I do not have a unique loader file, I only have the one i downloaded several times from the download pages from PSA website. What am I missing here? Sorry, this is all new to me.
We sent you an email. It’s probably best at this point to communicate directly with us at PS Audio via email or phone and we’ll get you the answers you need. paul @psaudio.com and dennis @psaudio.com
OK, I’ve been rude and deleted a bunch of the extraneous messages from this thread that were attempting to help kellipah but were just restating what had already been said. As Paul said now it’s best to have kellipah communicate directly with PS Audio to both get him running quickly and to get back on topic.
Thanks Ted, appreciated.
Kellipah please let us know when you get it resolved and what worked. We learn a lot this way and it helps the next guy in line.
Hi everyone,
I will keep in touch. It was decided for me to send the unit back to Boulder for them to get to the root of the problem. I got a re-written loader file from Dennis, but it did not do the trick.
After PSA gives the diagnosis, I will share with everyone.
I really appreciate the time and effort ya’ll have put into helping me.
Bill
Probably makes the most sense
When I sold my PWD MKII/Bridge, I got an Auraliti PK 90 to attach to my NAS.
It’s controlled by an app call MPaD.
Hello. Kellipah here reporting back with the mystery non-functioning DS problem. I sent the unit back to Boulder and got it back yesterday. The rep at PSA said that Dennis had to reinstall the ribbon cables for me. He also updated the firmware. I must have not had the ribbons hooked up quite right. I plugged it in last night and was up and running in less than 5 minutes.
I greatly appreciate everyone who spent time trying to troubleshoot and help me, and especially PSA for having patience and correcting what I assume was my oversight in installing the kit in the first place.
The sound is a HUGE improvement over what i had been doing, running the sonos direct into the amp. Toggling between the DS and Sonos direct shows an obscene difference in quality. The harshness, brittleness, lack of detail, and fatigue is eliminated with the DS. Wow.
Elk, you had mentioned that once I was back in the loop, you might suggest other ways to connect the DS to my amp. I was, and am using a coxial cable from the Sonos to the DS, and am using XLR cables from the DS to the DVD inputs on the MacIntosh Ma-7000 amp. You implied this was not the best route to go in an earlier post. I am open to any suggestions to further improve my system.
I also have an Esoteric X-03 Limited CD player that I am just using direct into my amp and am happy with, but perhaps I should experiment with running a digital signal from the Esoteric into the DS instead. ?? Any opinions?
Thank You.
Glad the DS is working and you’re enjoying it. I would definitely try running the CD player into the DS to see if that improves the sound. You may be surprised.
I, too, would try running the Esoteric into the DS.
I am desperately trying to remember what I was previously thinking. Looking at your current set-up. nothing else is immediately coming to mind. Running balanced from the DS to the amp is the most likely to produce the best sound. If I remember correctly, the Ma-7000 does not allow a direct input to the amplifier stage and you must go through one of the preamp inputs.
I am delighted to learn the fix was so easy. 
Thanks guys. I will report back next week after trying the CD player through the DS.
Hello,
New on this forum, m yinterest in the DS is really growing.
I am wondering what streamer to use…
Would a Raspberry Pi do?
I tried it with PiCorePlayer release on my current DAC (Mytek 192 DSD) and the DAC USB2 driver not being loaded limits me to 96kHz PCM.
I found the PI I2S pinout and am wondering if I could use that to solder an hdmi cable and use the DS I2S input.
On this document we can see what hdmi pins ps audio spec uses for I2S:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/…GVThiYnc&pli=1
Here’s what I found on the Pi I2S pinout:
GPIO# ALT2
28 PCM_CLK
29 PCM_FS
30 PCM_DIN
31 PCM_DOUT
described as clock, frame clock, data-in and data-out.
more about accurate placement here:
http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/201…-pi-p5-header/
In the first document above there’s a lot of acronyms but not the same as used in the Pi pinout description I found… can the experts guess which hdmi pin goes on which GPIO?
Would this work or does the I2S output/imput needs special management/drivers?
Thanks in advance for preventing me from entering in a goose chase ;o)
@Linvincible I was also thinking about connecting RPI to PWD via i2s, but then I realised the performance of RPI would be probably too low to keep proper (low in jitter) timing on it’s i2s output. But maybe I’m wrong, I have not tried it
BTW what software would you use to play music viac i2s? I guess there is no i2s audio driver for RPI, or am I wrong ?
there are drivers since version B and specific GPIO pins, can be used in many releases (raspbian and also tuned streamer releases like picoreplayer and volumio)
I would use Logitech Media Server / squeezelite since I really like then interface and it works fine with picoreplayer release, CPU should not be a problem. I don’t have a DS to play with so if anyone is tempted I hope I’l find them on this forum!
MinimServer also works on Raspberry Pi; see installation instructions on the Minim website.
Linvincible said Hello,New on this forum, m yinterest in the DS is really growing.
I am wondering what streamer to use…
Would a Raspberry Pi do?
I tried it with PiCorePlayer release on my current DAC (Mytek 192 DSD) and the DAC USB2 driver not being loaded limits me to 96kHz PCM.
I found the PI I2S pinout and am wondering if I could use that to solder an hdmi cable and use the DS I2S input.
On this document we can see what hdmi pins ps audio spec uses for I2S:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/…GVThiYnc&pli=1
Here’s what I found on the Pi I2S pinout:
GPIO# ALT2
28 PCM_CLK
29 PCM_FS
30 PCM_DIN
31 PCM_DOUT
described as clock, frame clock, data-in and data-out.
more about accurate placement here:
http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/201…-pi-p5-header/In the first document above there’s a lot of acronyms but not the same as used in the Pi pinout description I found… can the experts guess which hdmi pin goes on which GPIO?
Would this work or does the I2S output/imput needs special management/drivers?
Thanks in advance for preventing me from entering in a goose chase ;o)
Linvincible welcome! Yes I think the Rpi can do it (replace the bridge). For me it will need a dlna digital media renderer software so I can control it in the same way I do with the bridge. Then a simple way to connect it to the I2S. If the Rpi can handle DSD128 it will make for an inexpensive and very fun project to replace the bridge.
For now I’m waiting to see the new bridge 2 in a hope some one at PS Audio give it the ability to play or path thru DSD128 DoP. If the output of DS is DSD128, the most logical thinking is to have support for DSD128 in the new bridge.
If that never hapen then Rpi is good alternative if it can handle DSD128.
Hi all.
Kellipah here, finally replying to report that I took 3 months to finally get around to hooking my Esoteric CD player up to the DS DAC. I used a cheap optical cable and it was a pretty big surprise. It immediately and obviously sounded better, cleaner, more vibrant, and spirited than playing the CD player on its own.
I had been basking on the convenience of a years worth of ripping CDs, and playing them through my Sonos into the DAC. But i must say the cds sound better than my digital files now that they are both going through the DS DAC.
I think next, i will swap the cheap optical cable and put that on the Sonos and put the nice Coax cable on the Esoteric into the DAC and see what that does.
Once again i thank all that helped me this summer.
Wow.
Good stuff, kellipah.
Don’t let audiophile prejudice and group-think fool you: the optical input on the DS is absolutely awesome and in my opinion is one of its best assets. There’s no reason for any of the other inputs to sound better, and plenty of opportunity for them to be negatively impacted by electrical noise borne on the wires.
The general reputation of optical (specifically Toslink with SPDIF signalling) as being inferior is due to the difficulty in extracting a low-jitter clock from the signal. The DirectStream’s design does not extract the clock at all, so it’s immune to this problem and it benefits from the complete electrical isolation.
If only the DS had more optical inputs… I’ve purchased a 3-way remote-controlled Toslink switchbox so I can hook up my Sony TV, the Apple TV box and SqueezeBox Touch all at once.
Interesting dvorak. I would have never thought of doing a 3-way switchbox. I might look into that actually so I can run my TV, Sonos, and/or DVD player through the DS DAC. I appreciate the tip. First i will flip the cords and run the optical to the Sonos and coax to the CD player and see what that does.
Right now, the CD source sounds better than my streaming via Sonos. I had ripped all my Cds into flac and before I hooked the CD player to the DAC, the flacs sounded better than the CD player, but now, the CD player sounds better than the flacs.
One question, I have no idea where or when i got the optical cable, it was in the bottom of a bag of cables. Is a cheapo radio shack style optical more or less as good as a fancy one for this purpose?
Kellipah