Ok, day2 and I’m in my usual skeptical phase. I’m not sure I can still hear it. So I’ll wait a couple days and then go back and forth. Really, it’s not you, it’s me.
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No, we do not do service work on components. Thanks
Definitely can play a little louder now, not a lot but a tad.
Thankfully in my own system, I am not quite hearing any harshness or excessive brightness in the higher registers, it does sound a little bit more pronounced there but in a moderate, engaging manner and none of the playback tried so far has lost any of its ‘musicality’ (Darko would kill me if he read this) or its toe-tapping qualities…
Bottom end not ‘back’ or recessed or anything, but a bit classier now for my taste, bit more defined. I suppose Ted’s work with the firmware has further diminished distortion thus making Sunlight come across as cleaner and more intelligible. You just love to actually pin point the bass lines and tell what notes are being played exactly!
Thanks a lot PSA, Paul, Ted, Darren et al. I’ll be honest with you guys. Recently I was toying with the idea of parting with ‘my old Junior’ (no pun intended!) and maybe save for a dCS or something. With Sunlight around and my combo sounding like it does now, I am very very hesitant and might just end up deciding to keep the combo (DMP-DSJ) forever.
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Anyone have Chris Jones “Roadhouses & Automobiles”? At the end of the first cut there are nature sounds (crickets) in the lead out following the decay of the last played note. After installing Sunlight, I cued up the first cut and was shocked that the crickets are missing. Just to be sure, I put on my cheap earbuds and listened to the same cut from my iPad. (Using Roon). Well, there are crickets again. This is pretty low fi considering what Roon has to do to resample to play on iPad. I realize this is an over simplification and we aren’t listening for insect sounds during serious listening, however, this does concern me that there is now missing information.
I also listened to the lead in of The LA4, “ Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte”. The first cut on this recording has a lead in of tinkling bells and xylophone. After installing Sunlight, this lead in is very subdued and the high frequency overtones are missing. Again, I’m not ready to be critical as I am also hearing some improvements in other aspects since the Sunlight upgrade. (Stage depth, separation). I am thinking of downloading the upgrade and reinstalling just to see if it makes a difference.
I would value others experience if you happen to have these recordings.
Thanks to Paul and Ted for the tireless work to keep our DACs current.
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Congrats on the release.
I have seen the video indicating that the changes are two fold: a) quad rate output on i2s and b) general SQ improvement along all outputs.
Are these the main changes? Of course, very happy about this opportunity, but just wanted to be clear on the changes.
Might be good to post the basic info someplace? Or maybe you have and i missed it…
Tremendous Sunlight! I just listened to my favourite redbook cd with Nikhil Banerjee on Sitar, recorded for Chhanda Dhara at Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg. The Instrument is much more live-like with many more overtones and really dynamically outlining Raga Nat Bhairav with great and never heard tonal richness: A substantial Clarity without any Glare and with really elaborated trebles. Resolution is quite better than with any update before. Never thin, but higher resoluted and full bodied because of this richness in tone and splendour in sound.
With great Respect to Paul, Ted, Scott, Jamesh and the whole team at PS Audio in Boulder. Thanks a lot for having great fun in listening with PST and DSD Sr.
Comming back here later this week …
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In Redclound I added some code to help with lower level detail. The problem was that things would go south when the volume got too high. So when the volume of the music after the volume control got too high I disabled the new code and then you were essentially running Huron. (When thing quieted down it went back to the new code in Redcloud.) That change happened at about volume of 84.
The Windom release used some features of the DS Sr hardware that among other things increased that number to 92.
Once again use what ever volumes on your preamp and the DS that sound best to you, But you might want to try 92 on the DS and use the preamp volume while listening for just a little. Then go to whatever pattern of volume on the DS and/or volume on the preamp you like. If you always play quieter music or dynamic music which is mostly quiet the volume can be higher on the DS if you wish. Some don’t find all of this “nonsense” to be worth it at all and keep their DS at, say, 100.
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I am using “fixed volume”
Hi Ted, Using the low volume instead, I noticed that it can go up to 106. In this case what is the optimal volume?
Those are the changes, but read on. One change that helped with sound quality was to redo a part of the volume ramping code on transitions between PCM and DSD, etc. It looks like I may have missed the mark a little there. When converting to handling of quad rate input on the I2S a lot of code had to be touched, but for the most part that should be entirely transparent to the rest of the DAC which was already running at quad rate. One other intentional side effect was that perhaps the old outstanding incompatibility with the Bryston BDP-2 (or 3) would be fixed. There are some reports that it is.
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… me too, But you may set the fixed level to 92 or 100 or something different. To use the attenuator is not recommended in my point of view. Sound is getting a little dull.
It’s the same 92 on the Sr or 84 on the Jr. Going to 106 was a compromise for people that needed to run with the 20dB attenuator but couldn’t get enough volume that way. 106 is pushing the limits with very loud music (but often very loud music is compressed anyway.)
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I’m using asr emitter 2, it has a slightly different sound setting logic.
Not sure how anything is going to get done today. Locked in the listening room and I’m not going anywhere. May have to leave to feed the cat a few times, but hoping she can go on a hunting expedition and feed herself today.
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Thanks
…everything worked fine for me - I detect an upgrade in nearly all relevant areas. But: difference between good and mediocre (and especially dynamically compressed!) recordings is bigger than ever. So be it. Maybe time to give up the hope, that sometime garbage will turn into gold and to get rid of some almost unlistenable CDs. The only quibble I have: I own a 128 DS Recording burnt on DVD, and played over the I2S the DS detects still 24/172. Any idea?
Thanks to the team for this wonderful “last present”!
Happy Star Wars Day! Of course the first tracks cued up are from the Tidal Star Wars collection. The sound is very natural, spacious and relaxed.
Installed yesterday and it takes a while for the clocks in a DAC to settle in after a reboot.
Many thanks again to the PSA team!
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A post was merged into an existing topic: Wishes Upcoming PSA DirectStream MKII
One word: Wow! Thanks to PS Audio for all the work and support through the years.
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Welcome, @yippedidou !
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