Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital: MQA HW decoding at reasonable cost

[Mihail IOV]

1 hour ago, left channel said:

 

A PSU first, for the largest potential improvement. The designer of this product recommends linear or battery PSUs only. An anti-jitter acessory second. A USB cable only if there's something wrong with the Amazon one IMHO.  SOtM and Sonore streamers are little computers with their own quirks and personalities, amazing products but only worth the time and trouble for remote setups, again IMHO.

I agree with possible upgrades as I'm using the S2 with the Mac Mini and a Audioquest Cinnamon USB cable. I also bought a Supra USB cable, which I think sounds the same as the other. The S2 is power supplied by an iFi iPower which also is ok. The battery power bank is not a good solution because it is not a true silent battery. Inside it is fitted a regulator, which is not liniar and induce a lot of noise (if you read reviews about this kind of devices with real measurements you'll see what I'm talking about).

 

For me, the S2 used for listening only through line-out from Tidal and local library (SACD, FLAC) in both Windows 10 and MacOS is an excelent device. The only things that bother me but not a real concern are the bug discovered when playing MQA files through Tidal in Optimal Transient filter and the drop-outs in Tidal when playing MQAs.

I want to mention that the drop-outs are always on some MQA albums but not all, there are albums that don't have a single glitch no matter if I play random songs or entire album. The drop-outs are present no matter the operating sistem (Windows or MacOS) or software (Tidal app or Audirvana, I'll try Roon but I'll bet the behavior will be the same). The fw is 2.12 and the latest drivers in windows. I presume that the problem is either in Tidal (again, there are MQA albums that never have glitches) or inside S2 (maybe some XMOS handshake trouble).

 

I'm waiting to see the products teased by Pro-ject, the liniar power supply and the battery power supply and the prices. 

I'm also considering a USB reclocker/regenerator that purifies the usb signal delivered by my Mac.

[Mihail IOV]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/689938551214806/permalink/1218053768403279/

 

This is a new DAC and there is no much info but I found this fresh post on FB.