Snowmass DirectStream Junior is now live

If you haven’t seen this message try it:

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First time poster and have had my DSJ since July- so first upgrade. I followed the 2 step approach and had no problems - using a Sandisk 4gb Cruze usb stick that I reformatted before using for the upgrade.

Love the sound. Seems to be a very nice upgrade although inability to do a quick A/B makes it a little harder to judge how much better. Very happy though.

I saw a couple of posts about a tone or pop and wanted to let you know what I am experiencing.

I run a Roon Nucleus with a 2tb internal SSD. And use Tidal for streaming. No pops of any kind using Tidal playing MQA or CD quality.

When playing from my internal SSD drive on the Roon, however, I consistently get a loud static pop exactly 5 seconds after pressing pause, or stop, or track finishes when playing 96/24 quality (PCM or DSD) or higher. No pops when playing CD quality. No pops when playing 44/24. When I go from CD quality or 44/24 to anything higher resolution - first pause - no pop, all subsequent pauses I get a pop. Not many options for settings on the Roon Nucleus. Tried changing numerous settings with no luck. Thought it might be related to the Resync Delay setting - but doesn’t effect it.

Any ideas appreciated.

Terry

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Hi

just got the news about the Snowmass for my DSJ. Hit the download page and here is a screen shot of what was downloaded. Can some one advise please I can’t see any zip file.

You’re looking at the contents of the zip file. Drag them into the thumb drive.

Hi guys,

Many things said, and IMO everyone is right to have their own opinion/complains (especially because everyone is a PS Audio DS Sr. or Jr. owner here).

That said, I’m one of those for whom the path was Redcloud > Yale > Snowmass. After several DSj power cyles, something I guess we shouldn’t do (@tedsmith do I need to worry too much about this?), after several working - SO correctly unplugged - and correctly formatted USB pen drives.
This could have been avoided! I have already thought: “I must wait a couple of days before dive into the DSj update process, so I can check some strange patterns in the PS Audio forum, to avoid some possible issue” . I was the 4th doing the SN download!!! But, as @marcin helped me, maybe my difficulties helped others.
This shouldn’t happen though. All the DSj out there should have exactly the same behaviour, and PS Audio should have a look to mitigate this issue. Really.

As I said earlier on this thread, this kind of “Murphy” thing, was what kept me for bringing the tech side of things to my home and to my audio rig (I deal with this in my daily basis, since I’m active IT professional).

But… but I can live with this!
I can live with the fact that I have access to this kind of performance (given the fact I don’t have an endless wallet).
I can live with the fact that I have some hassle and pain on my neck once in a while, to experience a system upgrade worth of a few thousands of Euros – for FREE.
I can live with the fact that I must gamble with DSj volume control and Integrated Amp (Moon by Simaudio 340i) volume control, to get close to an ideal situation of low noise / better performance / great user experience with volume control
I can live with the fact that I have access to PS Audio crew, who is always willing to chime in and help us.
I can live with the fact that I can share some thoughts, get questions answered, learn a ton, with the genius beyond the product that I own, and one of (if not the most) the best minds in the DAC industry: @tedsmith .

Everything in life (at least for me) is a compromise, that become less of a compromise and more like a thrill, happy thing, victory, if we learn to look at the glass half full.

Snowmass…
Unfortunately I have not had enough time to dedicate to listen, but I stand with my first impressions: “(…)More texture, more information is retrieved (nuances and micro dynamics), and a more calm pace. (…)”, and definitively more body as many have said. But on top of this, I have the feel that we care much more about the music, interpretation, message, that with the system itself, which is my main goal in the audiophilia road.

Once again, thank you all!

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badbeef:”” And please… no posts about how long it takes to load. Thanks.””

““I always get a little uncomfortable when a thread becomes primarily a string of complaints, often half a dozen posters posting half a dozen times, until - hey presto!””

@Paul: I just don’t get the worth of the above statements. Does BB represent P S Audio ? A singularly unimportant opinion… How can the musical marvels of Snowmass take centre stage if one can’t load it ? AND: I thought all feedback was relevant, the good and the BAD ? If you had seen how stressed out my niece was with all this. More ---- Firmware Woes !!!

Yesterday I received a phone call from my niece all frantic and stressed out because they, family, were failing - miserably to install Snowmass and were rooted on Redcloud… I could tell she/they were at wits end and frazzled after hours of trying and retrying. I told them to disconnect Jr from the mains and to pull out all the cables. I made the trip out to their place (54 miles!) stopping off at a computer business outlet enroute and bought two USB sticks.

On arriving I had them run through for me what they had been doing attempting to load Snowmass: but once again is was all to no avail. So I Formatted the two new 3gb USB sticks - one with Yale and the other with Snowmass - making sure OS’s eject - safe to remove - appeared of the PC screen: Yale loaded faultlessly as did Snowmass - plus reboots, etc.

Susan and family their relief palpable.

At Redcloud’s release they had experienced problems loading the O/S but got there eventually - but were beaten down with Snowmass.

I only had a quick listen because I had a 54 mile drive back home – and yes it sounded good, the family happiness that Jr was healthy again……. A stressful day

I will get feedback on Snowmass over the weekend and report.

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I was wondering that also…

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The cited quotes appear to be merely expressions of personal opinion/preference.

You are, of course, completely free to disagree - and apparently do. :slight_smile:

Red cloud - Yale - Snowmass.

My first time writing here. Just want to thank you for Snowmass, a very impressive update and I got it for free. Thank you.

Keep up the nice work Ted!

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I’ve made a suggestion of something analogous to writing zeros to the FPGA, for which you replied that it essentially does this after every reboot.

Would it make any sense to write in a randomization or cycling program for the FPGA? So, with each update it randomly (or maybe not randomly, but in a specific way) to open the gates, reboot, then close them, reboot, then apply the actual update after this “gate cycling” step? This would make for an annoying long update process, but would it help things or make them worse or do nothing at all?

Not unlike Elk - unpaid Defender of the Faith. I’m not trying to diminish anyone’s issues - just offering another perspective.

The first comment Dirk quoted (which was intended to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek) refers to those who seem to get upset every time there is a FW upgrade, when it takes a minute or two to load. I’m not referring to those that seem to get stuck loading (i.e. take significantly longer than that). It can take different amounts of time, and it can take a while.

And the second is what it says. As someone who worked for many years for marketing research people, and absorbed some realities of polls and opinions and so forth, I personally start to feel uncomfortable that we end up with, let’s say, 100 posts about how it isn’t working. Then after a few days if one were to read all the way through the history of them, we would find that (I’m guessing) 3/4 of those are resolved, but they persist in the thread after they are resolved. Some it was operator error, some a bad thumb drive, etc. It gives a skewed impression to me, just as I know that on the other side, there are lots (apparently a signifcant majority) who have no problems, and as a result, most of them say nothing.

I have discussed with Paul the notion that it might be good to have someone be an intermediary between his paid engineers and the Forums. He can’t afford to have his engineering staff spend the kind of time and attention on the Forums that he and Ted do. This doesn’t include Ted, as he is self-employed, and if he wants to post unpaid, he’s more than welcome to. As he has mentioned - it’s all toward solving the problems and keeping folks happy which sells DACs - which is how he makes his money.

But the precedent Paul and Ted have set with regard to customer interaction is not practical to extend to all of the engineers of the PS products.

My thought was that if the persistent issues and questions were brought to the Engineers in occasional meetings, and their thoughts and answers were relayed to the community, it would be potentially helpful for all concerned. My sense on the PS end is that the Engineers are generally unaware of the Forums (don’t have time, and are designing products, etc.) and, indeed, that’s not what they’re paid for. So they might learn some stuff from the Customer side, and we might understand some of these issues better, and we might be able to get them resolved.

So - in the PS Spirit of full disclosure - I’m auditioning for the job (that doesn’t exist) so to speak. Whether you all would accept me in that role is another issue entirely.

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Out walking. Read it through twice.

I could say a lot but why bother. It’s mainly all about you. Talking for PSA. Talking in the third person. Are you employed with PSA ?

.You have an over inflated sense of self importance …
If you ever get actively involved – I’m done with P S Audio…

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Are you responding to Bad’s post immediately preceding yours?

What he is proposing may not be of interest to PS Audio or, for that matter, any of us :slight_smile: but it is reasonably presented.

Bad also has a point that the threads provide a skewed impression as to the number of problems. This is typical of every enthusiast forum. This however does not discount the frustrations users are experiencing. These are completely real.

I thought that role was intended to James Herod…

”I recognize a few people on these forums that I’ve helped out with their gear and I am pleased to announce I will be spending a good deal more time reading and responding to your questions and offering an inside track into PS Audio’s engineering and support team for Community Members. If you have questions about setup, products, updates, or even climbing or bike riding, I am here to help. Thanks for this great community and the opportunity to participate.”

After yesterday I am still settling down. But I stand by my comments.

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Yes. B B.'s. post …

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The Mac OS automatically unzips zip files. As noted, you are looking at the contents of the unzipped folder.

Though it seems like a simple endeavor, updating the DSJ can be troublesome to say the least. Before any of us throw our units out the window, send our service guys an email with your shipping info and we will send you a complementary stick that we test here. Send those guys an email at service@psaudio.com.

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As Bad’s last post was just an hour ago it is clear you are note responding to his last post when you mention being upset yesterday.

Bad,

Obviously I’m in no position to ‘accept’ you in such role nor do I think anybody could. It’d be PSA’s decision. I can tell you however that if you were indeed used in that capacity, then I’d leave this forum on the spot. Not that anyone would care.

As to your other remark: ‘I personally start to feel uncomfortable that we end up with, let’s say, 100 posts about how it isn’t working. Then after a few days if one were to read all the way through the history of them, we would find that (I’m guessing) 3/4 of those are resolved, but they persist in the thread after they are resolved. Some it was operator error, some a bad thumb drive, etc. It gives a skewed impression to me, just as I know that on the other side, there are lots (apparently a signifcant majority) who have no problems, and as a result, most of them say nothing.’

Sorry you feel that way. At least in my case it’s not one defective USB stick (I have tried 9 in succession, from old 500Megas to brand new 256Teras), there’s no operator error and I’ve been following the instructions extremely carefully as was the case with each previous firmware launch.

This has nothing to do with PSA’s policy of providing owners with these free beauties, or with Ted’s generosity for which we are all very grateful (and I would concur that we should acknowledge financially in a way -would gladly participate). It’s your reasoning that some of us are either stupid, or ungrateful, or both that personally I don’t appreciate.

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