Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital

Just to clarify, when playing MQA with the above setting, Roon does the first unfold, and the second unfold is skipped and up-sampling to DSD instead.

Cheers Magnus that fixed the issue. Any reason why to not select ā€œDecoder and Rendererā€ from the MQA capabilities drop down menu?

Decoding is what Roon can do for you, and renderer is an MQA-upsampling. I prefer to let Roon handle all (which it only does for non-MQA capable DACs), and leave the DAC as a pure DSD dac, but feel free to experiment.

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I avoid this by upsampling 44.1 (and multiples) to 48 kHz (and multiples).

A question about the digital display, now that I am using a battery power supply.

My Pro-Ject is connected via USB to a microRendu, so I see ā€œUSBā€ on the display on the front of the Pro-Ject. When I connect the battery power supply I see another icon on the display showing that is plugged in. So far so good.

The battery power has an on/off button. When I turn it off (with the Pro-Ject still running to see if I detect any difference in SQ) the plug icon remains lit on the Pro-Ject display. Is that because I havenā€™t disconnected the battery supplyā€™s micro USB cable, even though Iā€™ve powered the battery supply off?

Trying to A/B the SQ with and without a separate power supply will be much harder if I have to insert and detach that tiny USB cable each time I make a change.

Hi Geoff

As a once off, what happens to the plug icon when you yank the microUSB cable out?

If that icon disappears, then itā€™s possible your powerbank isnā€™t actually switching off when you think it is? You can test with a phone or something else to confirm - i.e. see if the powerbank still charges the phone even when you think the powerbank is off.

My power icon (up to the left) turns off as soon as I unplug the battery, even though the micro USB cable is still attached.

@Magnus and @dabassgoesboomboom thanks to both of you.

Not sure I followed all of what you wrote ā€“ although my setup does NOT work as Magnus says his does, and as I would expect mine should. (And I donā€™t have another device with a micro USB connection to try what Sean suggested.)

But more to the point, I am having trouble appreciating any real SQ difference with or without this power supply. I am not saying there is none. I am saying my ears canā€™t detect it well.

This is actually a great problem to have. Now you can just pick the most practical solution of the two and just enjoy the music :slight_smile:

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On to a new question.

I have a Rega Saturn CD player that I would like to use as a transport feeding my Pro-Ject S2 DAC. The Saturn has a ā€œdigital outā€ connection. So I used a digital cable from that connection on the Saturn to the coaxial input on the Pro-Ject. However I got no sound.

What am I doing wrong?

Be sure to select the COAX input from the front panel or the remote.

Edit. Also be sure to use the power supply.

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@Gerald_Richardson thanks! I knew I was missing something(s) obvious. Youā€™ve educated me in a kinder way than at times occurs on Internet forums and I appreciate that.

Glad to help.

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Are you using a power bank or something similar? They usually have switched voltage regulators inside, which in this case defeats the purpose (i.e. they are no longer linear). You still get decoupled from mains, and some have reported it sounds better, but its not as good as a battery or quality LPS.

Iā€™ve mentioned this beforeā€¦ but if you speak to John Westlake, Rob Watts, this can be a bigger benefit than a mains connected linear PSUā€¦ besides, the DAC itself has linear regulators inside to deal with voltage rippleā€¦

Dealing with mains borne RF / AC leakage currents is not so easy for any DAC, at any priceā€¦

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-hugo-2-the-official-thread.831345/page-934#post-14445774

All in theory of course. Depends on system of components and may vary from system to system of course.

And of course - the golden ruleā€¦ just trust your ears at the end of the day.

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Switching and noise from mains are both bad obviously, which affects more is probably dependent on other factors. Best to get rid of them both, and use a battery directly connected to the DAC or transport.

I even get improved SQ when running the last fiber converter on battery (the one that connects directly to the transport with a CAT7 cable). A very noticeable improvement even, which surprised me.

Seems there is no ends on the improvements you can make in audio :slight_smile:

I donā€™t dispute that at all. But my own experience tells me that many of those improvements that others hear are simply beyond my own ability to appreciate.

I am using a power bank as Magnus guessed. It is going back because I simply canā€™t hear any difference. Despite my experience ā€“ this is not the first time Ive returned something because I just could not hear a worthwhile change ā€“ I keep attempting to tweak my system. But each time I do it I remind myself Iā€™d be better off to just enjoy the SQ I already have, which I consider quite good.

Then I read one of these forums and see what others have accomplished andā€¦despite my better judgmentā€¦I try again. ~sigh~

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I have fairly revealing speakers, and sit in an acoustical treated room, so I seem to hear pretty much any change in the signal path (both analog and digital). I also have 100% electrical separation between my HiFi and computer (computer -> ethernet -> fiber -> ethernet -> transport -> DAC), and run HiFi on its own fuse so little interference from other electrical things.

The only part of my HiFi that is connected to main power is the power amplifier. DAC, transport and fiber -> ethernet converter is currently run on batteries (4 * 1.2 AA, 8 * 1.2 AA and 6v sealed lead acid battery). All those tweaks results in a very nice sound, but also means new tweaks make more difference :slight_smile:

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6 months problem-free, now thisā€¦sound output changes, around 2 minutes into any track, output switches from S2 to internal speakersā€¦ cleaned VRAM & PRAM on macBook pro mid-2015, 2.2g i7, 16g ram, no dice

suggestions, please?

New review: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/pro-ject-pre-box-s2-digital-dacpreamplifier/

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