What other DACs have you tried.
There are a few more expensive ones with better power supplies & others that have fully differential design, but they usually go x2 to x4 the price of the DS.
Hey all … all of the comments seem spot on … So here are mine as I had an opportunity to really sit down last night…
High level impressions:
One word that kept popping in my head: Vocals. outstanding - more up front in a good way - more holographic.
Soundstage: Deeper / wider… Everything sits in its place - across and beyond. Drums and other instruments are back creating depth - and all are nicely placed/not crowded.
Bass: Seems deeper to me / more detailed / no one note bass here. This seems deeper than RedCloud with more clarity in the lower mids - and since everything seems less congested - we get more inner detail and hear more into the music.
High end: Little did I know that RedCloud sounded a little more ‘etchy’ on the top… Snowmass makes the highs clearer without any etch.
More Nuance - I think Elk said ‘elegant’? But - yes I agree… Nothing in your face - just beautiful music with wonderful shades and textures…
I have Maggie 20.7s to give you reference of the ‘type’ of sound I like - big/open/spacious/holographic/mega soundstage… And this release of Snowmass really seems to fit in my wheelhouse… Huge Thumbs up to Ted/Darren/Paul - and anyone else that had input into this release.
So as one of the posters above - I too took the White Album for a spin - side 2 as well as some of side 4 - the 48/24 release awhile back from the apple stick. Except - I felt like I was transported to Abby Road Studios… The detail/bass/beautiful sound stage etc… that pop with Snowmass are impressive. When listening to a new release - I try to categorize it with one word… on Snowmass - the word that kept popping over and over was ‘Vocals’. The vocals are so 3D - as someone said earlier -I think a bit more forward giving more depth - with the drumkit etc now farther back in the stage… It is incredible. The bass - as I had asked about earlier - yes - cleaner/ more detailed - and I think deeper. I found image specificity to be better than redcloud because of this.
The details: Yes - more detailed - but not in a ‘digital way’ - just hearing deeper into the music is what I mean. In ‘Piggies’ - the harpsichord - and when the string section (particularly the cello/bass) come in - it is pretty special. All of the vocals - more holographic - more solid - any recording that I ‘thought??’ had a thin-ness to the voice no longer did. I used side 2 of Abby Road as well … and well - then had to listed to side 1 as well … 
… Simply tremendous…
This went on and on with Jazz/Classical/other rock … 2xDSD-DSD- 48/24 - 96/24-44/16 …. It just didn’t matter. Everything sounded great. CD quality - right now I’m not sure if I really need anything better? and I have a ton of hi-rez… Its just the apple lossless rips of a bunch of CDs just sound so great right now… But the audiophile in me will always grab the hi rez versions… to ease my anxiety…but probably nothing else.
The upload - worked fine as always – I took a shot at a 16Gb SD card - new - worked fine.
No pops or clicks … Did get the fade in on some tracks… Never when I am playing an album from the start… but I am really not sure if that is my JRiver doing this or not …
I am not a ‘video’ guy as I always keep my screen off… Whats the point in a dark room?
Incredible as always … Great Job Ted…
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Dirk, interesting you mentioned 1.2.1. I kept trying the OS upgrades but there was something about 1.2.1 that I couldn’t give up…until Redcloud, which sounds wonderful. Looking forward to hearing Ted’s new OS. Having given up tubes years ago, it is always welcome when solid state can sound tube-like.
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You won’t be disappointed!!
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So is this fade-in mentioned a bug or not a bug, I am not a beta tester so cannot test this? Just curious as I saw that Paul commented that no major bugs were uncovered.
I’ve spent some time listening to Snowmass over the weekend, and I similar positive experiences as other report as the sound has transformed to sweet and elegant. Whatever source or format I’ve thrown at the DS DAC (Roon, Tidal, or DMP) it simply produced marvelous music. No pops or issues.
Thank you to Ted, Paul, and all at PS Audio for the relentless improvements.
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Auralic, Mytek and even tried the Topping. I’ll be trying another soon I think.
Not a bug - an intentional thing included by Ted to help with some folks’ click issues on transitions between formats, etc. He may have chosen a bit too long of a ramp-up.
There are a few post above (way above?) where I explain that I lengthened the fade up after transitions of sample rate, DSD/PDM, normal/deemphasis, and clock starting/stopping. I did this for multiple reasons, but primary was that most of the pops that were left were noise that came after these transition where various sources generate some noise, after say a sample rate change or a clock starting. Since the DS is essentially always locked it would play the noise that some other DACs would hide while they were locking. The more questionable feature is that if you have a flaky interface that causes periodically bad samples or other drop outs that were mostly hidden in other releases you’ll get a quick fade down and a slower fade up on them. To me that’s not bad, it lets you know that you have something to fix to get better sound quality.
This doesn’t affect seeking around in a given track, transitions to other tracks from the same disc, etc.
Many sources have an option to send a little silence on starting (or stopping) to work around DACs that take a while to lock. If the fade ups bother you, one thing might try is to see if your player/source has such an option and try it.
Every time I change anything with pop suppression I help some users and expose some pops for other users. So far there have been more reports of less pops than (legitimate) complaints about problems with the fade up.
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Thanks Ted, once I get the software I will give it a shot, I use Roon and am not sure if such adjustments can be made. But thank you as always for all your efforts!
Thanks so much, that will save me hours of searching! I only use Roon for the convenience of being able to play music from different devices, I don’t ever mess with settings much as I don’t upsample, etc.
I really appreciate it Brett!
I should probably add that I had intended to make the length of the fade-up user configurable, tho then I’m sure that some (understandably) would want it to be separately configurable for each input. I’ll see what I can do for the next release (UI changes have to be coordinated with PS Audio.)
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Any thoughts on a setting that would be ideal to avoid the fade-in. This, I realize, is a bit of cart before the horse in my case…
Thanks Ted, can’t wait until Monday when it’s release for me to try. I vote for user configurable too for the ramp time
Start with 100ms. The longer you make it the longer key press on the remote will take to have an effect so it’s a balance.
FWIW, I have it set to 0ms and have yet to hear a fade in or fade out that I noticed. However, I’ve not really been paying attention, I don’t know when it occurs…I have very little DSD content so if it only happens going from/to PCM/DSD then I won’t hear it.
Great, will try it out tomorrow, thanks again!
Nice cosmetic thing is…at least with Bridge beta code 3.6.2 cover Art came back 
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I regard the fade-in as an unfortunate enhancement to cure a fault that I don’t have. Redcloud works perfectly fine without a fade. To have a fade-in when playing ordinary red book tracks is appalling IMHO. It occurs when initiating playback at any track in the current playlist. It doesn’t occur when the following tracks continue, so gapless playback is preserved ok. It really does matter for classical music tracks at least. I have tried using Mcontrol and BubbleUPnP, and the fade-in occurs for both. As I previously said, I use usb from an Aurender, which is fine, so at the moment the fade-in with Bridge isn’t a problem for me. Maybe the number of users adversely affected will be small, but they may be vocal.
Running all PS Audio gear. DMP, BHK Pre and 300’s. I was playing Peter Gabriel’s So, which highlighted the change. Will keep playing. May need to make an adjustment or two.