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Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 digital DAC

Yes, it was.
The problem appeared when I started up the unit this morning, when I swapped older interconnects in order to try the pair of new ones.
I’ve done that many times before.
I restarted the DAC although not my iMac (maybe it needs restarting) and the problem persisted.
I think I’ve read somewhere about that thinning of sound in Pro-Ject but don’t remember where exactly. AFAI remember it used to appear in certain settings. My setting was: fast roll-off filter/enabled distortion control/audio quality “user”.
 
After using the Pre Box S2 Digital for 6 months (24/7) the display shows problems. I use USB and have volume up (0 dB). All information is shown in 'white'. Two days ago this changed into 'brown'. When turning the volume knob ccw the digits shown are 'white', but the 0 dB and the USB icon in 'brown' stays. It looks as if the screen burnt in or something like that. Has anyone similar experience?
 
I’ve been reading through the forum but haven’t found an answer yet.

I have the PBS2 plugged into a Mac mini with an iFi power supply. The DAC remains on.
1. Is it supposed to remain on always?

After the computer goes so sleep, the DAC will not be recognized by the computer until I turn it off then back on.
2. Has anyone experienced this? Is there a way to have it be the default DAC on a Mac mini?
 
After using the Pre Box S2 Digital for 6 months (24/7) the display shows problems. I use USB and have volume up (0 dB). All information is shown in 'white'. Two days ago this changed into 'brown'. When turning the volume knob ccw the digits shown are 'white', but the 0 dB and the USB icon in 'brown' stays. It looks as if the screen burnt in or something like that. Has anyone similar experience?
I haven’t seen or heard about this. The screen is OLED so I suppose burn in is possible but brown seems weird
 
After using the Pre Box S2 Digital for 6 months (24/7) the display shows problems. I use USB and have volume up (0 dB). All information is shown in 'white'. Two days ago this changed into 'brown'. When turning the volume knob ccw the digits shown are 'white', but the 0 dB and the USB icon in 'brown' stays. It looks as if the screen burnt in or something like that. Has anyone similar experience?
Yes, I have the same.
Some parts of the display in yellow/brown instead of white.
 
I’ve been reading through the forum but haven’t found an answer yet.

I have the PBS2 plugged into a Mac mini with an iFi power supply. The DAC remains on.
1. Is it supposed to remain on always?

After the computer goes so sleep, the DAC will not be recognized by the computer until I turn it off then back on.
2. Has anyone experienced this? Is there a way to have it be the default DAC on a Mac mini?

If you connect the DAC via USB an additional power supply is not needed.

I use an iFi Micro iUSB power supply. This way the DAC gets power even when the Mac is switched off. The DAC is on 24/7.

In System Preferences I select the DAC as Output device, same in the MIDI setup.

This way a new handshake at startup of the Mac is not needed and the connection between Mac and DAC is permanent.
 
I’ve been reading through the forum but haven’t found an answer yet.

I have the PBS2 plugged into a Mac mini with an iFi power supply. The DAC remains on.
1. Is it supposed to remain on always?

After the computer goes so sleep, the DAC will not be recognized by the computer until I turn it off then back on.
2. Has anyone experienced this? Is there a way to have it be the default DAC on a Mac mini?

If a Mac behaves like a PC, then the DAC will remain on even if you turn off the iFi power supply, because the DAC will draw power from the USB port. When I put my PC to sleep, the DAC's display goes into sleep mode but will not entirely turn off, but at least it gets dimmer. (I cannot help with your second question, because I have not used this DAC with a Mac.)
 
If you connect the DAC via USB an additional power supply is not needed.

The designer of this DAC recommends an external power supply for best performance with USB. The included power supply is intended only for use with coax or optical input, and the user manual says no more than that, but in fact USB input will often improved by a third-party PSU. The designer recommends linear or battery PSUs, but good results have been reported with others as well. The frustration @Jmart is experiencing happens because the DAC autoswitches back to USB when the PSU is turned off.
 
Hello everyone ,
This is my first post here.
I've been using the Pro-ject pre box s2 digital for several months now , mostly for streaming Spotify and Tidal and especially the MQA content. (that's why I bought it)
Tidal MQA plays fine with the S2 doing the full decoding but I also have been experiencing the well known drop outs : billy gibbons - big bad blues / Santana - Africa speaks or when playing MQA playlists there's always a song in the list which drops out.
I read a post which sad this was because of tidal and it's only a problem with the newer albums ?
My current set-up is a windows desktop pc connected by usb to the S2 which is connected by rca to my amp.
I'm thinking of buying the Stream box S2 ultra to replace the pc and I was wondering if anyone could tell me how the Pro-ject stream box S2 ultra and pre box S2 digital combo handle the MQA playback ?
Does it handle the MQA content better or the same , does it sound better than a windows pc ?
Hope you guys can give me some advice !
 
Hello everyone ,
This is my first post here.
I've been using the Pro-ject pre box s2 digital for several months now , mostly for streaming Spotify and Tidal and especially the MQA content. (that's why I bought it)
Tidal MQA plays fine with the S2 doing the full decoding but I also have been experiencing the well known drop outs : billy gibbons - big bad blues / Santana - Africa speaks or when playing MQA playlists there's always a song in the list which drops out.
I read a post which sad this was because of tidal and it's only a problem with the newer albums ?
My current set-up is a windows desktop pc connected by usb to the S2 which is connected by rca to my amp.
I'm thinking of buying the Stream box S2 ultra to replace the pc and I was wondering if anyone could tell me how the Pro-ject stream box S2 ultra and pre box S2 digital combo handle the MQA playback ?
Does it handle the MQA content better or the same , does it sound better than a windows pc ?
Hope you guys can give me some advice !

Welcome to pfm! The S2D is more sensitive than most DACs to imperfections in an MQA signal, though it's much improved in firmware 2.12. Those imperfections do indeed seem to be coming from Tidal, as some of us have managed to reproduce the same dropouts in the same exact spots on the same tracks. It's been argued by someone far more expert than I that the way another manufacturer, Mytek, compensates for this issue risks ruining all non-MQA tracks, so perhaps the S2D will remain unable to maintain a lock on imperfect MQA.

As this problem originates with Tidal I suspect a Stream Box will not fix it, but it's certainly worth trying and anyway the Stream Box offers other advantages. However, I should note that Pro-Ject marketing materials do not claim the Stream Box itself supports MQA, though it apparently can pass MQA along from Roon and perhaps other sources.

Another solution to your MQA dropouts problem would be to use the 1x software decoding built into the computer app. Sent to your your S2D via USB, that signal will be rendered to its final resolution in the DAC, which will display "MQB" to indicate rendering is taking place.
 
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Thanks for your response ,
Though I've read a few articles about the stream box passing through MQA signals it isn't clear to me if this is by using the standard pro-ject app and streaming tidal.
Or did they use roon or other MQA files ?
https://darko.audio/2019/03/have-your-pi-eat-it-pro-jects-stream-box-s2-ultra/
https://www.stereophile.com/content/pro-ject-audio-systems-stream-box-s2-ultra-network-bridge-page-2
https://www.henleyaudio.co.uk/products/Stream-Box-S2-Ultra
If I buy the stream box , I want it to be a plug 'n play device since I don't use roon.
Maybe someone here already using the streambox S2 ultra / pre box digital S2 combo can verify if the streambox will pass through the tidal mqa signal using only the pro-ject u.i. / play app.
I will also contact Pro-ject and ask them to clarify this.
 


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