IF you own a PS Audio DAC or aspire to, you may be interested in this tongue-in-cheek missive from company founder and CEO Paul McGowan This is it, right out of Boulder:
“I want to say that I’m sorry for burdening overworked reviewers with frequent Operating System upgrades for our DirectStream and DSJ DACs. The release tomorrow of Redcloud, our latest and best-ever OS, just makes more work for you, and I’m sorry. We bring out product improvements as soon as they’re ready, and I know that’s not always convenient.
“I apologise to our colleagues and competitors for also releasing an update to our network-streaming Bridge II that will allow our customers access to Spotify Connect, VTuner, Tidal, Qobuz and MQA-encoded files on Roon, in addition to the MQA, Tidal, and Roon access we’d already provided – all for free. Times are tough, and I’m sorry to make it harder to compete.
“Most of all, I’m sorry that owners of other DACs won’t be able to enjoy all these benefits, for free. We’d be happy to help them out.”
The press release adds:
PS Audio’s digital guru Ted Smith has been busy during the six months since the release of the Huron OS, announced at the time as “revolutionary”. How do you follow a revolution?
Ted has managed to improve upon Huron, the best-sounding firmware PS had ever released. The new OS, Redcloud, improves upon Huron’s already-exemplary spatial presentation, dynamic contrasts, and low bass. By better-linearising low-level signals, Ted has managed to reduce residual noise and THD even more, with startling improvements to low-level resolution, ambient hall sound, and solidity of bass performance. Blacker backgrounds, immediately-identifiable concert venues, and incredible dynamic slam are all evident with Redcloud.
Simultaneous with the release of Redcloud is the release of an update for the network Bridge II, providing even more streaming capabilities and improving stability and operational characteristics.
The DirectStream and DSJ DACs’ FPGA-based architecture ensures they will never become obsolete, and can and will be improved by periodic no-cost OS upgrades.
The Redcloud Operating System will be up here by noon today (Dec 8), first for DirectStream, followed by DSJ. Redcloud will also be available for purchase, preloaded onto an SD card (DirectStream) or a USB stick (DSJ).
The Bridge II network card is optional on the DirectStream, and is standard with the DSJ. Bridge II allows a wide range of streaming and network options. Instructions on upgrading Bridge II to allow use of Spotify Connect, VTuner, Tidal, Qobuz, MQA, and Roon can be found here.
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