Ted, if you can do it I vote for it. There is more and more DSD256 material being made available (granted, mostly classical and small label jazz). I have a small bundle of such material myself that I can’t play natively at the moment.
Essential
Now that Windom is out there for a little bit, and everybody is settling in on it’s sound quality, I thought I’ll try tweaking it and see if I could get a bit cleaner highs and firming the midrange with different cables. Indeed you can. I tried a WW Platinum Eclipse 7 instead of a Eclipse 6 between preamp and DAC and that clear and extend a bit, not night and day, but better. The mids were also a little richer. Also not night and day, but noticeable. Also I try different power cords of all things, powering the Uptone 7v external power supply to the Matrix x SPDIF 2 and that help kind of like put a different flavor to the mix. I tried three power cords, a Pangea, a PS Audio P12 , and a Shunyata Black Mamba. The Pangea is a bit on the dull side with softer highs. The PS Audio was a bit hard sounding although more highs. The best balance and most musical was the Shunyata. Nice highs and nice rich sound. With Windom, the dac seem to sensitive to tweaking, maybe because the resolution is so high. Thought I just pass that along.
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I have to disagree, at least on my side of things…I find that If I do the 2nd reboot after the install, it’s not as good to me 3 dimensionally. So I just leave the card in and the power on.
Ted did say the issue can arise any time a reboot occurs, so You could get a great install and then mess it up with the reboot…That’s how I read it.
Just sayin
T
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Just loaded Windom about one hour ago after a rather protracted process where I thought I had “bricked” the DS.
Anyhoo, initial impressions are very favorable in my system. Can’t imagine going back. Vocal attacks, cymbal shimmer and overhang are something else. Articulation without any grain or grit. WOW!
BTW, I don’t believe in burn in or any convoluted retrograde update process. I actually went straight from the Boot Recovery files to Windom and then cycled power without the SD card installed.
Can someone confirm for DSJ after upgrade it start volume with 25? My DSJ restart at same level I usually keep it 75.
Ted my DSJ keep same 75 volume level.Could this be a sign Windom is not properly loaded?
My DSJ rebooted at the same level I previously had, it did not go to 25.
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No, I don’t think so. I don’t know how the “25” feature is implemented, but the “bad” loads should function like the version on the version page, but with less audio clarity. I wouldn’t worry about whether you experienced the “25” thing if your version page says Windom.
It would be helpful if the DS/DSJ had a self checking system which could empirically determine if a “load” is “bad” or “good” rather than us having to rely upon our unreliable minds and ears 
Perhaps, but I’d still trust my ears more.
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Thanks,maybe I’m too anal 
So far Windom sounds like “perfect vinyl” as I imagine it. Can’t think of any higher praise. @tedsmith and PS Audio team you should be proud of this product. Expect some competition between the new Rega RP10 and digital sources this weekend. What a “terrible” dilemma.
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For the unwashed masses like myself, I don’t have a frame of reference in which to know if the load is bad or good. Without knowing what a good load sounds like, its difficult to compare. Does a bad load sound awful and muffled like the DS/J is defective? Or is it more subtle?
I’m instead left to mostly guess and run through the various non-scientific theories about how to update posted in the forums. That’s why having my DSJ tell me the load is good would be much easier.
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I’m of course no engineer but practically speaking it makes sense to always have the volume fixed to the highest degree possible and control your volume via the preamp. The more gain you can achieve natively by source component the better. In other words, better (IMHO) to maximize output from your DAC at 100 and set your volume level on your preamp to 50 then to reduce the setting 25% on the DAC only to ask your amp for more current requiring a setting of 75-80, but that’s just my two cents.
I agree with this. It seems to do everything that vinyl does well without any of the negative background noise.
I too agree w statements about it sounding better over time. I’ve never experienced that with an upgrade and that goes back to my first upgrade of pikes peak to Yale I believe.
What a great ride. Thanks so much for your dedication Ted.
Is there a CRC check following the load a new firmware?
I never felt that way with Snowmass.With 1.5W from my single ended amp (no volume control) I can play anywhere with DSJ volume scale.I’m pretty sure without any resolution loss.
Certainly there are two levels of is on the FGPA, it won’t boot without passing a CRC. I can’t speak to what happens if the PIC’s code fails a CRC, but as I said earlier I don’t think it’s a code integrity problem. I think it’s a configuration parameter problem, the parameters aren’t handled in any systematic manner and the upgrade process isn’t robust about validating them as it converts them from the old version to the new… Fixing all of the fragile code from the departed programmer takes time and I have no special insight into the software priorities at PS Audio.
Ok. Presumably different if not using a preamp or prepro.