Lucky having local suppliers with the requisite technical chops on-board. For anything coming from China is gonna be a whole lot more expensive from today.
And I’m wondering about that. If you’re paying import tarrifs on Chinese built components that go into assembling your products locally, do you get a credit on those taxes when the assembled finished products get exported to International markets?
Is MQA support planned for the TSS DAC? Are you planning to send a unit to MQA Ltd for their measurements?
If so, which DAC input/s will support MQA unfolding/upsampling?
From my understanding there will be no MQA support for the Octave or TSS. But I could be wrong. It appears MQA support stops with the DirectStream Bridge.
TSS definitely not since TSS does not internally have any kind of streaming capabilities. It is a DAC, pure and simple.
Octave, the streaming option you’re going to want to connect to TSS, is still deciding about MQA. As a company and as a group we really aren’t into MQA and have always struggled with adding any sort of extra signal path or routing to accomplish
it. We put it in the Bridge because we could without changing its architecture. We did not put it into DS because that would have required an architectural change.
If we can manage to put MQA into Octave without an architectural change then we’ll do it. So far, that doesn’t look to be the case.
That’s good news. Thanks, and happy belated bday.
Ted has explained the reasoning for that before. The cost would be be beyond reason and would double the selling price! Listen to the music. The PS audio equipment looks classy is well built and plays music!
Paul how long do you reckon until you will be able to estimate the price for the TSS?
magicknow
But there are other units that will have MQA support built in that could be connected to the TSS, e.g. Lumin that could do the MQA unfolding (also for Tidal) and send it to the TSS on its digital output.
Hard to say at this point. As of now we’re looking at some where around $18,000 - $20,000 for both boxes. We’ll have a more solid answer around Sep - Oct. Last I heard, engineering is still working their tails off with the GUI.
I would definitely recommend adding it in even though personally I don’t find anything particularly remarkable with MQA over regular files.
I understand that a lot of people love it and it is one of the boxes they need to have ticked before they will even consider a high end DAC.
I also hope that there will be some facility for running Roon software on Octave (the way you can on Innuos servers as an alternative to their own software).
If I understand correctly. The TSS will share software with the DS Senior? The TSS simply has better components such as transformers,resistors,capacitors and of course larger FPGA? I could not use one in our bedroom if it is two boxes. I will try it out downstairs and if it beats the loaded Select DAC II with mono power bases It will be a keeper. Of course than I will kick myself for price of the MSB but the TSS was not out yet.
It will share most of the FPGA source, but there will be code to take advantage of the TSS hardware features. Just because it shares source don’t mean it acts identically: e.g. running on a faster clock will enable higher bandwidth inputs or sharing filter source doesn’t necessarily mean sharing the filter coefficients…
Paul said I should stop calling people Mister. i thought it was polite. So, Ted I assume it is just better parts all the way around. Probably a completely different architecture?
Is it two boxes? Have you ever heard my MSB, do you aim to beat it? I take it you are aiming for the last word in DAC’s regardless of price?
These (and other questions) are answered in my posts in this and the other related threads. (See post two of this thread.)
There are definitely better parts, tho the over all architecture is the same: FPGA handing all input parsing, upsampling, converting to quad rate DSD, a link to the analog (in this case an optical link) and then good power supplies, digital switches and clocking. The analog box still has the master clock which drives the digital box and hence the upsampled data drives at the analog box just in time.
But the TSS will also have features to make it fit into more systems seamlessly: e.g. ground lifts on all inputs and outputs, power supplies which have a power factor between 0.94 and 0.96 which means that they are taking current when other devices aren’t and if there’s any noise injected back out onto the lines, that noise will be away from when others are drawing current.
I also address the “cost no object” and other superlatives: there’s always a budget, it’s easy to spend the customer’s money on silly things, what I want to do is get the best sound for a reasonable budget that allows me to do the things I know need to be done for the best sound. For example I could keep doubling the analog box power supplies and digital switches for a lower analog noise floor, but it only has to be low enough to not be the limit on resolution, etc.
Thank you Ted. Yes at some point the cost is stupid. This is probably something a lot of people could have. The MSB maybe not so much. I am glad though that the software will port back to the DS Senior. I have already certainly gotten my money’s worth out of it thanks to you.
Ted it is my understanding that one thing that determines how well a DAC interfaces with a Power Amplifier is the amount of current the DAC can source. The idea being if there is sufficient current it may negate the benefits of inserting a preamp in line.
One that note how does the TSS compare to the DS in terms of source current?
thanks
It’s not the amount of current, per se, but the evenness of the output impedance. I.e. can it deliver the right amount of current to maintain the correct voltage. The DS and the TSS have a constant output impedance (about 120 Ohms) from sub 4Hz to way past the audio band. The problems that people are having when trying to not use a preamp aren’t related to current delivery, they are due to voltage gain matching and (to a lesser extent) effects of unexpected ultrasonics in some amps.
For gain matching the TSS has the “standard” 2VRMS output for unbalanced and 4VRMS for balanced outputs. It also has 3 attenuators (-10dB, -20dB and -30dB) and the ability to add 6dB to the unbalanced output. Also the ultrasonic noise is lower than the DS and the FPGA has the ability to lower it further.
It will be PSA’s last word in DAC’s until they figure out how to build a better TSS. I personally hope they build the best DAC they can build and don’t build a DAC aimed to beat MSB or others. Only time will tell.
What’s going on with the LSMFT?