Yup. Haven’t found any glitches to worry about yet, so yes, as of this Sunday morning, we’ll go live on Monday (actually Sunday night here).
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Santa Claus is coming to town!
Thanks Paul.
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Excellent news, Paul!
Excellent news! Thanks to you, Ted and and the team at PS Audio.
Have only managed a few hours of listening to Snowmass, so these are only my initial impressions.
Installed easily, didn’t show any bugs. I feed my amp directly from the DS, and feed it via USB from a dedicated laptop. Mostly listened to DSD files from SACD rips so far.
Initial impression is that the sound isn’t dramatically different from Huron (could never get Redcloud to work for me), but is a little more forward and a little smoother. Images seem weightier. It doesn’'t seem to provide more detail, but the little background noises are better defined. It provides the same I could be sitting there magic that Huron does.
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Are you releasing new Bridge 2?
Friday night, right after I got back home, I noticed the beta update from Paul in my email inbox. I promptly found my stash of 2GB SD cards and loaded it up. Install was straightforward. I’ve fortunately, never had an issue with the installation of software. My system had been on standby for almost a week. Life just caught up with me and I didn’t have a chance to do any laid-back listening. I rebooted the DSD twice and I let the system start warming up.
I use streaming and Cd’s from my PWT. Other sources were Tidal and music from my NAS. All files were managed by Roon with no unnecessary processing of files by ROON. Steaming is lossless FLAC and some ripped SACD’s. My listening is primarily female vocals and instrumentals. I cover many genres Jazz, Pop, some Classical.
Warm up or not, it didn’t make a difference. The first sounds out of the speakers, had me tilting my head and going huh? It felt like a new component had been inserted into the chain, for the better at that! The first impression was of a “lush” but detailed presentation. I’m 68 years old and predictably, my hearing at the upper end rolls off considerably. What Snowmass was giving me was a balance of warmth and detail in the frequency range that matches my hearing. The 30Hz to 9-10 kHz range that I hear best.
After listening for hours, things got even better. The presentation of music is warm, for lack of a better adjective, with no glaring exaggerations, except what I noted further on regarding treble. Many others, here on the Forum, had observations that addressed a black background. I’d concur. My assumption on what’s going on here is that when the canvas is blank or black, the details of the media are more evident.
I’ve never had sharp or hot treble. Snowmass did give me enough treble to be close to what I would consider the max. This was only on a few tracks. This treble sharpness diminished with the system warming up after a few hours of playing.
Most importantly, the presentation of the bass and midrange was special. Bass had punch, the midrange was all there and again a poor adjective, it was “enveloping”. This was not the mid-range of a “tube buffer” giving you warmth and bloat at the expense of details and a lack of faithfulness to the original recording. I was hearing details that I could swear that I had not heard before. I was hearing performers breathing, equipment clicking, brushes on drums swishing.
If this is a sign of what the DAC can do going forward, It’s a true Keeper. It’s like buying a new DAC every year.
I’m pleasantly surprised and amazed at what Ted and team at PS Audio have given us. I could have gladly lived with Redcloud. Snowmass is the best release yet!
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Well,I was able to sit down and give a good listen to Snowmass on some of my favorite cd’s and my time spent was certainly not wasted…Of course…I already knew that going in.
Ted,you accomplished what I thought was not going to happen anytime soon… which was to better Redcloud by a hugely significant margin. I love Redcloud but Snowmass is in a completely different musical realm. What everyone has already mentioned in concern of the usual audiophile highpoints in sound quality is there in spades…which is icing on the cake for me.
But…what I can not belive is how well this update just sucked me into the music and held me so tight…akin to a baby swaddling blanket…comforting and secure in knowing this is the musical nirvana my ears have been craving for and what we all are looking for in this crazy world of home audio listening experience.To indulge in Snowmass reminds me of eating my favorite comfort food or sitting in my super comfy overstuffed leather chair. It just feels right!!!
This is the the first time that I can remember ‘ever’ that I have not seen myself picking apart the music unfolding in front of me in the oh so typical “punching the audiophile buttons” approach…but rather…I can now actually totally relax and relish in the mix… letting the music wash over me like a cascading avalanche of Snowmass fresh air mountain top goodness served with a side of aural pleasure of the highest order…Well done indeed!!!
Thank you Ted,Paul and the whole PSA team for your hard work and dedication to your customers.
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First of all, thank you Paul for including me in the beta testing, you made my Sunday 
.
Installation went smoothly, and I have been delighting in great music since this morning, with the DMP as the source. Amplification is Plinius (M8 and SA-103), speakers B&W 800 D2s. Everything is fed by a P5. I played the piano when I was younger, and regularly attend concerts.
My main observation is that I am much more involved in the music with Snowmass.
It actually made critical listening difficult, as you simply enjoy the music.
I listened to some Borodin (orchestral and chamber) and Schubert (lieders) and Cassandra Wilson.
With Redcloud, I sometimes had to turn down the volume for chamber music, especially string quartets. Same thing with sopranos.
Snowmass is different, smoother, and makes me want to turn up the volume.
I usually listen with the attenuator on, but with Snowmass, I prefer it off.
I will now try Roon and bridge 2 or USB, but it is already clear that this release is amazing.
Thank you so much Ted and PSA !!
Philippe
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Well said. It does give the feeling of hot glow in the pit of the stomach…it’s just so relaxing.
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I just tried some DSD files through Roon and Bridge 2.
I still get some faint pops and clicks, the well documented Bridge 2 DSD bug is still there.
@Paul, will that be fixed by the next Bridge 2 update ?
Following up from what I posted yesterday -
I’ve spent a good four hours on and off with Snowmass since yesterday and it just keeps improving. Snowmass makes it easier to hear all the elements within the music playing simultaneously. When listening music that’s been recorded live (or mostly live) you really get a sense of musicians interacting. On music that’s mixed in an intricate way (like The Beatles) it’s easier to hear how a track is constructed if one desires. In all cases, music seems to flow in a way I’ve not heard before.
One potential bug is when fast forwarding DSD tracks, once or twice the dop hash (24/176.4 undecoded) kicks in. Loud but no damage to speakers. This may be my setup rather than Snowmass itself.
Hi, I, intentionally, did not asked to Paul to participate to the Beta test program. I did not think I would be so impatient, it’s too hard to wait. Too bad for me. 
@tedsmith, about the output transformer that need to be demagnetized after a switch OFF/ON. If I remember you told us that a solution is to put a track on “Pause” mode, this mode sends 000 to the output and contributes to demagnetize the transformer. I’m I right ?
I’m not claiming that Snowmass is perfect with respect to DSD / PCM transitions, but all of the reproducible problems I could find turned out to be the source sending malformed streams during fast forward, that was one of the reasons for the longer fade in: it killed a little more post transition crud. In general the DS can’t guess whether there’s been a transition to PCM or that perhaps it’s just a temporary glitch, but there are some heuristics that allow, for example more missing samples in DoP before dropping to PCM the longer the DSD has been playing…
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0’s are a great way to “degauss” the transformer, but music is fine too. I just mentioned pause so that people knew that just waiting a little was good enough. Remember it’s easy to get worried about a lot of things that can be used to “optimize” the sound, but relaxing a little and enjoying the music is best in my opinion.
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FWIW, I just did some mid-track switching from 16/44.1k FLAC to DSF128 and back to 16/44.1k FLAC while listening with headphones. I did not hear so much as a microscopic click or pop during the transitions.
Snowmass is incredible, Ted. It seems perfectly balanced across the frequency spectrum, with excellent PRaT and sound-staging. Thanks very much for your continuing efforts to push the state of the art of digital music reproduction, and congratulations on a monumental achievement! We can only imagine how great the upcoming TSS DAC will be!
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Snowmass release is also scheduled on Monday for the DS Jr ?
…I should have also asked for a beta version
I don’t recall that one but I can add it to my arsenal. Thanks Ted
When the official release cones out, is there any need to install after running the beta?
Same files that us beta testers received? Or were there some last minute tweaks.
Thanks