Some have attributed successful up load to rebooting the DAC with SD removed after doing the up load. Once this is done, simply push the SD back in to enjoy cover art (with Bridge).
BTW, a blank SD card is not required, but if you leave a SD card in with firmware on it, every power cycle will result in a re-install of the firmwareā¦
This has been quite a journey. I attained sound nirvana with a zenith ->Direcstream(Snowmass 3.06) using an Audience USB -> BHK Pre -> Bryston 4b3 -> Spendor D9.
This was sadly interrupted because the usb cable would drop sound intermittently. So i thought Iād upgrade to Windomā¦so i experienced what so many folks here have. A good Load. Anyways while i waited for Audience to confirm if it was indeed the cable, I plugged the zenith to the directstream via ethernet.
This combination sounded decent but no way close to how beautiful and warm and full of timbre the usb combo with Snowmass had sounded.
Yesterday i got the usb back - and while I had previously accepted that windom sounded better I struggled with the musicality of windom. I struggled with the warm tone of the vocal midrange that I had got with Snowmass.
After loading and reloading Snowmass, Redcloud, Windomā¦boots, reboots and practically all stuff of vodoo i went back to Snowmass. Windom just did not have the musicality, timbre, warth and vocal midrange as Snowmass. Yes too much clarity and air can indeed sound digital.
@Paul - There are a bunch of issues here - a usb drop out, snowmass volume suddenly falling to 50, the craziness of loads and reloads, boots and all sorts of combos.
Whilst you guys have delivered some kick ass gear, as a customer I will refuse to spend money on any further PS Audio gear till these things are taken care of and taken care of quickly. For all the brilliance of sound - after spending six grand on a dac, the LEAST you want is a guarantee that the software you load will either load correctly or not. Can you pls let us know if PS Audio is going to be fixing these issues and if there are any ETAās.
Itās not that simple, unfortunately. It never is. Itās not that we have chosen not to fix a known bug, itās that the hardware will not support the right way to do it and so we do the best we can.
It does, but you want to make sure the SD card used for album art is different than the one used for an update. Best to make the update, make sure itās what you want, then erase the contents and clean the card before putting it back in for album art. In my
case, I have two different cards. One is for updates and the other is my standard card used for art.
I agree just like the load.
Really? You mean Iāve been doing it wrong ever since DS came out? Iāve only had the one card as getting other SD cards in the proper format and size is a pain. BUT: What I do is ensure the old generation files are in a separate folder (Snowmass, Redcloud, etc.). This makes them ready to reload if things go wrong with the new load. Next, download the new file from PSAudio and extract the new files. There are 5 files:
DSDD .hex
DSDG.hex
fpg**.hex
LOADER.CFG
USPL***.hex
In the case of Windom these are:
DSDD0401.hex
DSDG0017.hex
fpg14507.hex
LOADER.CFG
USBL0023.hex
Create a new folder, (in this case āWindomā) Take all the new files above and put them into this folder. Get the SD card out of the DS. Copy the new folder into the SD drive to the root directory of the SD drive. Make sure the old files in the root directory are saved in a folder (e.g., snowmass files are in the āsnowmassā folder). Then DELETE the DSDD .hex, DSDG.hex, fpg**.hex, LOADER.CFG, and USPL***.hex files from the root directory. Go into the āWindomā folder and ācopyā all files (on a PC, itās ctrl-A, then ctrl-C) Go back to the root directory and paste the files (On a PC ctrl-V). Make sure you donāt delete the file for cover art in this process.
Insert the SD card into the DS and let it boot. The DS will ignore all the old fpga bootup files because theyāre not in the root directory. You can swap out to the old version merely by repeating the delete/copy/paste/reboot scenario to your heartās content.
I must be doing something wrong, I guess, because Iāve got every old firmware version on my SD card and Iāve never had any issues with cover art. Granted, Iām not using USB, but I donāt know if thatās an issue. (I use the RCA digital input jack and the Bridge)
Best of luck.
āSSW
Paul, you said:
Itās not that simple, unfortunately. It never is. Itās not that we have chosen not to fix a known bug, itās that the hardware will not support the right way to do it and so we do the best we can.
Iād appreciate a better explanation - how can āand so we do the best we canā be a response?. Iām not 100% sure what exactly youāre responding to but Iāve just made a post in the thread on Windom Sound - since I loaded Windom after Yale it now sounds totally different to what I had before. How can we go on like this???.
As you know, Iāve had my system sounding fantastic but there seems to be some inconsistency dependant upon whatās previously been loaded - given that Iāve three dacs it might be the case that Iāll never be able to get any consistency (maybe not even if the digital boards in all dacs were replaced?).
Dan.
I wish there was a way to just clean the slate and know at that point the DAC is clean. Its the wondering, āDo I have Yale, or maybe Windom, or maybe its some type of Frankenstein nowā, thatās freaking me out. Iāll compare this concept to reformatting a hard drive and reinstalling the core operating system. At least that way you know what you are dealing with.
The notion that the solution, or lack thereof, is in part because you have decided to allocate your engineering team to different priorities, came from Ted. Ted speculated about a number of different fix possibilities but it seemed beyond his personal scope to fix. This left a clear impression that the ābest you canā is a result of engineering priorities and not that we are doomed to mediocrity because of hardware limitations.
We would hope that this voodoo Frankenstein good load bad load process would see greater attention from your team.
If itās an inherent hardware limitation, does that mean for all these years weāve been getting God knows what in these updates in terms of good vs bad loads?
I am in the same boat as many of the respondents here who have expressed their disappointment, confusion, and anger over Windom and prior downloads. It would be wonderful to have a seamless experience with the outcome resulting in a better sounding dac and if not, an easy and seamless procedure to change back to what they enjoyed previously.
At the same time, I am extremely pleased at the performance of my DirectStream DAC and by the ability to get essentially a new dac via firmware download for free. Iām willing to accept the frustration that has come with it, but for the sake of future PS Audio success and good will, I hope that a satisfactory solution is found. I have faith that Paul and PS Audio will sincerely work at making things right.
Are you saying the DirectStream DACs donāt have the correct hardware to do consistently correct firmware upgrades?
Just pointing out the more people go on about this the less likely Paul will authorise any more releases due to the agro it creates. I do agree that it is a annoying, but worse things happen at sea.
I do agree that itās annoying for many. However, when I bought my DSD almost two years ago, this issue was well known. I purchased my DAC, irrespective of the problem. Fortunately, my installs are straight forward and not problematic. I donāt understand the outrage here. This is nothing new. What I have, is a spectacular DAC that canāt be topped even by paying twice the money. Iāll stick with this as the devil that I know.
For me, this is an unacceptable logic. To just accept solvable bugs rather than push a company to put forth effort to solve them. The Bridge 2 had lots of issues, the blame for the delay in fixing them rested on Converse Digital, a third party. Presumably the firmware load issue rests entirely on PSA, so thereās no 3rd party to blame. That ought to make a fix easier. But there will be no fix until PSA puts more effort into it, and thatās not going to happen unless customers provide honest feedback.
Paul saying that āwe do the best we canā hardly sounds like effort to me. Iād rather hear āwe know about this issue and understand the angst it causes. We are diligently working on a fix and hope to have one soon.ā
The fix benefits everyone, PSA most of all.
Chris, I couldnāt agree more, was thinking the same thing, heās explained itās near impossible to fix given the hardware.
The thing is, Ted did not say it was impossible to fix. Ted said that PSA is using its engineers to do more pressing things and to āask Paulā about it. Paul has not said that its impossible to fix, only that its not easy. It may be impossible to fix, but neither Ted nor Paul has said so. In fact, Ted offered a number of theories of how it might be fixed, but its going to take engineering to work to try. It appears to be more a matter of priority than possibility.
Interesting, this latest firmware release.
I am (thus far) among those whose upgrades have for the most part gone smoothly. With Windom, the paranoia induced by the forum caused me to go and re-load Huron, and then re-load Windom. Canāt say that I heard much of a difference between Windom loads even after the SD card-less, just for good measure, reboot. FWIW, I hear it as an improvement over Snowmass.
That said, the dialog here has prompted some questions:
-
Does PSA have a diagnostic tool to ensure that a firmware load has installed correctly?
-
If a DAC is returned to the factory because it ādoesnāt sound right,ā how do they determine if there is an issue with the firmware? Maybe this doesnāt happen, though.
-
If the problem has a random component, how do they ensure that new DACS leave the factory with proper firmware installs?
-
Is there a means of āwipingā a DAC (i.e. without installing a prior firmware version like Redcloud or Huron) to ensure that a subsequent firmware load will process properly?
Just wondering . . .
Well I said near impossible actually.
FWIW, I tried @badbeef ās DSJ update approach of unplugging the HDMI cable and going directly from Snowmass. The results were better, the Windom harshness was lessened. I also turned off HQPlayerās PCM upsampling, which seems to work better with Windom in my system, relying entirely on the DSJās upsampling. The midrange remains less forward and sweet than Snowmassā, which is a noticeable difference in tone.