pressure medication just to counteract the effects of my frustration with the 512 streamer.
Since many here have experienced the new 512, I’d like to ask if it’s $9k better sound than the MKll?
I’d probably pull the trigger on a PMG 512 DAC only option if one was available, as I have no interest in owning a streamer to use for music I rent and don’t own.
If you already have the MK II the trade in drops the price down to 6K. Either way it is circumstantial. A lot of people if they knew what we spend on gear would think we are crazy and they might be right. For me the PMG preamp is so good compared to the BHK that I would unequivocally say yes. The PMG DAC maybe or maybe not depending upon your financial circumstances. It is very good and a nice improvement compared to the MK II but for me it still was worth the investment. If you have the MKII , I would try the PMG preamp first and if you don’t have the volume turned up too high we might hear your jaw drop!
I wondering if the best trategy if you’re trying to be as frugal as possible, would be to just buy the PMG DAC and use its volume control?
Has anyone compared just using the PMG DAC with its internal volume control to a MKII DAC going through the PMG pre amp?
Absolutely! I purchased the PMG SACD too. PMG blows the PST/DSMKII pair out of the water in every way.
Does anyone know if it’s possible to configure the new DAC to auto sense the active input? The MKII could do it.
In my case I had MKII and rose 130. It’s better than that combo by far. I had APS as well. Sold both for $7 and had trade in credit for 2250. Bought when it was 8500. So yeah so worth it. Of course lost a bunch on sales of those so not free. But in the end cash out at that time no.
Belated thanks for the report @bstanwick! Downsampling to 44.1k is expected behavior for Airplay 1, unfortunately, though I do hope Apple gets its act together and creates a “connect”-like replacement that does proper hi-res. Still beats the packetized 256kbps of Airplay 2 that gets sort-of reconstituted into a fake 44.1k stream.
That said, I occasionally hear that Airplay actually maxes out at 48k, a small but perhaps meaningful improvement, for higher-res files such as it gets through an Apple TV. But Apple is characteristically vague about this and my confidence level is low. Such a love-hate relationship with Apple…
@Paul, belated thanks for this – Great news for us Apple users who aren’t fancy enough for Roon 
Sadly I learned from James a little while ago that there aren’t immediate plans to make a 100VAC version of the PMG DAC for Japan. Obviously underfeeding a transformer that wants 110-120VAC in an analog device will impact SQ. So that rules me out. Huge bummer.
However, I’ll gladly pay a premium to cover the cost of re-winding the transformer, if for whatever reason it’s worth your while to ship one out here once the it-doesn’t-play issue is sorted (and before I go and buy a Bartok or whatever).
@kjdemko Do you have a PS Audio regenerator? You could set the output voltage to 110V for the US spec. PMG DAC. My P20 has a nominal output of 230V but I’ve set mine at 240V.
Even one of the smaller regenerators might suit just for the DAC?
Because we currently do not have a distributor or dealer in Japan we did not build models specific for Japan. I wish we did have a distributor like we did in the past. I would love to be back in Japan.
Thanks Philip, that’s interesting – I didn’t know PSA regenerators could do that (i.e. input one voltage and output another). I’ll keep it in mind! I don’t have the rack space in my living room for another box, but perhaps I can sort something out.
The PMG DAC can be configured to switch input to that labeled CD when its remote “play” button is pushed (and it does work). But unless your DAC and transport are in separate places, that feature makes about as much sense as a remote eject button.
Gotcha. Thank you.
My primary take-away is the PMG DAC provides outstanding clarity across the entire audible range in my system. This is a significant upgrade from the DirectStream MKII DAC which I am trading in. I am hearing more clarity with stunning crystal clear triangles and bells, vibrant strings, great vocals as well as good bass. I use the USB input from a Mac Mini runing JRMedia Center. My collection has 44 kHz recordings up to DSD 256. Even ripped CDs sound better, presumably due to the up sampling. My only complaint is the move to RF 433.9 MHz for the remote control. I use a universal remote to control all my devices, but it uses only 433.0 MHz, so now I need two remotes. This unit is a keeper.
I’ve just spent an “audiophile session” flipping back and forth between Qobuz through my hoary streamer into I2S, and Qobuz Connect through the PMG 512 streamer. I didn’t really expect to hear much difference, honestly, especially given my entrenched bias against the streamer for the way it heads south when I feed it DSF from my DLNA/UPnP server.
I’m at a loss to explain why, but PMG Qobuz Connect sounds significantly better than my old Aries streamer—sharper transients, less (or no) muddling of massed sound, keener focus, and more exact placement. Maybe the clocks being passed through I2S from my Matrix X-SPDIF 2 are off a bit and there’s some muddling during the DSD512 upsampling in the DAC. Can this even be a thing? Maybe I should try USB, or maybe it’s really not worth it unless I’m curious.
Gawrsh, now I hope the UPnP code in the streamer gets fixed really quickly so I don’t have to dick around when I want to listen to DSD stuff. Having my server repackage DSF as DoP works up to DSD128, after which the DAC streamer gets a little skippy, and not in a happy-go-lucky child way.
For Paul: see, what did I tell you?