Yale Beta Test

[Paul]

This is a soft launch of Yale, the new firmware that is the next step in the evolution of DirectStream DAC.

Yale is the creation of Ted Smith, who has lowered noise by 3dB, lowered jitter and reworked the filters in the DAC. He’s also added much in the way of ‘secret sauce’ - proprietary fixes and changes he’d rather keep to his vest. We know of them, of course, but they are not to be shared with prying eyes with agendas not in our best interests.

In Ted’s words:

The changes in the soundstage come from two places 1) the specifics of the upsampling anti aliasing filter, and 2) jitter reduction. The filter is primarily responsible for the changes in depth of sound stage. Jitter for accuracy of the sound stage and air around the performers/instruments.

Lowering noise always unmasks more detail if it's there.

Yale will be required to run Bridge II. Yale fixes the bugs we found in Pikes and improves sound dramatically.

Both Arnie and I find Yale to solve the issues some users of Pikes had, too forward and revealing (some would call it edgy), as well as make Pikes lovers swoon over the new performance levels of Yale. Yale is a miracle IMHO.

I find Yale to simply be better than 1.22 and Pikes by large margins. On the newly revamped IRSV in Music Room One Yale is a revelation on added spatial and low level information. Voices that once had noticeable reverb that seemed to come from nowhere, now have taken on a life of their own and I can clearly identify the source of reverb if it reflected from the room. Extraordinary levels of detail and added information and space become apparent with Yale.

Here is the download link to Yale.

Arnie and I are still polishing and fooling around with other versions, but for the most part, we believe this will be it. Download it, compare it to Pikes, 1.2 and let us know your reactions.

Don’t forget to unzip this file, take the contents out of the unzipped folder and place onto a CLEAN SD card. Place the SD card in DirectStream, gold pins facing UP. Pikes is available on Downloads.

[mrderrick]

Downloaded, installed with no issues.

Balance control back to normal.

Piano work in Steely Dan’s FM has greater clarity.

More to follow…

[pichi]

Another free upgrade,you fellas are awesome! How could you not love this dac. Cant wait to get home and try it out!!

[Frode]

Paul McGowan said

Arnie and I are still polishing and fooling around with other versions, but for the most part, we believe this will be it. Download it, compare it to Pikes, 1.2 and let us know your reactions.

Thanks

One question, though;

Does Yale excel as the ‘overall’ best version (i.e. the one with least flaws), meaning that there are others that surpass it on certain SQ parameters?

[Paul]

Arnie and I were able to go through about 20 versions, all different. Arnie narrowed it down to the top 5 and then we go back and forth between them. There was one version I found better in a couple of areas, but Arnie found it a little too forward, a little too brash on the top end - I concurred and this is it.

More work happens through the weekend as time allows. If we choose something different we’ll let you know.

Please take your time and give us your opinions.

[Johno]

Thanks so much Paul onto it right now will report back

[Frode]

Paul McGowan said There was one version I found better in a couple of areas, but Arnie found it a little too forward, a little too brash on the top end - I concurred and this is it.

This one sounds to be right up my alley.

I remember I liked the AC version for my PWD but others found it forward and bright.

[alrainbow]

Thanks Paul am team

[dennis]

Can people let me know how the USB works in this release? It has been completely upgraded along with everything else. If you have issues please let me (dennis@psaudio.com) know , either on the forums or directly.

Dennis

[Frode]

My DS is bricked.

With Yale the front light flashed forever.

I abrupted the process and when I reboot the display went dark and front light stays on.

Bummer

Post Note:

Compared with PP the Yale misses Loader.cfg file - is this correct?

[helmut]

Hi Dennis,

i am using the DSD with the Auralic Aries via USB.

It works flawless. For me it is the most involving SQ so far.

cheers

Helmut

[dennis]

Frode said My DS is bricked.

With Yale the front light flashed forever.

I abrupted the process and when I reboot the display went dark and front light stays on.

Bummer

Try loading an earlier version

Dennis

[Frode]

Tried reverting to PP.

Nothing happens. The front light is lit but display is black.

PP is not loading (and yes, the SD card is ok with contacts pointing upwards).

There should be no remains in root of the SD card.

[Frode]

@Dennis;

Any comments to this finding?

‘Compared with PP the Yale misses Loader.cfg file – is this correct?’

I really hope this can be rescued.

[tedsmith]

Frode said Compared with PP the Yale misses Loader.cfg file - is this correct?

If I understand you correctly:

No, without the loader.cfg nothing happens in an update.

Here’s the listing of the content from the .zip file:

06/23/2015 03:44 AM 1,022,319 DSDD0163.hex
02/05/2015 02:09 PM 1,936,215 DSDG0011.hex
06/16/2015 08:21 AM 810,350 fpga8713.hex
07/02/2015 12:59 PM 197 LOADER.CFG
03/04/2015 12:52 PM 368,687 USBL0021.hex
5 File(s) 4,137,768 bytes

md5’s

DSDD0163.hex 3484424137CC219C3ABBBB2B51E4049C
DSDG0011.hex 89275F27C6666A35A808B79EBC353610
fpga8713.hex 4EADEEBD79E083F6D1F5F6AC606E9833
LOADER.CFG 1FE6DAAE988AE60B884C8CCA9F8AD8AA
USBL0021.hex 379AD1780DCD1F2FCF74B2A42F6F61EB

Hopefully Dennis will chime in with the instructions for a rescue .zip file or you could call PS Audio and there might still be someone there.

[Johno]

loaded ok here now for serious listening.

I use the USB output exclusively no initial problems to report

I’m already a couple of albums into listening sounds good.

the .CFG fill was included in my down load from Pauls link.

Thanks

Johno

[Johno]

Frode said Tried reverting to PP.

Nothing happens. The front light is lit but display is black.

PP is not loading (and yes, the SD card is ok with contacts pointing upwards).

There should be no remains in root of the SD card.

Frode,

Sorry to hear your news

From Download software and guides

You might have to run Boot Rescue Disc For DirectStream

Downloads: 24

[Frode]

Yes, but my PP folder also had one file called loader.cfg.9999. This was missing.

I wonder if this had to do with an early beta version.

[tedsmith]

The .9999 file isn’t used in the upgrade process.

The rescue file that Johno mentions is the rescue file I was trying to talk about. I didn’t know it was available there, thanks Johno

[Dirk]

I installed Yale without any issue, approximately 3 hours ago…I can safely say this is the best performance I have ever heard through my system… I realise everybody’s system/room/ears are different - so what I experience is just that, my experiences ! I heard the difference/improvement from the get - go but it took an hour before then it really started to open out…

Pikes Peak is smaller, closed in, less informative, edgy, aggressive and lacks gravitas compared to Yale… Yale O/S, even at this early juncture, it is so much more musically involving… Super Ted has done it again- What a man…

Only slight issue I have noticed thus far - The balance is crossed over as is with Pikes Peak… Balance works correctly with 1.2.1… I have bought 20 x 2gb SD cards so it easy to download without any hassle and easy to swap back to another O/S…