Re: burn-in with firmware updates… I have witnessed over the course of multiple firmware updates on my DS Sr. a marked regression in sound akin to brightness/harshness of sound post-upgrade that takes many hours of play to reverse. This is separate than the changes in sound by the firmware itself, which almost always have an ultimate improvement in sound. I struggle to explain why this would be, but again the ears don’t lie…
Ted’s explanation thankfully gives some credence that there can be something to it…Of course YMMV, but it’s definitely something I’ve observed…
You are fine. The litmus test for the USPTO is determining if there is the likelihood of consumer confusion between the two marks. In this case, there is none. In other words, the use of “Snowmass” is occurring between industries with absolutely no relation.
For example, I could have a brewing company that produces the “Snowmass IPA” while a “Snowmass Auto Repair” company operates in my same town. Because a consumer shopping for an IPA is in no way going to get a brake job done by mistake because of confusion surrounding “Snowmass,” there is no trademark violation. The USPTO could and would issue Trademarks to both the brewery and auto repair companies due to the fact that they exist in disparate industries with no likely hood of consumer confusion.
I suspect that what you are hearing is largely the degaussing of the output transformers over that first couple of hours after having powered-down your DS to load the new firmware.
I just heard back from out attorney on the use of Snowmass and he’s fine with it. Here’s his note:
Using Snowmass as the name of a PS Audio DAC software update should pose no problem.
The lawsuit in Aspen, referred to below, has no similarities and very different facts .
In the TM infringement case brought by Aspen Skiing, the defendant clothing shop, located in Aspen, has been selling fake Aspen/ Snowmass logoed clothing using almost the exact same Aspen Snowmass logo. The defendant simply tried to make the leaf look different.
Moreover, Aspen Skiing Corp has a federal TM on all sorts of Aspen/Snowmass logoed products: from refrigerator magnets (I kid you not) to hats and shirts. Even if the defendant could suggest that a TM on a place name is not valid (it generally is not), he infringed on the Aspen Skiing federal TM by using/copying almost the entire logo with very confusingly similar drawing.
Also note, the fact that the mountain name is a famous US mountain name has no bearing on prohibitions on its use in commerce. As I said, place names are generally not trademarkable. But if you wanted a logo for Mt Sneffels that included a drawing of someone blowing their nose – that entire caricature could be trademarked. I always liked the name Mt Sneffels……
@tedsmith I red at few occasions (I hope to not be wrong) that your FPGA compiler use the Simulated Annealing algorithm to optimize at max the gates implantation (I guess to minimize the paths/chain between all of them). For another purpose I experienced a bit this algorithm and it does not guaranty at all to find the absolute minimum (at least in my context).
Is it true and do you think that the ultimate minimal in respect to some constraints on the avoidance of collocalisation of some features would permit to find the absolute minimal S/N we could ever achieve ?
The search space is so big that there’s just no way to ever know if you are even close to a minimum. Not only do you need to place the LUTs, DSP units, RAMs, etc. you need to find routing between them that doesn’t take too long for each individual signal. This placement is restricted by the propagation time, jitter, etc. (and a host of other possible constraints.) With bigger FPGAs shops typically use many machines in parallel and it can take days or weeks just to find one solution - they don’t care about “optimal” solutions, they just need one that works.
With the DS the tools find a solution in 7 to 30 minutes so doing 20 compiles on a 8 core processor isn’t too bad. If there are too many failures or some solutions take too long I know that I need to modify the design to give the placer and router more freedom. The real time needed is human listening time and there’s no way to grade millions of routes to look for a best one. In practice if none of the 20 sound as good as expected I can build another 20 or stare at the wall until I figure out something that needs changing and do a different release with it’s 20 compiles.
In practice most of the compiles for a new release are better than most of the compiles from a previous release. This indicates that finding an absolute best sounding version of a particular release would take longer than just doing something else to get better sound in a new release.
It’s usually in huge search spaces that one would use simulated annealing because one of it’s strengths is to (statistically) avoid local minima. When you implement simulated annealing faithfully, if you cool too fast is easy to get stuck and if you cool too slowly you never finish. But the more you know about your problem space the better the annealing schedule you can find.
This all boils down to for us the search algo used doesn’t matter much because (at least so far) we have to have a human listen to each candidate which really limits the number of solutions to try.
The fact its a human listen and not just the best measuring algo makes all the difference to me, and marks out Ted and PS Audio’s approach as worth (playfully mixing metaphors for a sec) all its weight in Chinese tea…
Oh well. At least for those with an Auralic Aries G1 or G2, there has been the firmware update with parametric equalisation and room correction to try out this weekend.
The latest Aries G1/G2 firmware is in Beta as of the 31st I believe.
I have had my eye on the G2 since its roll out.
Parametric EQ is a big plus for me, I implement it below 140 Hz on my Avantgarde SUB225s.
PEQ would eliminate 3 components and cabling.
The G2 just keeps checking off the right boxes for me.
Yes, the Beta firmware has parametric EQ for G1/ G2 already.
This will be done for the other older Aries next week but with less equalisation bands.
I guess, like many others, you do not have a perfect listening room or an anechoic chamber so the EQ comes in very useful.
Auralic has been decent with regular updates - they do not really announce them in advance but just push them to the devices when they are ready. No fuss, not so much talk but always prompt and they do they job - much to be admired!
The G2 is a bit pricey though. For the same coin, I would get the dCS Network Bridge albeit no EQ. Another company with regular and prompt updates - they just did one not long ago too, announced on the Roon forums a few days before and executed on time. dCS probably has the best single box solution in the Rossini - disc spinner, streamer and DAC all in. I AB’ed it vs the DS at the erstwhile local dealer who also carry PS and in all honesty good as the DS is, it easily beats the DS/ Memory Transport combination albeit at a higher price. The dealer admitted it himself. I would buy it in a heartbeat if it was within my budget.
So in the mean time I am anxiously awaiting the next the firmware release for the DS.
I have been leaving everything powered up 24/7 in anticipation!
I even skipped out on the Capital Audio Fest, well maybe I’ll go Sunday.
It is like Children waiting for Santa to come on Christmas Eve. You just have to Believe! When the time is right Snowmass will drop! Let’s not be impatient!
A luck for us.