The Annie Lennox Album Diva uses surround effects on Legend in My Living Room (track 4) not as impressive as The Hurting Time. You will also get some great surround effects on Roger Waters Amused to Death and In the Flesh albums.
1 Like
Very nice Wndom sound with silky highs from the new Ron Carter Foursight album, love it!
So natural sound. I go to jazz concerts with a trio or quartet in a small venue. Symphony at orchestra hall. These get me to natural. Rock acoustic shows are great too as an amped acoustic guitar seems pretty accurate to me.
Big rock shows. Just enjoy the event. Donāt worry about the sound. And if youāre music sounds good on windom - then it is good.
1 Like
Thanks for the tip - I am going to get that
Normally Iām one of the first to react to a firmware update for the DS DAC but given the conflicting opinions in the first few posts I decided to see how my update panned out in the longer term. This has recently been overtaken by an update to the dCS Mosaic control app which I am now starting to use.
I had one hiccup in doing the Windom update. I decided to recycle some old SD cards previously used for photography. In error I formatted the card on my iMac as ExFAT instead of MS-DOS (FAT) - I should have read the PS Audio instructions! Once I reformatted the SD card correctly Windom loaded with no problems (as had the previous 7 firmware updates Iāve made since getting the DAC).
My first impression after a couple of hours was strongly favourable and it only got better over the following days. Specifically the treble was cleaned up considerably cf Snowmass 3.0.0 (Iād tried 3.0.6 and found the treble too fierce). Violins were sweeter in tone. Complex multiple musical lines in the treble were now separated, even in loud and busy orchestral pieces. Presumably because of the lower perceived noise, subtleties in the music were now more apparent. I did not notice any loss in the bass / mid sound quality. Maybe the lower bass is slightly less strong but its character is better: I can hear the drum stick impact and sound decay better. Snowmass 3.0.0 had brought more natural piano sound in attack and decay but Windom improves on this further with deeper tones; piano notes sound richer with more subtleties in attack and decay apparent. Overall I felt that there was greater transparency without the sound being at all clinical. The only marginally negative aspect I suspected was that I could now hear more minor imperfections in recordings e.g. some treble notes on a particular harpsichord recording now sounded wrong. When I listened to the same track on a completely different system (Chord Hugo with Sennheiser HD800 āphones) I heard the same thing so it was the recording, not a Windom problem.
I used the BubbleUPnP control app in conjunction with MinimServer for the above assessment but, because the recent upgrade to the dCS Mosaic control app included enhancements and bug fixes that have now made it acceptable to me for use in conjunction with a large music library, I switched to this app (running on an Android tablet). Not sure why, and I know it is contentious, but the improvements in sound quality noted above seemed enhanced after I made this change e.g. the tone depth on piano and sweetness of violins are improved further.
Overall Iām very happy to have these two free upgrades that noticeably improve my enjoyment of music in my library. Many thanks to Ted Smith & Paul McGowan for the PS Audio DAC upgrade.
8 Likes
I have been burning in Windom on my DS Sr for over 200 hours and it is very sweet, with an excellent soundstage. Iāve had the DS (+Bridge2) for just 7 weeks and started out on SM which came pre-loaded on the machine. No issues loading Windom straight from Snowmass. Listened to Alex Laband on Qobuz last evening and greatly enjoyed the musical 3D fireworks on this album, with the effects buzzing around my listening room, including behind my listening position. Thanks for the recommendation. Also before retiring for the night I thought Iād try Adele 25 (also Qobuz), which I used to find too stressful on the her vocals to fully enjoy, including with Snowmass. Yes, I know she has a powerful voice but does it need to be explosively forced into my ears? What a revelation with Windom!! The powerful vocal was real, live and quite thrilling to anticipate each crescendo rather than shrinking back. Also there is exquisite layering of the backing vocals and instrumentals going back about 10 feet behind the speaker plane. Exciting stuff! Canāt wait to run through a bunch of my favorite albums. Thanks to the PS team for the great technology and to the forum members for all the great insights. This is all new to me and Iām very appreciative.
7 Likes
@tedsmith: It has been more than 3 days since another Windom rave has been posted on this thread. Time to crank out the next peak on your path to perfectionā¦! The natives are probably getting restless. 
Appreciate all of your effortsā¦what a great time to be enjoying this hobby,
Scott
1 Like
Yesterday my wife and I did our own in house comparison of Snowmass versus Windom firmware by listening to two SACDās (that we had previously used to audition new speakers) before and after I upgraded the firmware from Snowmass to Windom. What follows is a description of our stereo system, the music we listened to and our impressions of the difference between Snowmass and Windom.
Stereo System: We have a PSA DMP and DSD DAC stacked on a PSA Power Base. The DMP is using the latest firmware upgrade. The stereo signal is fed on an unbalanced lines to a conrad-johnson (c-j) GAT Series 2 preamp and then on unbalanced lines to two c-j Premier 12 mono power amps (hope to have a major power amp upgrade soon). The amps feed two Magico S7 speakers which we have had for about two years now. All cabling is Kimber Select silver/copper interconnects and speaker cable.
Music: Both of these selections are music that we enjoy and listen to regularly. The first selection was āBlack Magic Woman (BMW)ā from Santanaās Abraxas album (MFSL UDSACD 2152). This selcton includes blistering guitar work by Santana and some great drum and Congo drum work. The next two selections are from Cowboy Junkies The Trinity Sessions album (Analog Produtions CAPP 072 SA). We used the first two tracks āMining For Goldā and āMisguided Angelā. We have seen the Cowboy Junkies live many times including at the City Winery in NYC ( a small intimate venue ). Their lead singer Margo Timmins is one of our favorite female vocalist.
Listening Impressions: Both of us found that Windom is brighter with sharper leading edges of notes and that bass is better defined and fuller. On āBMWā the already blistering guitar work was made even more so. The leading edges of each note went from pure blackness before the note to full volume an instant later. The same was true of the leading edges of cymbal strikes. The Congo drums became fuller and more lifelike as if they were in the room with us. On The Trinity Sessions tracks both of us felt there was a brightness and better definition brought to Margoās voice, however, while my wife thought is was just a minor improvement in her voice, I thought it really changed the character of her voice and I am not sure if it is realistic or not. As always, your mileage may vary.
1 Like
I spent a week with Windom after a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious load. Yes, everything is a bit more clear, particularly voices, and there is more detail, but for me, Windom brings an auto tune artificiality. I canāt quite put my finger on it, but to me, something is off. Perhaps because Iāve enjoyed Snowmass for so long, it has become my reference point for what music ought to sound like. Take the Grateful Deadās Warfield acoustic set release from last April, a very high quality live recording from 1980. Windom has more razzmatazz, but Snowmass sounds more natural and organic. I think it has something to do between the balance of revealing vs musicality. At least in my system and to my tastes, Windomās brightness upset the natural order to a degree thatās beyond my capacity to compensate for. All my cabling is anti-bright already, and my solid state amp wonāt allow for the tube makeover @lonson did to bring Windom into balance.
My comparing phase is over, perhaps I have a past life connection to Snowmass, but Iāve returned to its shores and will await the next mountain before experimenting again.
I definitely āfeelā you about Windom. I agree with Tony above when he says sound from Windom is ābrighter with sharper leading edges of notes and that bass is better defined and fuller.ā I do agree with āfuller,ā but itās ātighterā and less present in important ways in my system. Iāve actually done even more experimenting by using different power cords for my preamp and DSD and then went back to the AC-12, and then back to most of the original tube set I was using, and by messing further with speaker placement and āgainā between components I am enjoying the sound and the benefits of Windom. But I do know what you mean about that bit of āartificialityā. . . . I think youāre right that in our systems, probably not in others, this seems less āmusical.ā Iāve gotten so that I find it less artificial now, but it did bug me for a few weeks. I totally understand moving back to Snowmass (for me it would be 3.06 as 3.00 was too dark and treble seemed recessed ). Thereās no telling what the next peak will bring. . . Iām in no hurry.
1 Like
Iāve settled in nicely with Windom and without question it does everything better than Snowmass. With this firmware release,it seems Windom is much more system dependent than past releases. To my ears,this release is stunningā¦itās running on all eight cylindersā¦with no brightness or lack of any natural sound presentation. My system has never sounded betterā¦
5 Likes
Does anyone have the test cd that has recordings of handclaps at various distances, ie 10 feet, 20 feet, etc. Iām curious whether Windom does a better job of resolving them as compared to earlier releases.
Also, I noticed that there arenāt that many downloads of Windom yet. I would have expected that with the Stereophile ad, there would have been a flood of downloads.
The download counts reset when PS Audio refreshes the download files. I wasnāt watching too carefully but I seem to remember something over 2k on the original download.
I wonder if that album could be helpful to you:
Thanks Ted for your most recent wizardry. I think Iām entranced? LOL
I am waiting for the SD card with Windom to arrive for a final tryout on your recommendation.
So far, I agree with your findings. Snowmass has a better musical flow. I donāt know how much the warmer mids and lesser highs account for this.
My main gripe with Windom is the crispy highs and some sibilance in the upper mids although the latter is not what others have found.
After weeks with a Good Load of Windom, which has also been weeks of tweaks and trials and never being able to get happy with my costly new and new/used gear, Iāve reverted to Snowmass 3.0.0. Awesome. Guts and brain relaxed. Stereo not broken 
4 Likes
Yes, Snowmass is good for mental health 
And my wallet.
Thanks, Ted!
1 Like
In my very wee opinion, we ought not have to remake our entire systems to suit a software update. Sometimes the grass is plenty green enough as is
2 Likes