My experience with Snowmass 2 was not great.
I originally had the beta version of Snowmass 1 and was thrilled with the sound.
I updated to Snowmass 2 with the understanding that it sounded the same as Snowmass 1.
It sounded just OK at first but I assumed it would improve over time.
For 10 days i never really got sucked into the music even though there was nothing
obviously wrong with the sound.
I did all the usual suggestions like reboots, reloads, and letting music play 24/7 with the 20db pad engaged.
3 days ago, just to try something, I went back to Snowmass 1 and all the magic has returned.
Any theories as to what was going on? The only source I listen to is CDs from the DMP
I suggested to a friend that he revert back to Snowmass 1.
Here is his report:
āOk here it is. I noticed a significant improvement with Snowmass 1. The sound is much less constrained and individual notes blossom and breath and open up in a much more natural way. Also everything is much more 3 dimensional. Itās is if the chains were removed from the soundstage and from within the soundstage. The music breathes, flows and blossoms in a more realistic 3d space naturally.ā
The FPGA runs essentially fine without interaction from the PIC. Input select is handled by the PIC. On the other hand the PIC polls for sample rate, sample width, DSD/PCM, connection status, etc. But Iām reasonably sure that most of the interaction that people might hear comes from noise generated by the display (both RFI and electrical noise) and to a lesser extent by the bridge. The PIC itself is a noisy chip in the RF and that noise can be modulated by the code thatās running, but I suspect that difference is small compared to whether the display is on.
My DS is in another room so Iāve never left the display on and I donāt have a bridge. v1 sounds modestly more ā3Dā than v2 to me. Iāve switched back and forth over the period of a few days to confirm my impression, but it was certainly not a blind test.
I donāt need the additional volume choices in v2 so Iām going to run it with v1.
The PIC is never involved with the sample data. Itās job is taking care of the display, status, UI interactions, etc. The FPGA is always watching for the bit perfect test pattern in the incoming audio stream. When it sees the pattern beginning it raises one flag and then if the pattern is perfect for at least a second it raises another flag. When the PIC sees the second flag it puts up the green checkmark.
Is there any chance that your I2S has the wrong polarity on the clock lines? (If it were wrong on the data lines then when you played 16 bit data it would show 24 bits (the bottom bits would always be 1ās instead of 0ās. If it were wrong on the Left Right channel youād probably notice but the bit perfect test wouldnāt.)
Yes, it could be. I believe it says 24bit when playing redbook, but at least the L/R channel are correct, meaning that when I play test CD, L vs R shows up in the expected speaker and the end to end cable routing is verified correct.
Rockna WDN also provide 5V on pin 18, where DS says Not used.
This is probably the reason for why the source tries to power up the DS over I2s when the power button on the DS is powered off.
the complaining of sound less involving is more important that bug (if bugs areānt too muchā¦). in case of compromises i always choose the solution which give more pleasureā¦ and the v3.0.0 give itā¦
I noticed no difference in the sound quality of Snowmass V1 vs. V2. After people posted observations to the contrary, I re-installed V1 and listened for quite a while, re-installed V2 and did the same, did not observe any difference.
To Tedās comments, especially the one about RF, when I first purchased my DirectStream Sr. DAC (just after it was introduced), my system was up in our living room, where our Comcast router, home phones, etc. were probably the cause of a small but somewhat noticeable noise floor (audible when using headphones). I moved my audio system down to my āman caveā at the other end of the house, down a flight of stairs, as far away from the Comcast router, no wireless home phone sets near, etc. and the noise completely disappeared.
Mark-D,
Certainly, I was not trying to negate what others have posted here. I just thought it might be helpful to report my experience with the DAC and potential RF interference.
I read each post and am paying attention even if I donāt respond to a given post. I usually only respond when Iām pretty sure I can help.
With every release we struggle mightily to not have to do a patch release, just because of the unsettled feelings it causes in many customers since inevitably some like the original more than the patch and vice versa and no one wants to be left out when trying to get better sound.
As will all releases whether major versions or minor each user has to evaluate their own level of enjoyment of a given release vs. their own annoyance of a given bug that was fixed. I just caution people to not complain about bugs if they arenāt using the latest software and if they recommend to a friend to use something other than the latest to remind them of the bugs that were fixed and to caution them to try the latest before complaining about bugs.
FWIW the FPGA is the same with all of the Snowmass releases and itās the only thing I personally have control over. So Iām just gathering info and trying to be helpful about other issues like update problems.
