Torreys Final Posted

Audio Components DACs
101

I have been watching the various threads on Torreys with interest over the last few weeks and finally got the time to download Torreys Final on Tuesday. Upgrade process was seamless - took less than 5 minutes. Whenever I have loaded new firmware in the DS and PWD in the past, I have always set up a playlist beforehand and listened through the playlist on the old firmware (Yale in this case) to get my ears in before updating.

Cutting to the chase - Torreys = Spectacular

The playlist I used to evaluate Torreys included inter alia:

  1. Blame it on my Youth - Jamie Cullum 44/16
  2. How Long has this been going on? - Holly Cole Trio 96/24
  3. Georgio by Moroder - Daft Punk 88/24
  4. Time after Time - Claire Martin / Kenny Barron 192/24
  5. Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word - Diana Krall 48/24
Some overall perspectives first. First thing I noticed was the soundstage had moved forward slightly (or I had moved one or two rows closer to the stage). Stage was both deeper and wider. Backgrounds seemed blacker and more space around notes and instruments.

There is a more organic flow to the music and it has PRaT in spades. Just kept on putting on more tracks and staying up way too late for my 5:30 am start toady.

I am not one to describe the attributes (nor am I capable of the insight shown by many on this forum) of the music very clearly but I tend to respond to my system according to how it makes me feel. If my favourite tracks can make the hair on my neck stand up or cause me to tingle, something is clearly working. Like some others here, the head nodding and foot tapping quotient is a good indicator for my enjoyment levels.

Torreys scores highly in this respect.

The Jamie Cullum track is one of my favourites and the best version I have of this great tune. The new firmware now makes the close miked vocals more clear and immediate and the emotion in his voice is conveyed more clearly than it has in the past.

Holly Cole has a unique phrasing style and Torreys made this more intelligible than I recall from previous listens. However, no-one can sing this song better than Ella!

The Daft Punk album is sonically fantastic with subterranean bass. The demo track 3 has never sounded better with the clicks and various synthesizer sounds being conveyed with astonishing realism.

The Kenny Barron piano sounded like it was in the room with me. He is a stunning player that has accompanied most of jazz royalty and I have many of his recordings.

After I had finished the playlist, I put on a 44/16 recording of Keith Jarrett - The Melody at Night with You. Normally ECM recordings are very well executed but this one sounded veiled and closed in compared with the examples in the playlist.

The DS has always been excellent at conveying the quality or otherwise of recordings but I feel Torreys has taken this up a notch. I love this DAC because I don’t believe it editorialises too much, it is pretty neutral and does not make bad recordings sound good.

I can only second the previous posters thanks for a great firmware release that only emphasizes what a high value product the PS Audio Directream DAC is. Thanks again Paul, Ted and the team.

smiley-music005_gif4_gifhappy-132_gif

Regards,

Chris

102
Ted Smith said
Dev said
Ted Smith said There is a difference between Torreys B and Torreys Final. Most should find the improvements in low level linearity help Torreys Final to be best, but I'm not surprised that some find Torreys B a little better.
Ted, by low level linearity did you mean low level definitions ? Honestly, I didn't hear or feels anything worse when I moved to Torreys-B from Torreys-F but it could be that my mind was hung on the other aspects of sound. I need to switch and listen one more time. What did Torreys-F traded off for the low level linearity ? Can't we have both - low level linearity as well as the sound character of Torrey-B ?
An example is turning the volume way down. With Torreys final you'll loose less than with the earlier Torreys releases. With the volume higher, the low level linearity may present as more reverb in the cracks between notes or a longer more realistic decay on percussion (or even piano.) Torreys final doesn't quite lower the noise floor as much as the earlier Torreys, but honestly I don't think that's causing the differences people are hearing.
Thanks Ted for the explanation but I am still not clear. Are you talking about the DS volume (or DS acting like a preamp) ? If the DS volume is kept constant (at 100% which is my case as I use a preamp), how would the low level linearity help ? What you loose or gain at lower volume, wouldn't that be the function of the preamp used then ?
103
Michael S said With all the switching of firmwares over the last few days, I have inadvertently noticed something something about the DS that I had never realised before.

On my system, there is a distinct difference in sound depending on whether the SD card is plugged in or not. With the SD card IN, the sound is brighter and more open; with it REMOVED, it is warmer and a bit more expressive. I have tried this several times and the results are repeatable.

Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just imagining it (after exposure to too many firmwares in one week)? If it is different what on earth might the technical reason be? If you don’t care about Album Art this may be another way to fine tune a system?

I also hear that if the SD card is in the DS the vocals a little more realistic and more life, little more open and easy. We've gone mad. But I really like this effect.

Don't even need to restart DS, just insert or pull out the SD card and the sound immediately changes. And I perfectly hear it even in pop recordings on YouTube clips.

Torreys Final rules!

104
Dev said Thanks Ted for the explanation but I am still not clear. Are you talking about the DS volume (or DS acting like a preamp) ? If the DS volume is kept constant (at 100% which is my case as I use a preamp), how would the low level linearity help ? What you loose or gain at lower volume, wouldn't that be the function of the preamp used then ?
The people that use the DS direct into their amps are most likely to notice the differences in Torreys Final. Still the effects that I mention are audible to some even with the DS volume set at 100: but usually only when the input gets relatively quiet, say in the breaks of orchestral music or a long fade out, or lone percussion... Obviously most people didn't notice the bug in Torreys A, since we only got a few people with specific complaints about the zippering, but increasing the low level linearity makes a difference for many even if they don't explicitly notice.
105

Oops - the line of white rectangles obliterating the track title is still in there with Torreys Final…

106
Ted Smith said
Bootzilla said [many nested quotes deleted]

UPDATE: I got home a few minutes ago and checked the situation. Bad news – I lost sound yet again with Torreys Final, this time without the JitterBug in circuit, and needed a DS power cycle to get the sound back. In other words, the sound drops with Torreys Final via USB with and without the JitterBug in place. I have rolled back to Yale and reinstalled the JitterBug.

There are at least two others with what seems like the same Torreys issue (see posts #s 67 and 72, above). Ted, where, if anywhere, do things go from here? Thanks.

Thanks for checking the JitterBug. We have a similar problem with the music just stopping in the Jr beta so perhaps we can get a handle on it. Its more rare here, but I’ve seen it and Dennis has seen it.


Hi Ted, thanks. As long as I was powering down the DS and reloading Yale, I decided to swap my Revelation Audio Labs 1.25-meter dual-conduit USB cable for my old 0.5-meter single-conduit Kimber Silver USB. I am now running Yale with the JitterBug and Kimber Silver and all is well (Yale/JB worked fine with the RAL USB cable, as well.) I would very much like to try Torreys again when the time is right. I might not check this thread regularly now that I am back to Yale, so if there is a beta revision to Torreys that you would like me to try, please feel free to PM me. Thanks very much for investigating and trying to solve this issue, I greatly appreciate it.

107

I’ve reverted back to Torreys B. As I don’t use the bridge, this didn’t cause any operational issues for me and in fact, since re-installing B, I haven’t had to re-boot my DAC, as I’ve had to do multiple times with Final.

As for sound, they all sound great, but unless the guys come up with a new version of Final, I think it’s either this version of Torreys for me, or back to Yale. I like the added definition, air and solidity of B over Yale and right now don’t feel like I have much interest in changing back to Yale. Unless it’s because I’ve had to continually re-boot my DSD, Final just seems a little grating to me at times, on some music, and I don’t have great tolerance for this. Time will tell.

In the meantime, while the different updates can drive us a bit crazy, I think it is fun and appreciate the opportunity Paul has given us.

108

I will give the Tc a bit more time, but it doesn’t create the wow factor that Tb does. Tb has just this something special.

I am mostly playing between 60-90 on the DS standard volume control (it is handier than the preamp remote).

PS: I am actually a bit releaved that it was not only the PIC code that changed between Tb & Tc. I easily get a little paranoia regarding what is real and imaginations during listening sessions. Hopefully this time it is the former…

109
figcon1 said I've reverted back to Torreys B. As I don't use the bridge, this didn't cause any operational issues for me and in fact, since re-installing B, I haven't had to re-boot my DAC, as I've had to do multiple times with Final.

As for sound, they all sound great, but unless the guys come up with a new version of Final, I think it’s either this version of Torreys for me, or back to Yale. I like the added definition, air and solidity of B over Yale and right now don’t feel like I have much interest in changing back to Yale. Unless it’s because I’ve had to continually re-boot my DSD, Final just seems a little grating to me at times, on some music, and I don’t have great tolerance for this. Time will tell.

In the meantime, while the different updates can drive us a bit crazy, I think it is fun and appreciate the opportunity Paul has given us.

Wow, that is really interesting and it gives me some hope, thanks for the info. I will try Torreys B this weekend.
110
Frode said I am actually a bit releaved that it was not only the PIC code that changed between Tb & Tc. I easily get a little paranoia regarding what is real and imaginations during listening sessions.
I share this paranoia. It is one of the reasons I compare with long listening sessions, typically days between changes.
111

The release-frequency of Torreys Beta was once an hour! respect-010_gifsurprised-014_gifdancing-009_gif

112

Just downloaded Torreys. It was a snap. Install was smooth and sound is sublime. I have only owned my DS DAC for a month or so but I wanted to thank the folks at PS Audio for an amazing product and update! My $10,000 SACD player is now gathering dust!

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gkbryant said ...My $10,000 SACD player is now gathering dust!
You might have to trade-in that dusty $10,000 SACD player on a DST later this year
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mark-d said
ozzymilton said Paul,

Do I need to download the Torrey final if I downloaded last week?

Ozzy…See Teds post.

http://www.psaudio.com/forum/directstream-all-about-it/torreys-final-posted/page-2/#p56106


Thanks, but without a direct reply from Paul or Ted I could not determine by the post you mention if the downloads are the same.

So, I just downloaded the Torrey final.

115

Pardon my ignorance, what is a DST?

116
gkbryant said Pardon my ignorance, what is a DST?
No problem. The directstream transport bring worked on now for release hopefully sometime this fall. The DST stands for that.
117

Paul, Ted, and the PS Audio Team,

This is my first post in this forum. I have been using Torrey B since Tuesday and has switch to Torrey Final yesterday. I need to congratulate your team for an outstanding job on this upgrade. All the details that were not there are all coming out. The HF are silky smooth and the LF are much more solid. Vocals on either male or female are now even more holographic! Sound stages are huge in width and depth, creating a really fantastic 3D reality. Air are significant around voices and or instruments. I also understand what Ted’s description of LL linearity. Comparing to my another digital front end of Esoteric K01X and G01 clock. You cannot really tell that your PSA DSD is costing significant less. Bravo! Once again, a job well done!

Regard,

Ian

118

Welcome, Ian!

119

Finally Loaded Torreys final. Awesome sound quality with all types of media including lossy mp3s.

All issues I found during beta testing went away except the scratching sound for initial few seconds when I change the song/or start a new song in between. And it is not something that happens always - still not sure whether it is happening with some type of formats.

Regards,

Sourav

120

Firstly, thanks for the update. It was a breeze to install and everything worked straight away.

Perversely, I first tried Torreys with my PS Audio Nuwave phono converter; an audible improvement, and it sounded fine before. The high end is where I hear this.

When I got around to playing digital files, I chose one that likely isn’t audiophile approved; “Turn On!” by The Music Machine, from 1966. They had one hit with “Talk Talk”. I played a song from the album called “The People in Me” and was startled by the cohesion that Torreys brought to a fairly poor recording: The bass and drums now had weight, leader Sean Bonniwells voice was where it should be, and the background “ahs” floated in space…remarkable. A fuzz guitar trying to sound like a sitar was as ugly as ever, but you’ll have that. Or 1966 did.

And the well recorded stuff sounds great, as expected.

So: thanks to all. As if I needed further excuses to hide out in the cellar…

Jamie Haynes