The Bridge III

Could you imagine what you could do with this:

Make a bridge III, that accepts a raspberry pi compute module… it has i2s out.

PSAudio could continue their own software on this platform, and default it to that.

But it would open up the world of work done on squeezebox server/client (and others)!

To drop in a directstream to my established squeezebox stuff would be awesome, without external boxes, going through spdif, etc.

The hot new thing on the market now are music servers…

Devices like the Aurender N10 / W20, TotalDac Server, C.A.P.S., Lampizator, Computer Audio Design (CAD), Lumin - and others. Some of these servers can run Tidal and or ROON.

The idea of combining the bridge II with the Memory Player in one box, add a few SSDs, design a powerful user interface app that’s able to run on iPad and Android put it on a operating system like linux would be great.

This server will be able to compete with the likes of the Aurender, Lumin and the CAD CAT…

Lots of possibilities and expctations here, but it’s been a tough road from Bridge I to Bridge II. Don’t expect a Bridge III, either an internal card like Bridge II or external box, to come any time soon. Paul may surprise us, but experience says otherwise. I will say, though, Paul was interviewed for the Hi Fi + Guide to Digital Audio and said the following “We’re working on a number of novel approaches to storage and distribution of digital music files, as well as some cost-no- object products which… well, you’ll have to wait and see!”. Stay tuned …

Bridge III is nothing but a wish that’ll never come true. Getting the Bridge II to operate with some software that actually works would be a miracle. I’ve had nothing short of a nightmare experience trying to debug the completely antiquated jRiver software where I have to sift thru a forum for hours on end for support that most of the time never comes around no matter what I try, who I ask or how I label my request for support. There’s something about ps audio and jRiver that just ain’t right but I’ve not be able to pinpoint exactly what that is. Except it doesn’t work for a hill of beans. I’m quite slow to use this word in nearly all walks of life but I must say if I did hate something it’d likely be jRiver. What a pile of undesirable smelly stuff this software is. For those folks with the fortitude to plow onward and use this dated software and forum, power to you, all of you would have been hero’s in the military for sure. My hat’s off to you.

Slydog1, Bridge III may or may not become a real product. Paul has talked in the past of developing a separate box “Bridge” (as opposed to the slide-in card Bridge I & II are), whether it would be called Bridge III or something else is anybodys guess. There are several products that serve the same function, the Aries and Rendu being the more popular here, so PS Audio may just drop it and go in another direction if it seems more in line with their product philosophy.

As for JRiver, I have been using it for about three years without any serious issues. I have had some hiccups, most recently when I got a new router last week, took a while to get everything in sync again, but it is working well at the moment. Strangely, there are some folks that have nothing but trouble with software/firmware that others have no problem with. Witness those who can’t update firmware on DS, PWD, NPC, etc. Haven’t a clue why that is, but luckily (knock on wood) I haven’t been so afflicted. I have heard a lot of grumbling here about the JRiver forum, so that’s not surprising. The folks here, while maybe not experts, are quite good at solving problems. There certainly are other options for controller software, but none are perfect (good tie in with Pauls Post?).

For me, the existence of such a Bridge was one of the main reasons to decide for the DS DAC, as I didn’t want a PC or similar in the listening room and bother about USB cables or proper AC supply for the PC. With the price of the DS incl. Bridge, using my NAS over a Jriver server, I got a complete set and probably one of the best sounding combinations for a MUCH lower price than various DAC/Streamer/Music Server setups offered elsewhere. I really don’t understand why people would spend so much money for high end music servers with included ripping stations, SSD etc. without any sound quality advantage. Even my understanding for a separate streamer with new expenses for cabling and power supply is limited. For me, the bridge is the perfect, cost saving option, althought I understand that less IT affine listeners might need some of the expensive easier solutions. For me it works perfectly from the beginning. A DAC of that quality and price with an implemented bridge for me was the best idea ever and a buying decision.

Yes, I would need to connect a PC to be able to listen to double rate DSD etc. But then again I’d need another DAC to listen to higher than double rate DSD etc. as soon as it’s provided on a broader basis. This might be a matter in a few years possibly, but then I’d still mainly listen to my 40.000 less than 2xDSD tracks. For me the quality in terms of ambience, soundstage and transparency is on a more than sufficient level now with up to 1xDSD format, compared to other DAC’s and Vinyl (at least for digital sourced material) to not bother about it for a long time.

Jriver with it’s configuring options and configurable app-views is a perfect solution for me and I didn’t find anything comparable yet. Would be hard to pass on it for a simple uPnp option.

So this leads to my only wish for Bridge III:
It should stay integrated! and deliver support for the by then by the DAC supported bit and sampling rates. An external bridge may be one of the contenders for let’s say an Auralic Aries, but it would leave a big gap if it competely replaces the internal solution.

@slydog1: Have you tried minimserver? The interface is not slick but it performs well.

@slydog1 I am bummed to read this - only because I feel your pain and it’s not what this should be all about. You don’t have to use JRiver which, I will admit, is a cluster f••k. There is Minimserver, as pointed out, Twonky, and NAS that connect. But in the end, the Bridge is for the adventurous ones that are willing to handle fiddly things. I want to solve that problem, where no one should have to play around with siftware and settings - we need to move beyond all that. The team and I are working on a solution, but it will not be quick. Others are as well, and there’s hasn’t been quick either. I feel your pain and if you want help with JRiver, please call us. Alex and Dave P have walked people through JRiver and made believers out of them too.

Just my opinion; however, JRiver is a fantastically robust program. Most of the errors I experience using JRiver and Bridge II were because Bridge II doesn’t follow DLNA standards. For example, Bridge II doesn’t follow the DLNA standard for gapless. Well…JRiver has a feature to shut off the SetNext command. I believe most of the issues with JRiver have been resolved if you carefully search the forum here. Sorry it’s complicated but that’s the nature of the beast. Fully featured and customization results in complexity.

Paul McGowan said @slydog1 I am bummed to read this -********* I feel your pain and if you want help with JRiver, please call us. Alex and Dave P have walked people through JRiver and made believers out of them too.
I use Bubble Upnp my android devices and Mconnecthd or Creation 5 on ios they are the closest thing to Bubble which for the record I think is the Best app for music It has built in tidal and lots of other features like onedrive,gplay,gdrive dropbox and it works better with my Jriver mc21 and the DSDac bII ten Jremote or gizmo..just try it for urself

During Bridge1, Bridge2, Elyric, Jrmc etc I always found myself to be the weakest link.

Nothing seemed to be PnP. But finally, after spending some time to get better acquainted with my network, components and software, it all settled down and even the B1 gave me a lot of pleasure with very few headaches. The set up is key as well as not asking any given program to play flawless music while also making toast n coffee in the morning. We want it ALL and we want it NOW. It is getting better and easier all the time. We were all just on the front edge of the wave, thanks to Paul.

Slydog1, I have cursed at J River many times, and FWIW, back when Paul & Co decided to stop development of eLyric in favor of using J River, I was none too happy about it. What I see with J River is that they have been under such pressure to keep upgrading and adding features that their documentation has lagged way behind their code, and clearly they still haven’t figured out how to really rectify that. And the innards of their user interface can indeed be maddening. But I do also agree that it is stable and robust and works very well with the Bridge if you get it all configured right.

Paul, just a thought as a former LAN admin: It may not be too hard to use a utility like WinInstall or whatever the equivalent program du jour is to grab the relevant settings/registry entries and come up with a little executable that automagically configures J River… there are many potential pitfalls in doing stuff like this and you have to be very very careful and go over every line of code, but I used to do stuff like this all the time. It’s a bit of a hack, but it can work. You could even, in theory, use it to set up zoneswitching rules. Just a thought.

I now use Illustrate Asset on windows 10 computer as media server and Mconnect Hd on an IPAD as a control point with my bridge II after having tried Jriver MC20 first. Asset is built for audio only and just works and very easily with Mconnect and sounds richer to my ears and is cheaper . Thanks Asset !!!

Oh yes, almost forgot, Asset includes Tune In internet radio like squeezebox did for about 50000 stations around the world if that interests you. and you can try it free.

So far my favorite, but open to better suggestions.

I bought JRiver and I spent hours trying to fix it properly. But I find that even with trimmings recommended PSAUDIO, the sound is cold, metallic and unpleasant and confined in loudspeakers. These are defects that are not found on ELyrics that develops a wide soundstage, with its much warmer.
As long as I can use Elyric I will continue …

amsco15 said Fully featured and customization results in complexity.
Very true.

And then we have standards (good). Which are many (bad). What results in flexible solutions you can choose from (good). Often not compatible with each other, including the end users (bad). Etc… etc…

Hi @adminpaul

Are there any plans for a Bridge III this year (or next) or is the full focus on PS Audio’s music server (Octave) now?

Cheers

We’ll be focusing on the Music Server and keeping Bridge II updated.

Thought so - makes perfect sense. Thanks Paul.