Denafrips FPGA Firmware Update

@j_andrews - I sent the photo yesterday afternoon and received a reply today mid morning. Pretty quick. 

@erik_squires - It would be interesting to know for sure. I can tell you that it’s a pretty significant improvement. I was initially impressed, but the more I’ve listened today the more impressed I’ve become. 

@erik_squires - I'll be curious to see if your tip resolves the issue.  I have not had a lot of time to listen since the firmware upgrade, but have not yet had the things described @geox54 happen.  I'm using a Bluesound Node 2i with the volume fixed.

@goex54 - I had a few pops and clicks prior to the firmware upgrade.  Not enough to bother me, but enough to know what it was from my online reading.  Post firmware upgrade, I can't say that I've had any but have not spent a lot of time listening.

I'm part of a Denafrips group on FB and the Pontus updates seem to be getting a much higher percentage of mixed reviews after the firmware update than the Ares II.

I'm now really curious to see how things play out as the upgrade is released to each successively better DAC.

I'm wondering if the Ares II is at a perfect level where the differences are heard almost entirely as an improvement, but the more resolving the DAC (and likely overall system) is the more the differences will less obvious and rely more on listener preference.  It's possible that the differences become more significant and as a result sound more like a new product than an upgrade to the current one.

@dskusa - "According to Vinshine, it is recommended to perform a burn in due to the new logic in the FPGA."

Can you provide a source for this?  I was so hopeful that I'd finally found something that audiophiles could agree didn't benefit from a burn in.  Now the walls are closing in around me like I'm a visitor at ADX Florence.

@mksun - Do you have any explanation for how an FPGA update could benefit from a break-in?  

I thought something had finally identified that could be agreed up on that break-in wasn't a factor for, but you're not alone.

An FPGA update doesn't change anything that's hardware related.  It seems that if the digital file getting processed differently requires a break-in period then every individual digital file would require a similar break-in since it would be slightly different.

I think the break-in, in this case, is a combination of getting used to the different sound and having some separation from the previous sound so that the new sound can be judged on its own merits and not so much as a comparison that relies on faulty memories.

I did a little listening today comparing the various modes on my Ares II and I think I still prefer the OS Slow filter.  The OS Fast filter felt like something had been lost and the NOS seemed to have a bit more bloom which sounds good but I missed the slight loss in detail.  Quite a few people that previously preferred the OS Slow now seem to prefer the NOS, so I thought I'd give it a go.

@grh1958 - Safe to assume that your post isn't representative of the order that you tried things?  You went through the official process of sending Vinshine a picture of your chip and then attempted to follow the instructions upon their reply with your computer having issues?  Just clarifying so that others with a similar experience can know for sure.