Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital

Thanks @seagull All good now!

Well instead of NUC with ROCK I’ve gone for an Allo USBridge. Anybody else using this? Under Settings>Audio I can select:

As you can see I have selected the Pro-Ject S2. Is this the best option?

And probably the wrong forum to ask, but how would I see music in Roon from an HDD attached via USB to the Allo USBridge?

Yep that’s the one.

You’ll need to attach the USB drive to your Roon Core for Roon to see the music on the drive. It’s not possible for Roon to see your USB drive when it’s plugged into the USBridge.

Looking at this unit to possibly replace my Arcam irDac 2 so I can get full MQA how do you think it would compare sound wise. Also might use it instead of Allo USBridge that feeds the Arcam. Anybody compare it’s Roon Ready to the USBridge feeding it using Roon Bridge?

I don’t know the Arcam nor I have a way of comparing it but the S2 for the money in my opinion is if not the best one of the best for the money. Plays very nice with the Allo Bridge (I have one) and even directly connected via USB works fine. For maximum results pair it with a linear power supply the Uptone LPS1.2 is amazing for this and with a Y cable you can try powering up the bridge piece of the Allo (not the Sparky).
John W has posted that the product will be discontinued but he will release a final firmware (at a small cost to cover pizza deliveries) which will improve a lot more the existing hardware, I don’t know what he is planning as the unit is good as is maybe higher sampling? I don’t know.

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Why the USBridge isn’t it a Roon Ready endpoint already? No offense but pending more on PSU than the device seems crazy to me sorry.

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None taken, it was crazy to me too but there are advantages on using it, how important would be for you in terms of SQ it is something I cannot answer. To me it is, sounds are different and clearer with it
One more thing if you decide to go the LPS route not all are created equal

This is fake news! You have got it completely wrong the product is not being discontinued!
JW was talking about that Pro-Ject has the responsibility of firmware updates. Not him.

Maybe I got it wrong but it is clear he will not work with Project and he is developing the final official release and unless the posting mas made by someone else and not JW himself seems that will be the end for this specific product. He is mentioning you are right that Project has the responsibility for updates true but I don’t think Proeject will do any more efforts to improve the S2 (more than what JW has done)
But you are correct he never posted the product is being discontinued, it is a logical assumption on my side which might be wrong.

I do not think it is a logical assumption and you I do not see how you can come to that conclusion based on Dimitryz’s rant about the power socket. I do not think Dimitryz know John.

I think it should be interpreted as he consider his work as being finished on that particular design.
Remember that most DAC never gets firmware updates after they have been completed. The designer is off to do other designs and that is exactly the case here.

Not trying to argue, just don’t read Roon’s site embedded text but click on the link I provided and you will see John’s post

To me these are the facts.

  • He designed the DAC both hardware and software.
  • Project manufactures and develops the rest including marketing, sales, channels etc.
  • Great product so far.
  • Project stops paying for software updates therefore John decides to release the latest software update for his current release and stop working with Project. He mentions this release will have bug fixes and some enhancements.

My logical assumption:
If John stops writing software, Project may or may not continue developing firmware updates. If they do may or may not be as good as John’s code. If they don’t then the product will stay in limbo and people won’t purchase it but the latest and greatest new DAC will replace it. This last case by the way it is a fact, why Paul McGowan has many satisfied customers? because he is continuously updating his Directstream product line making it better with every release, in this way the lifecycle of the product is longer, specially in this fast accelerated economy and you can get more sales from the same product.

Summarizing, in my opinion (and you can differ of course) the life of that specific product is John’s craftsmanship, him retiring from it may kill further sales and it is fine, Project may not be even interested in continuing developing the product.

And of course I may have gotten it wrong too

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Most DACs gets no firmware updated after they are released.

From what I have read most of those that got a S2 is quite satisfied.

I cannot see why project should discontinue the S2 it is a great little DAC that works quite well.
I have one here connected to a streamer that I am beta testing for John.

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Agreed. At this point development costs are paid for and the unit becomes a loss leader.

Why discontinue it?

I never said I was not satisfied, I own three S2’s, the unit is great
I said mistakenly that John stated the unit was being discontinued, my apologies.

I will reserve my logic to myself

Most DACs don’t NEED firmware updates after release. MQA currently is not really usable with regular drop outs. Even normal playback seems to have the odd drop out regardless of sample rate (384 seems no worse than 44.1).

Hi Adam

This was an issue for Roon users, when the S2 DAC was having to do the full MQA decode.

But once Roon was able to do the 1st unfold, this problem has disappeared - just set the S2 DAC as an MQA ‘Renderer’ in Roon… then Roon will do the 1st unfold and the S2 DAC will do the rest (and you’ll get MQB showing on the display).

Likewise it’s never been an issue for people using the Tidal desktop app and Audirvana, which also do the 1st unfold.

Used like this, the latest S2 DAC firmware has been rock solid for me - not a single issue.

Of course there are many S2 DAC owners not using the Roon who are waiting for this MQA related fix but for us Roon users here, it’s not an issue.

Thanks for your reply and suggestion which of course I have tried, and agree - thankfully Roon does at least particular mitigate the worst issue (non-stop MQA drop-outs).

However, that is most definitely not the only issue - it seems to suffer from the odd click and stutter under at sample rates my dragonfly red handles flawlessly - including MQA rendering (which on this seems a little worse than straight PCM for clicks and stutters). I am struggling to consider this to be fit for purpose. Being an ex music producer and having done DAC drivers in the past, perhaps I am more accurately aware of DAC playback flaws? This seems to me to be far from flawless sadly :slight_smile:

If all S2D’s behaved like that their would be an outcry. Have you considered the possibility you have a faulty one?

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Hi Adam, something wrong there. Unlike the MQA issue, I haven’t seen this reported on the various S2 DAC forums.

My unit switches from DSD512 to PCM768kHz and then back to DSD512 again, without a single hiccup - which is surprising since some more expensive DACs I’ve had do struggle.

What’s your full chain? Is it just a direct USB connection to PC/Mac? Any gadgets between?

Cheers

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Don’t know what you are using or doing with your setup. Here is everything alright.

cheers
Armin

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