New Firmware for Playback Designs MPS-5


I received this email today.It is great that Playback Designs continues to develop/improve what is already an outstanding player.
The website also has a notice relating to this firmware upgrade but at this stage I cannot find any further info regarding the audio consequences or otherwise of this update.
I am sure this will follow soon but any additional info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
ecka

Showing 4 responses by jrisles

I installed the firmware update #23 which was a beauty. Lower Noise Floor which allows greater detail retrieval. To my ears the improvements were obvious and not so subtle. I have also upgraded firmware update #24 released about a month ago - as has already been suggested this release did not have any sound improvements - only bug fixes. Would be really good if they provided "release notes" with these upgrades as they are relesed!
Hi Larryng - apologies for the belated reply. The USB-X box is most certainly worth the investment. It is what makes the MPS-5 digital playback imho when streaming music. It will make your direct USB connection redundant as it is much superior interface to the USB interface on the Playback. I am hoping you did grab this 2nd hand when you got the chance? But if you didn't you should purchase a new one because it is a very good little unit. You will wonder why you ever went without one for so long.

I was conducting a search on the latest update #27 - that came out today 13th April 2014 - and saw your post. Now that is funny because i was just enquiring about updates #25 & #26 as i received no email from playback informing me of these updates. The last time i updated was about a year ago with update #24 - and now i have updated #27. So for some reason i didn't get #25 or #26 update email from Playback. So i can't comment on those.

I have just updated to #27 (from #24) and i must say not too sure i actually like it. To my ears there appears to be slightly more sibilance with female vocals and i also think the vocals are slightly more "nasal". The mid range to my ears also sound slightly more forward. Has anyone else upgraded to #27? Do you have a point of view you'd like to share?
Yes i received this email also. But their "Release Notes" are always lacking. So i have no idea what this FW Release is for. Will email them to find out and advise if i receive a response.
Just tried to update this latest recompilation but was unable to. The message i received was "Your unit is already using the latest version" and there was no other option to proceed. Then i attempted to install a previous version #24 so that i could go from #24 back again to #27 and received the message "This is an older update than the one currently installed" and no other option was available for me to proceed. So not too sure about one goes about re-installing this latest recompilation.