Ted, in your opinion is there anything of a scientific/technical nature that might explain why at least several forum members have concluded that Snowmass v1 sounds better than v2?
I installed v1 followed by v2, and have not noticed a sonic difference. This thread, though, is causing me to consider reverting to v1 to re-try it.
Thanks very much.
Please go back and retry version 1.
My friend and I both did not immediately think they were different either.
You may be pleasantly surprised.
If not, you can easily go back to Snowmass V2.
I also initially didnāt hear any difference between v1 and v2 but after spending better part of week with each, I prefer v1. Itās rather subtle but ārealā. A bit more 3D is how I hear it.
I also had fun going back to Yale and Torreys and Redcloud, briefly. The progression is great especially for a 4 or is it 5 year old hardware.
I appreciate folks desire to quantify most things, but I see no reason to run anything but what I like. I have religiously following the recommended flash sequence with a power bleed and reboot after initial flash completes.
Sorry for the rambling:
This question is a little strange in that until Snowmass people expected others to prefer different versions (remember Torreys?) and even different releases, now some (not necessarily you) seem to expect that thereās only one thatās ārightā.
The scientific reason is a mix of multiple things: changing anything (including the display/controllerās software or the bridge software) in the box will change the RFI, power supply noise, etc. in the box. How that RFI and noise affects the sound in a given system (both inside the DAC and outside the DAC) is not easily predictable. We (and most other animals on the planet) are designed to look for differences and ignore the commonalities. We will find patterns in noise and we will hear differences when nothing has changed. Itās completely normal. Itās when we repeat the experiment(s) over a period of days and get the same answers that we know the differences are perhaps more significant. Itās also normal to first hear differences as ābetterā, once again it takes time and exposure to figure out which is really better for our particular system and/or listening preferences.
I donāt want to offend anyone and I donāt want to start a mad rush to change versions, but some things come to mind:
We know that upgrades on the Jr arenāt as reliable as anyone wants. Be sure to check the version numbers to see if you are running the individual pieces that you think you are. Donāt rely on just the main version number.
Which version of the bridge you are running could easily make a difference (or not.)
I donāt think that everyone who is going back and forth know all of the variables that could be involved and are controlling them. That really doesnāt matter if you are listening for yourself, but if you are projecting your results on others or comparing it with others itās something to bear in mind. Things like Is the screen on or off, what level of dimming is it set to, exactly what levels were being listened to, and more subtlety how long the box is off during the upgrade, how long it was back on after the upgrade, whether the power was switched once or twice during the upgrade, ā¦ Most of these make at small difference if any, but for some they are of the same magnitude as the differences of different versions of the software.
I know that these reported differences arenāt nearly as big as going from Redcloud to Snowmass for most people. But I also understand the need for many to keep tweaking.
Personally I just donāt worry about things like this, Iāll make a bigger difference in the next version. I just need to be able to enjoy my system on a day to day basis, and donāt really care about small differences beyond that. You can almost always turn the music up a 1/2 a dB or so and make a bigger difference.
I am going back to V1 as I get big noise for a second with V2 a lot (several times) when starting songs(both FLAC and DSD), It is not like a tick or a pop that can be ignored, it is really big static noise that could hurt speakers. I noticed in the lcd screen of DSD where bit was changed to 16 to 24 and thatās was when the noise was generated.
Let me know if thereās a difference between V2 and V1 with that noise. Knowing for sure that it does follow the release or not could help narrow it down.
@tedsmith I will let you know. It just takes day or two (several hours) for me to get a reliable validation whether V1/V2 really makes difference in this case.
GO TED!!!
Of course use DSJ owners canāt choose between V1 and V2 (unless someone has the beta firmware they want to leak 
)
I thought the same thing to myself. Iāve since reloaded V1 back on and I think it sounds better in my system. Iāve been using V2 since the day it was released and gave it a few weeks in my system to see how it would sound and if it was going to sound as good as V1. For whatever reason I find V1 to sound better. I donāt have a Bridge II anymore (I sold it) so I donāt see the harm in going back to V1 as V2 mostly fixed bugs for the Bridge II.
Ditto, same loud static āscritchā when switching bit rates ā¦ reloading SM V1 (beta).
Ditto, same scary loud static. I get worried for my speakers every time it happens. Luckily, the volume was not too high.
It happens when file formats change.
I had to increase the delay to 10 seconds between files in Roon, and that seems to take care of it.
I donāt remember if SM1 had the same issue.
Snowmass V1 seems better than V2 where the noise happens less frequent than V2 but still getting the loud scratchy noise sometime. So I figured the new bridge might be the issue and I tried to downgrade bridge firmware to the previous version with mConnect (PC program) to continue the test. And guess what ? my bridge is now gone and missingā¦ showing 0.0.0. in the version number. I have tried different versions of DS firmware to get it recognized but nothing seemed to work. Too bad I need to talk to service team now. This is just frustrating spending my entire weekend on troubleshootingā¦
I tried 2x this AM to revert from Snowmass v2 to v1, but v1 would not install. Is there a trick to reverting that I am missing? I used the same SD card I used to install v1 and v2, I disconnected my I2S device, and did all the necessary power-cycling. Thanks.
Donāt know if it works but maybe reverse to Redcloud and from there back to Snowmass V1ā¦
I feel compelled to weigh in.
Last evening, I reinstalled Snowmass Beta V1 over SM V2. I felt that V2 wasā¦ lacking something.
Immediately, V1 was more engaging, clear, detailed, balanced. V1 stays for the time being. (No bugs found, so no complaints.)
Did you go directly from Snowmass v2 to v1? I tried doing that 2x without success. Thinking of trying to go Snowmass v2 > Redcloud > Snowmass v1 (thanks for the suggestion, @wijber).
Yes, I did. Got it on the first try, but then Iāve never had a single hiccup when updatingā¦ everā¦ that I know of.
whereās everybody getting V1?
From the original Snowmass release, now stored locally.