Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 digital DAC
- Thread starter miero
- Start date
left channel
Prominent Member
There were those caps, and then at some point a substitution of inferior blue caps (per the owner who found them). Also the laggy volume/multi knob most of us seem to have, at least one defective display screen, and a power jack that just fell out of the unit.
left channel
Prominent Member
There's been a lot of discussion of that issue here and on ComputerAudiophile. To better direct you, can you tell us about the rest of your components?
@left channel USB (ordinary cable) connected to Win7 notebook. Test play with latest Jriver.
Edit: driver is original Project ASIO
Edit: driver is original Project ASIO
pj.walczak
Active Member
I upsample using Roon to 32 bits and 705,6 or 768, streamer is Allo USBridge. No problem. I am able to stream native DSD 256. I was not able to find any music or samples in DSD 512 so I only tried up sampling however I don't have enough power on Roon center machine so it played only for few seconds before dropouts.
atomic garden
Member
Miska (Jussi Lasso from HQPlayer) ran the tests again to compare Distortion Compensation Enabled/Disabled (this time with Firmware 2.12) and got the same conclusion of his initial measuring: Enabled indeed produces less distortion (as the feature should work). But it seems that it's the opposite conclusion of Amir's tests...
https://www.computeraudiophile.com/...easonable-cost/?do=findComment&comment=788825
Miska seems to know what hes talking about, not so sure about Amir. Having said that, I can't hear any difference between distortion on or off so its a moot point, but I have it on with Fast Rolloff filter.
Someone earlier asked about high PCM and DSD rates: I use the ASIO drivers and can run DSD512 natively and highest PCM from Roon, but I had to change from DSD DoP to Native in Roon to get DSD512 to work. I run it from a Windows 10 computer. I don't think DSD512 work with WASAPI drivers though.
Someone earlier asked about high PCM and DSD rates: I use the ASIO drivers and can run DSD512 natively and highest PCM from Roon, but I had to change from DSD DoP to Native in Roon to get DSD512 to work. I run it from a Windows 10 computer. I don't think DSD512 work with WASAPI drivers though.
pj.walczak
Active Member
WASAPI doesn't support DSD.
PCM max input rate is 768kHz which means max DS256 over DoP. For DSD512 you have to use native mode.
PCM max input rate is 768kHz which means max DS256 over DoP. For DSD512 you have to use native mode.
left channel
Prominent Member
Select the highest value there, 32 bit 384000 Hz, and also check both boxes under Exclusive Mode.
Also - different topic - make sure you have the latest Pro-Ject driver 4.38.0 and firmware 2.12 installed for best results, including automatic buffer adjustments for DSD.
left channel
Prominent Member
@Manchos native DSD512 and 768 kHz PCM are in the specs. Although I don't have such files, I've confirmed this by running DAC Diagnostics from my ultraRendu.
I haven't seen any reports of others playing PCM at 768 kHz specifically, just DSD256 DoP which I'm told is 768 kHz, so can't comment much on that. But several users have reported good results with DSD512 playback, native and upsampled, after the 2.12 firmware and 4.38.0 driver update. @gahabana reports some clicks with 2.12, but only in specific versions of Linux.
So, I'm wondering if this may be a JRiver settings issue. Pro-Ject supports only foobar2000 with their products (minimally). Any JRiver users care to comment? See also these replies:
sberry20118
pfm Member
@Manchos I've had no issues with PCM at 768khz from Mac, Windows and Linux sources.
Using Roon to upsample of course (since I don't have any 768kHz recordings).
left channel
Prominent Member
Well, they removed the Mac updater from the website. First they claimed it won't work only if you already have 2.12, which made absolutely no sense and proves there is no "technical" in their technical support. Apparently they realized the mistake and just removed it with no public announcement or apology. @David W Brown do you have any information on this?
I have the now-withdrawn Mac updater in a download folder if anyone would like to try it. No email address or login required. I keep all this product's update-related files in that folder.
I have the now-withdrawn Mac updater in a download folder if anyone would like to try it. No email address or login required. I keep all this product's update-related files in that folder.
Hi, Since I powered my pi with a power bank, I am delighted with the sound of the s2, except for one thing. Today I updated the firmware to 2.12, hoping to get rid of that horrible noise when switching to DSD and it didn't. In fact is getting worser with the days , since at the begging it was only some clicks and now is a horrible noise lasting many seconds. Does anybody know how to solve this?
left channel
Prominent Member
Were you ever able to get the S2 working with your CD player? For the DSD question please tell us more about your system, hardware and software.
Hi, left Channel. Thank you for still remembering about this. No, I wasn't. I tried with another unit, a normal consumer DVD player, and the sound did como into the s2 via coaxial. I cannot understand what kind of incompatibility can exist between a certain CD player and a dac. The funny thing is that I could not hear any difference between listening the cd through the s2 and the analog output of that dvd, which I was expecting to be huge, since it was a very normal player, so I am not using it.
About my system: I listen to my music from a raspberry pi with moode audio 4 final (previously with the beta 4) into my amplifier. I power both raspberry pi and s2 with a power bank with double output, 2,1 amp for pi and 1,1 for s2. After many testing, I found that the power into the pi was much more critical for the sound than the power into the s2. Anyway, powering both gives a little more relaxed sound, probably because 2,1 for both pi and s2 is too less power. ( I wonder if using a more powerful lps for the pi would improve the sound even more)
I do not use any upsampling in moode, and I do not have a clear thoughts about filters at the s2. I couldn't´t hear clear differences in sound. Now im listening to it in test mode, I feel it is a little more detailed sound.
The behavior has not changed from firmware 2.10 to 2.12 (also not from moode beta to final 4): loud pops when jumping in the middle of a dsd file, horrible distorted loud noise when passing from a pcm file to a Dsd file.
One last question: Do you know if the volume of the s2 is in the analog side and that is the reason we have not hardware volume control?
Saludos
