This actually is why I used that as an example. To illustrate how the “there’s always something worse” rationale is ill suited to actually dealing with things, just about anything 
Paul, what is your firmware switch recipe? Do you revert back to Huron or Yale? Or do you go directly back and forth between Snowmass and Windom?
One element is certainly psychological on the forums. We read about another’s poor experience and take it on as our own. Doubt can be a force for good or evil, depending…
Except of course, that that was not what I wrote.
Haha. Sort of. Anyway, who cares, there are always worse things that happen on this forum. So I’ll take solace in that reality 
I would think of Converse more akin to an OEM manufacturer - much like how Bosch makes injectors for BMW and many other car manufacturers, since Converse is the manufacturer of the section of the Bridge II that handles network interfacing.
I, for one, appreciate the FREE updates and am willing to deal with the inconvenience “proper loads,” since I don’t know of any other manufacturer that uses FPGAs that even offer updates once the product is released, let alone updates for free (unless there is a problem/issue that affects operation).
If the process gets too burdensome over time, I would just pick the one I like best and just stay with that - at least until I learn/hear that any update bugs have been ironed out. Even if I just stay with Snowmass or Windom and never update further, I’ll know that I have one of the best sounding dacs for the money for some time to come.
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Paul, you said “Most people load without issue”.
My only objection would be:
Do most people know that they got a bad load, or do they just discard Windom, and re-load Snowmass because they like it better not realizing that their Windom load was bad?
I had issues every time I did an upgrade to my DSJ. Since I got my Snr I have not had a single issue downgrading or upgrading, with downloaded files and using the official DS Card and a purchased one.
Since some users can obviously download and update the firmware then there should be no reason why you would discontinue the download option.
Strange that you experienced drop-out with your Audience Frontrow USB cable.
I also have the Zenith MK3 --> DSD DAC via an Audience AU24SE USB cable and I have not experienced a single drop out since I installed it.
However, I do not have a Bridge: do you have a Bridge?
If so, you may want to remove the Bridge and re-try just to make sure the drop out are not caused by the Bridge.
Amen, me too!!
This really is logic that could have served a company with decent market share in the 1970’s or 80’s. No one is beholden here. PS Audio runs a business - if they dont fix this, they will loose customers. Period. Its really that simple.
As regards the logic that is being put out here- Does this mean every FPGA based DAC has the same issues ?
There is admission that work is being done to provide some relief. That should have been the sincere answer given at the outset instead of shrugging shoulders and saying suck it up.
Also as regards this forum not being the norm - how do you measure the norm when you dont have a baseline, how do customers who have Windom know they have a good install or a partially crap install ?
there are a whole bunch of people with various usb’s that have faced drop outs. These are cables that worked just fine with one version on the dsd and then stopped working on another.
PS Audio has accepted that dont know what causing the issue and are looking into it.
Good for you that you havent faced the drop outs…
Audience was excellent, they looked at my usb and sent me a replacement to test out so that I could isolate the issue.
The USB drop out is 1 issue, inconsistent loads another, and snowmass volume dropping to 50 is another.
I have switched to having HQPlayer upsample PCM and SDM to DSD128 using the poly-sinc-xtr-2s filter and ASDM7 noise shaper. I am actually having HQPlayer pass the DirectStream native DSD.
So far, I am very pleased with the results.
That’s interesting. In the beginning I had HQPlayer upsample PCM to DSD 128. But then I read many places it’s best to keep PCM as PCM, so I’ve been doing that.
What do you mean by having HQPlayer pass on native DSD? Is that different than DoP? Is there an option in HQPlayer to pass native dsd vs DoP? Assuming I understand the possibilities correctly, which is always questionable!
I just unchecked DOP and it sends native DSD. I also set the output mode to SDM instead of Auto. That’s for getting PCM converted to SDM.
Well, I figured the DirectStream was converting PCM to DSD so why not try letting HQPlayer do it. I figured it couldn’t hurt to try it.
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I guess I have been lucky with my USB cable.
But, I did get a bad load upon my initial loading of Windom.
Hopefully, you will be able to enjoy your Audience USB cable - it really makes a difference!
How did you get the good load. What os did you revert to ?
RC --> Windom --> re-boot.
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Looking at all of the available info in this thread it appears that you will have the best update success with all of the inputs and outputs disconnected from the back of the machine. I had trouble updating to Snowmass in my Jr. and had to go back to Yale first like a lot of people here did. I have not had the time to try the Windom upgrade to my Jr. yet but will disconnect cables when I do. My Sr. update to Windom went without a hitch and as I said before is a big enough improvement in system that there was no reason to go back.
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My DSD Snr is more than three years old, and I experienced my first bad load with Windom. It was immediately obvious (the sound was really muffled).
It was quickly fixed with the method suggested by Ted, and Windom now sounds amazing.
Thank you @tedsmith @Paul and PSA for this amazing free upgrade.
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That’s a good question. My assumption is that when they load Windom and it sounds better they had a good load. Which is the experience most people have.
I’ve been chatting back and forth with Ted and Matt and the consensus in broad strokes is that we were remiss in a couple of areas:
-
We should have informed folks that after loading the new firmware, the SD card should be removed and the unit rebooted as a matter of course.
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That too many people have not properly unzipped their firmware. This can be because of changes by Apple and Microsoft make zip files appear like they are already unfolded when a closer examination would show otherwise. We should perhaps post what
the files on the card must look like. -
That any non-PS Audio I2S device must first be removed. This is an issue that has only recently been brought to my attention. It appears that many of these aftermarket devices don’t follow standards with the +5V line and this can cause problems with the load.
I think these steps would have been helpful to a number of folks.
Then there’s the few, like Lonson, who have had problems even with preloaded software. These are truly rare but none the less super frustrating.
We need to work through these and are.