PSU mod complete including the dampening material that comes with it, will let it warm up until the evening to have more impressions but process was quite easy and I translated their document from German to English with Google Docs and that helped a lot.
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Man, Iāve been super confused these past few days. Upgrading to the g2 has been an improvement for sure but Iāve been getting very mixed results enough to skew any impressions I have of anything. Both have the upgraded psu btw.
On one hand all the technicalities and lower noise floor have been noticeably improved over the g1 (especially the USB input), but the g2 sounds flat in stage and dynamics like a cardboard box. This didnāt make sense to me since the upgraded psu should have resolved those issues as it had for me with the g1. This was using lightning ds, their own app, which ime sounds the best. I didnāt have this problem at all with the g1 using lightning ds as wellā¦
Then I got around to trying airplay to listen to some of my blu-ray live performances and click. I was getting the stage and dynamics I was used to on the g1 (but better), albeit with a bit of harshness that probably comes from using airplayā¦
So I went to the stock music app on macos using airplay and had no problems with stage and dynamics, then switched back to lightning ds playing the same song and although the playback quality was superior, the flat stage and dynamics came backā¦
Iām really just dumbfounded lol. The usb hub I use for local files must be holding it back quite a bit. Itās the only possible thing I can think of thatās causing this. I hope that usb hub Iām getting from dbCooper will solve my issuesā¦
To be continued 
ā¦
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Little update: tried tidal via lightning ds and no problems, sounds good 
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Happened to fit perfectly under the isolation platform!
This is as elegant of a solution i can come up with. Final resultā¦
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@M0N did you have any trouble playing dsd files from your 2.1, if you still remember?
On the app it indicates dsd but on my DAC it outputs to 176k. Iām using AES which afaik supports 1bit dsd (same situation with USB). I donāt have any upsampling or eq or volume control, etc on either, so not sure why Iām not getting native dsd, unless Iām missing a setting or something.
It technically wonāt be native dsd with aes/spdif, it would be DoP instead. Regardless, still dsd lol. Does it show the high sample rate on both the auralic and the dac? Is this through their own software or through roon? Honestly didnāt really mess with dsd on the auralic when I had it much, since the Kassandra only can handle pcm
Ah gotcha, itās not a huge deal but I am puzzled why Iām not getting it. Iām using their lightning DS software which shows it outputting dsd 1.2ā¦(something forget the numbers), while on the DAC it says PCM 176. And on the DAC manual itās supposed to indicate if itās receiving PCM or dsd.
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Hi @M0N, sorry to bug you but Iām thinking about getting a used 2.1 and Iām just curious if itās something youād recommend.
Iād welcome anyone elseās advice that has/had one too
I have the G2. If youāre getting a 2.1 I would upgrade the power supply by hoer-wege. Easily much better sonically
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Thanks @hifiDJ . Iām also considering an innuos pulse and Lumin U1 to be in that price range-ish. Do you have any experience with either of those?
Have you been pretty happy with the Auralic so far?
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@Flashbolt , A few tid-bits for you. The Innuos Sense software is good added value if you choose to use Tidal or Quoboz on your innuos because it is optimized to work on their platform.
Both my Innuos streamers and honestly my SOTM and Pi2 all seem to have benefited from additional āclean upā. Power conditioners, USB conditioners, Internet upgrades, quality RJ45ās, quality cables in general. I donāt like it, but the cleaner these components run, the cleaner the signal, the cleaner the power, etc. it simply seems to benefit the overall noise floor which when combined with a quiet room, well recorded and mixed tracks and a keen ear listening for improvements in resolution you will maximize what your transducer can offer.
Iām not recommending the Innuos, simply saying that in my opinion, my home, my rooms, w/ my music choices Iāve been happy w/ them and they seem to scale in performance w/ the addition of cleaner internet, power, etc. 
Iām a believer in spending some money on the very front end if you have it to spare. Good luck buddy 
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I never asked, but out of curiosity what streamer are you using now? Thereās a lot of fantastic bang for the buck streaming options and as @NickMimi just share in his post, heās got a bunch of them.
What Iāve found with streamers is that once you get past the entry level stuff, thereās a lot of GOOD quality, stuff made even better with improved cabling, poswer etc.
Try to identify what level youād like to be at both sonically and price.
If I didnāt know any better a sub $1k streamer would be light years away in performance from moving out of a USB connected PC for example. But in that mid tier streaming world, youāre going to see differences in performance but they wonāt be night and day and theyāll all offer their own flavors which would also impact which choice you make ultimately.
The best value is going used if you can get a good deal on something but unless and thereās a lot of good stuff in that pricerange youāre shopping for, made even better with power and cabling. Whatever you wind up with, factor in the accessories because theyāll benefit most.
The expectation on the $12 to $15K streamer market is that you donāt need to improve on them with customization etc and hence the price premium.
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Nope, just auralic.
Yeah, after the PSU upgrade. If I didnāt have it, I probably wouldāve sold it quick. Also depends on how you want to play music on it. Is it just streaming or do you plan to use your own media on it via USB or Nas? I wouldnāt use roon on it either, stock software sounds much better.
Iāve got a Sonnet Hermes right now which is Pi based
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Welpā¦I was planning on using Roon, mostly for streaming and smallish local library.
Anyone have killer streamer recommendations in the 2-4k range that sound good with Roon 
To be fair, that was a long time ago I havenāt tried it since. But yeah you might be better off with a different streamer that works well with roon lol
If you decide to sell the Hermes let me know, maybe a partial trade for somethingā¦it mates to my Pasithea and makes for a simple clean set up
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Well this is sad to seeā¦
Hoping their software continues support, but I might have to look for something else instead if it ceases 
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