Well,
I tried it…didn’t like it.
There was more texture.
The bass tightened up.
BUT the general sound was grating to me.
Immediately felt stress, tension, Is that distortion?
Maybe just me, but I went back to Snowmass 300.
Maybe I will give it another try in a bit.
T
Less distortion and noise should also sound less grating. Maybe run it in for a bit after your next try.
A reinstall can also sometimes help so do try going back with a clean download at some point.
Not really, with each release I find a way to get things done. Software is a gas. It expands to fill the space allotted. Sure there are some ways I’d use more space/resources, but the FPGA is just about as full now as it’s always been.
Definitely try installing an earlier version (like Redcloud) and reinstalling Windom after. I just went through that experience. First install attempt I felt like you. Some female voice at volume were very grating. Good now on second attempt.
Ted,
OK, how do you describe this firmware?
You look at the sky and see stars. Beautiful stars. You look at the wonder and expanse above us, and are amazed at the breadth of it all. But then, you drive to the middle of Montana one August back in 1992 or so, and see the MILKY WAY for the first time. What you thought was the wonder of the universe wasn’t the complete picture at all! It is what you thought it was, but then you see the real sky for the first time. Wow, you can’t die and not experience the MILKY WAY.
Windom is like that. What you thought was the truth is all of a sudden way off the mark. No, the Midwestern sky isn’t bad at all, but the expanse of what’s been missing is extraordinary in its richness and complexity. The clarity in the room around each musical event is HUGE. Songs I’ve heard many times simply open up. You lay there looking up wondering how it can be this good. But it is.
I love the clarity and precision in Windom, not a star is blurry wherever you look. Sure, some are smaller, some are larger but none are any less beautiful to the overall image of the Milky Way.
So yes, I like the way this is going. No, my Two Doors Down CD’s are still brittle, so it won’t turn those to the best sky in any state, but if a source has any soul at all, it pulls the heavens into your living room.
No issues with the up date, I set the volume back to 80 as it defaults to 25 and set the display brightness to 25. The Bridge was found straight away and all is well. That’s it, works more or less perfect with a few settings adjusted that don’t impact the sound.
Best,
Galen Gareis
Galen,
What a great endorsement. I can hardly wait to this weekend when I have
time to update the firmware. I’m still getting acquainted with the
improvements the P15 brought to my system over my old P10. I highly
recommend you audition the new Power Plants.
Ted, If I was a poet, I’d have used the right word for Soul, and not the
one that is on the bottom of your shoe! OK, I fixed it. That kind of ruins
it for my poetic career.
Some things “add” to what was already good. The
new firmware, like Snow mass, does that too. Windom has an extra layer and
depth and environmental ambiance that is the setting for the music to come
from within. That’s really nice to hear. It pulls YOU into that setting
WITH the music. OK, it may not be “accurate” but if I were to listen to
music I’d chose this. Each cut has it’s own ambiance that is enhanced or
plain was missing before.A neighbor had a German Shepard,a good one who
was all play. He’d hang onto a big knotted rope till you could spin him in
a circle off the ground! That is an impressive show of strength but hardly
delicate or eloquent. Brute force the situation.I was watching a
butterfly, those small common sulfur white or yellow ones. He was going
across the yard sideways to a 35 MPH wind! Amazingly, he was going near
dead straight across the yard a foot above the ground finding the best way
to negotiate the strong breeze. THAT was an impressive show of strength,
and at the same time was so delicate as to be even more
impressive.Sometimes music is like that, the SMALL nuances add way more
than what should be happening. A butterfly cruising across the yard isn’t
technically unusual, but HOW do they negotiate a setting that is so
against their wish to travel in a straight line across the yard?Brute
force is all too common.The ability to dance in a hurricane is far less so.
That butterfly sees a hurricane every day! And, he negotiates it with grace
and beauty at the same time. To me, that is strength…force being applied
and you don’t even know it! Nature knows how to do this.Think bass. Force
is the usual methodology. But bass that is STRONG, DEEP and sustained yet
delicate is what most impresses. A “not” show of force by being near
invisible yet so strong. Like the rumble of an earth quake in Indiana. I
barely feel it, but that you feel it at all is a show of immense
strength.The new firmware added ambiance retrieval is exactly that, a show
of strength that works effortlessly, invisibly. But, you blew it’s cover
for now as Snow Mass didn’t have that ability. Like the butterfly,
something really incredible is going on there, and not to be taken more lightly
than the weight of the butterfly.
Best, Galen Gareis
Wonderful Taoist review! Who is Galen? It’s confusing as it reads like Galen Gareis is writing to Galen Gareis 
Did . and much better…Now, not to say I am OCD but I can see myself reinstalling every hour on the hour…Just to be sure its the best it can be :-)
“Software is a gas”----When I read this I thought you were going all Maynerd G Krebbs on us. Ya know, like “cool daddyo”…
dancingsea,
Sorry, this is just a note to PS Audio and Ted Smith on their new firmware from myself, Galen Gareis / rower30. As Chevy Chase once said, I’m (fill in your name) and you’re not!
I just re-posted so as not to say it all over again.
Yes, I tried a mathematical approach but all the whole, half, quarter, sixteenth and thirty-second notes were all the same in both firmware revisions so I changed my approach!
Best to all trying it out.
Galen is Mr Iconoclast cable
And you’re right
Well after a proper install…wow
But I have to think…If I had an audio company and I wanted people to be happy with a Long Term investment…I would start with a great sound…then deconstruct it…then…s . l . o . w . l . y . release it in improved increments over time so people said “wow this just keeps getting better.”
Just saying, thats what I would do.
Sounds amazing !!!
T
That’s great. Did you go from Windom to Red Cloud and back to Windom?
My Windom install directly from Snowmass went smoothly and sounds great, but in typical audiophile grass is greener-itis, I may do it via Red Cloud just to be free of the notion that I might be listening to an inferior install
Intelligence is definitely a burden. If you didn’t suspect there could be a difference you wouldn’t wonder what might be. 
I find the sound improvement of SACDs are greater than CDs (over I2S).
Sound stage and image is locked in rock solid, whereas before ever so slightly
smeared.
Thanks Ted and PSA.
To be specific so no mistakes are made :-] i went from snowmass 300 to redcloud to windom.
Goodluck
To Tony and anyone not sure about the sound of the upgrade, I found it got better as the day wore on.
Thought I might have been the only one that remembers the Dobie Gillis show!
Also - a minor spelling correction - Maynard G Krebs.
Love those old shows!
“Wooooork?!?!?”
Hi @rudy-radelic, I had the very same situation as you, even down to the 2 GB USB drive that worked just fine to get me to Snowmass. But I previously could not get to 2.02 and today I could not get to Windom.
I had always been fearful of downgrading to earlier versions, thinking I might get stuck there. This time I decided to go for it – PS Audio has great support and they could get me out of a jam if it came to that.
I downloaded Huron and put it on the 2GB USB. It installed successfully. Then I simply deleted the files and replaced them with the Windom files (no re-format). It worked flawlessly. Like others on this forum, I recommend downloading and installing Huron, followed by WIndom. Best of luck.