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Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 digital DAC

@johnw we appreciate your efforts with ESS, and I for one am than willing to be very patient. I've even managed to resist viewing this thread for a couple days. :)

I don't know much about the DSD issue, but every owner posting about the S2 on Head-Fi.org or ComputerAudiophile.com has reported the master clock change "pops". When the volume is loud, those pops are loud too. Anyone who hasn't mentioned it seems to have only listened at shows or while preparing reviews with files within the same series, such as 24/96 and 24/192.

Far fewer have reported the problem to Pro-Ject, but I will do so now. The S2 has been a lot of fun but I have stopped using it until this is resolved.
 
@left_channel,
i also think that it seems to win an EISA award all the magazine reviewers must be either deaf when they did not with their experienced ears hear clicks/pops and when they listened to DSD materials they were listening to material which they must have never heard before and were not puzzled that drum sets seem to be more on the left and in classical orchestra pieces where french horns were to the right and viola's to the left ;)
 
i also think that it seems to win an EISA award all the magazine reviewers must be either deaf when they did not with their experienced ears hear clicks/pops and when they listened to DSD materials they were listening to material which they must have never heard before and were not puzzled that drum sets seem to be more on the left and in classical orchestra pieces where french horns were to the right and viola's to the left ;)

Simply because they had earlier software without the DSD channel swap - if you look closely at the press pictures you will see modifications wires on the rear panel RCA jacks (I stress due to ProJect instance on arranging there rear panel RCA jacks incorrectly - continuing traditions like this makes me so mad) - I dont like my designs being messed with, especially when making them "worst" in my eyes!

Very late in the day production asked us to swap the channels in software so they did not need to perform the wire modifications - this introduced the DSD channel swap error.
 
I totally understand - my point was more on the lines of how much you can actually do about the issue, and how much has to be done by people like ESS who are responsible for the technology.

I spoke with Dustin (the Chip designer) and we have discussed a possible solution using a hidden engineering test mode that "might" provide a solution - but it never feels good having the ball fall into ones lap with the fear that there might not be a firmware solution.... :(
 
Thanks for the update, looking forward to test the new firmware.

Did you find anything with regards to the faint DSD clicks I described earlier?
 
Thanks for the update, looking forward to test the new firmware.

Did you find anything with regards to the faint DSD clicks I described earlier?

Can you please confirm its ONLY with DSD64 and not DSD128/256?

We could only recreate with DSD64...
 
No, I get it on all DSD. I can hear the occasional click during normal playback, but a couple of pause/play makes it start clicking like crazy during play. Then I have to wait until Roon releases the DAC to make it go away (it does not click during pause though).

Im downloading foobar2000 to test in that player as well
 
Got DSD working in foobar using ASIO drivers. I could not reproduce any DSD clicks in that player, so maybe this is a Roon issue after all. I noticed that foobar releases the DAC instantly when pause or even between tunes, which Roon does not. This in turn makes the pause/play trick redundant since release of DAC resets everything.

And before you ask: in Roon, I get the DSD clicks both with ASIO drivers and WASAPI.

If this is a DAC issue, my guess based on this would be that it has something to do with play (or start or new tune) without having released the DAC before, since I usually get the clicks in the beginning on tunes or after pause. But I will also ask Brian at Roon to look into this.
 
Interesting as we only use Foobar in the lab.... I have no idea what Roon has to offer (apparently it has the best Library sorting or some such), anyway...

We don't have Roon, so no idea how to test...
 
MagnusH,

If you check your Email in the next half hour - you should have an Email from Jakek with a Beta we "Hope" should resolve the issues... we still cannot recreate the DSD crackle - we had a different issue with the Beta version we where playing with to resolve the ESS bug.

This beta is for yourself only - not for public release (ATM)...
 
I received a reply in less than 24 hours, from Felix Grill of Pro-Ject PR management / technical support: "Hello! Thank you for your message. We're working on this issue. So far it seems like an ESS bug, hopefully it can be resolved by a firmware update."

I hope this indicates the update work has their support. If you sent in a report and did not receive a reply, that may be because the contact form sent your message to your local distributor. I had to choose "Bermuda" to get around that.
 
@JohnW, could you ask Jarek to send me beta as well ? I do not have DSD cracks (and I did try with Roon as hard as i could) just samplerate and channelswap on dsd. !
THank you ! (my email is my userid here @gmail.com)
 
Ok, no beta email so far though.

Brian at Roon is looking into the DSD clicking right now, and since I could not reproduce it in foobar it feels like its best to have Brian check out it first for Roon before you spend any more time on it.
 
Ok, quick testing done, very very much improved. I random played a playlist containing one MQA, one vanilla CD, one 96khz tune and one DSD64 tune and turned off all sample rate conversion in Roon.

Not once, after switching perhaps 50 times, did the old loud crack appear. A faint "tock" sound can be heard sometimes, but I also get the same faint sound when pressing pause and prev/next. I think I had the same on my old DAC also. And DSD and PCM have the correct channels now.

The DSD clicking sound is still left though, but Brian at Roon is looking into this. It might be Roon related, or DAC related, or just something specific with my setup.

I also tested the ASIO drivers, same result there for sample rate tests and channels.

I have one problem in ASIO and WASAPI though, but I had this in the old firmware as well. 700+ khz and DSD256 don't seem to work (cracks up completely with ASIO drivers). This might also be a setup problem for me (bad cables, etc). In WASAPI I can't even select those sample rates after Roon testes the DAC, so there is something that prevents the highest sample rates working.

Should I send the beta to "left channel" and "gahabana" so they also can test?
 
Magnus,

Good news :)

I'm going to get some sleep now as I have to be at Prague airport for 5am.

If you could please forward to "left channel" and "gahabana" and help them with the driver update (via the XMOS driver) if need :)

Have you tried to increase the ASIO Buffer settings? 700+ khz and DSD256 is pushing the system.
 
Sleep tight, and thanks for all the help!

You where right about the ASIO, using "Relaxed" with biggest buffer solved it.
 


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