Ha thanks @erich6 I figured it’s small pennies considering… well obviously putting a roof on our heads and all the other costs of raising kids .
Plus it was painful to see him labouring with his limited number vinyl discs etc for so long, and the free Spotify service for YEARS…
I thought ‘this needs a makeover’. Soon after I discovered Roon, I got him a lifetime membership and all the gear needed. He’s been using all of my SonicTransporter i7 & DSD256 > ultraRendu > iFi iDAC2
All feeding his 40 year old Sansui integrated amp and 30 year old B&W speakers… both which he got a garage sales by the way. I’m kind of shocked at how great that old analogue gear can sound when the digital front end, up to and including the DAC of course, is done well…
He was so happy with Roon & Tidal he was happy to sell his vinyl collection and turntable and those funds cover the Tidal subscription.
I think this S2 DAC will be the final freebie he gets for a few years. No more changes!
He MAY get lucky in a couple years when I move out of this apartment and go back to a speaker setup in which case I’m going fully active speakers. So he may inherit my Hugo2 DAC but that’s a couple years away.
Personally I love great value for the dollar (who doesn’t?), so even I can’t wait to hear this new Pro-Ject S2 DAC with his vintage amp and speakers.
Hey Sean, yes that’s me. I’m off the beers at the moment so whisky is having to suffice
I’ve been flicking between inputs on the DAC using the remote and honestly, I can hear zero difference between the Pi and USBridge. Currently the only real benefit is MQA which I’m still not sold on. I’m also getting a lot of MQA dropouts on certain tracks I have been able to replicate so doesn’t feel random.
I’m awaiting a linear power supply so we’ll see if that makes a difference but in the spirit of fairness I’ll also power the Pi with it and see where we go. I’ll update that in the USBridge thread.
The Digi+ has it’s output transformer isolated from memory and since the ESS chips do a great job with jitter reduction (I’m told) it doesn’t surprise me that it sounds just as good as the USBridge.
I’ll keep an eye on the USBridge thread for your thoughts.
Is the MQA bug the same that others have reported in the Pink Fish thread or something different? Do report it so it catches John W’s eye over there.
I was considering relegating my Bluesound Vault 2 to just storage/NAS duty while using one of these instead of the Vault’s internal DAC (Same as Node 2), but, it’s looking like I may be better off waiting until I’m ready to make a bigger jump.
So… One week in, lots of listening (headphones only, got myself a new MrSpeakers Aeon C Flow last Thursday): this is a great little box. The HP Amp has got ample power to spare: is usually run the thing at -25dB (with -3dB headroom in Roon) and the Aeons are far from the most sensitive phones. It is powered from an Aqvox LSPU and dead quiet.
So far, it behaved well on all rates: PCM up to 768, DSD up to 512 and MQA up to whatever it unfolds to. It is very clean switching formats/resolutions: no pops, crackles not even very faint ones. I’ve been playing with Roon upsampling extensively. My conclusions so far:
DSD is out. Probably nothing to do with the S2: I didn’t like DSD before and I don’t like it on this little box, beit pure or upsampled. It is overly smooth, a bit closed in and congested and lacking dynamics to these ears. Again: this has probably more to do with my personal preferences than it has with the S2, but there you have it.
PCM is great. I like the default settings (Best, Optimal Transient filter) best when playing straight PCM, but I tend to prefer max upsampling x2 to 705.6/768 in Roon (Precise, Linear Phase) for almost anything. I guess @brian knows a thing or two about filters too.
MQA works fine: it takes the S2 a small moment to recognise the stream and start decoding, but that is really an issue only when starting mid-track. When starting or skipping tracks, it is always on time. No issues with encoding dropping while playing either – I’ve played about 30 MQA albums (including the ones mentioned as troublemakers here and there) without any problem at all.
MQA sounds fine to me as well, though not necessarily better than upsampled PCM. It’s slightly bassy and a perhaps bit course in the mids, but highs are velvety clean. It will be interesting to compare full MQA with Roon doing the first unfold and upsampling afterwards when unfolding lands in Roon. For now I tend to play MQA ‘as is’, but we’ll see how things pan out over time.
So, in short: the S2 isn’t going anywhere soon. It’s a very likeable little bugger.
Yes indeed Ged! I can’t recall the model number. When I install the S2 DAC I’ll take some pics. The AU integrateds still sell for decent used prices - for good reason too. The performance is incredible. I think he picked it up for $50 from an owner that had no clue of it’s value on the used market! He’s had a few of the AU series, upgrading model number each time. The Sansui is in a small listening room which is perfect, it never gets overly pushed for volume. One day we’ll move it into his large living room where his Denon 4520 does amp duties and see how she sings.
When I was at University in 1979 I lived in the cheapest crappiest house so I could divert funds to my first hifi. A Dual record deck and a Sansui AU517. It’s still going strong as my sister’s hifi. Fantastic kit as you say.
Wow, those headphones looks really nice!
Also, if you don’t mind me asking, how do you use the Aqvox PSU? It looks from the product page that it’s an adaptor in-between the USB input and the USB cable from e.g. a Roon Bridge. From your picture it looks like you also have connected the supplied PSU to the micro-USB socket on the Pro-ject?
You can specify to have it terminated with micro-USB. The cord in the picture is the Aqvox plug – I haven’t even taken the Pro-Ject SMPS out of its box.
Looks like they removed 2.12 today. (Site updated 23).
There is a bug with 2.12 firmware. When you play MQA Pre-Box switches to dedicated MQA filter. When you play next song that is no longer MQA, device stays with MQA filter. And it sounds very bad. You have to manually reply the filter.
I opened a case with Pro-Ject yesterday. Maybe they are now working on new version of the firmware.
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