PS Audio Direct Stream Dac & Bridge 2 Sound quality

cal3713,

Thanks for the help. At the moment the plan is when I get the Bridge to try, I'll try it with the Roon on a trial period.
Which BTW, the Roon trial period is now down to just 14 days from the original 30 day trial period. It may take me 14 days to get it set up...LOL!

ozzy

Ohh, and perhaps a 10" tablet would work?  A Samsung Galaxy Tab A can be had for under $300 and that's probably starting to get you closer to a small laptop's screen size. 

If not, JRiver on a laptop can handle sending your local music collection to the bridge, but I don't think it can connect to streaming services (or at least couldn't 4 years ago when I purchased my current version).  

@ozzy I have an Audio Mirror Tubadour III SE that I am currently demoing against a Lampizator Amber 3 (to arrive soon), iFi iDSD Pro, and Matrix X-Saber Pro. 

I upgraded my PS Audio PWD to the DSD (twice), but it just didn't work out for me.  I loved the PWD, but there was just something about the DSD that didn't work in my system.  I do absolutely believe that the DSD must sound amazing in different systems... perhaps there's something it's doing that my ears are particularly sensitive to too. No idea, but there's just way too much positive feedback for my experience to be descriptive of everyone else's.  I (twice) preferred the PWD to it, and tons of people have made that comparison and decided in favor of the DSD.  

Anyway, so far in my system, I prefer the Audio Mirror to all the above.  As I noted, the Lampizator is still on its way.  I feed the AM with a Magna Mano Ultra streamer. It's Raspberry Pi based and has a I2S output, which was the main selling point as it allowed me to bypass USB.  

Also, in my post above, "everyone" should read "experience."  Thanks phone.

cal3713,

Thanks for your help. 
Unfortunately, I do not own a I pad to use bubbleupnp, just a laptop computer.

What did you move on to?

ozzy

@ozzy I think you made the right choice. With my perfectwave dac, adding the bridge made a huge improvement. I've since moved on, but the everyone convinced me never to use usb again. I think you'll be very happy.

And this probably doesn't help given the vision issues, but I use bubbleupnp on Android to serve lossless tidal (and my ripped music collection).

Larry,

That's the thing, I don't own a tablet just a PC. My vision is not that great with small print.

ozzy

Ozzy if you will be using a tablet or IPad to control everything you will probably want to download Mcconect and you will want the HD version .  Larry

Well I have a PS Bridge 2 on its way to me.
Is there any other free apps that can work with my PC?
At this point, I only want to compare sound quality with my current set up during the PS Bridge trial period.

ozzy

Ozzy based upon your system I would give it a try. PS audio does have a trial period and as Paul McGowan says no cable is better than any cable.I heard an improvement using the Bridge with a custom laptop I used only for music playback. Larry

Iwin,

Thank you so much for the reply. 
I would mostly be sending music from a external hard drive (NAS) over my network. And, occasionally using Qoboz.


ozzy

@ozzy I have that combination and the sound quality is good to excellent. As always there is dependency upon your source. If you are steaming Tidal and you are playing Masters you need the Bridge to do the second unfold for MQA playback which is excellent. On the downside, I have had drop offs from my internet connection to the Bridge which can be frustrating if you are focusing on listening to MQA files.  
Until recently I would say that Bridge was the best playback method but Wolf Audio has a modification for their units they call the usb flux capacitor that is very close in SQ to the Bridge. One of my buddies prefers the Wolf Audio usb output SQ over the Bridge.