SearchingForTheSound

@Crakers no, but I am thinking about buying one when it comes out next month. If it is on Amazon, it will be easy to return if it doesn’t out perform the neo. Are you looking at the Lumin mini or U2?

@Crakers which streamers are you looking at? I had the zen prior to buying the neo. I have to say, the neo was big step up compared to the zen. I liked the zen a lot, but instruments and voices sound more fluid and natural with the neo. I’m pretty impressed with the build quality of the a6.

@Crakers - I don’t use the neo as a DAC, I only use the streamer. I have a Hermes DDC connected to a Pontus II via I2S. I’m wondering if the streamer on the a6 is better than the neo.

I currently have an ifi neo stream and am wondering how the a6 compares to the neo stream. I like the neo stream but I’m not a big fan of having to use Roon. Does anyone else here have a neo stream who might be thinking about moving to the a6?

@thimmy118 last night was a great session. I was able to listen for about three hours. I didn’t change any of the settings because it sounded so good I just wanted to enjoy the music. I really like the NOS mode since I updated the firmware. My FPGA chip model is EP4CE6F which is different than yours(I think). Maybe that’s why the NOS mode sounds great in my setup. I do believe the bass is tighter but it may be a little lighter than it was with the old firmware. My system sounded so smooth, almost silk like. Voices were very detailed without harshness or unnatural sounding. The song Change by Big Thief sounded like the band was in my basement. I’m very happy with the new software and have no plans to request the old firmware. I’m glad you are also enjoying the update. Keep me updated. . @thimmy118 I also have the pontus ii and the hermes and right after the update I experienced the exact same changes in sound. The mids and highs were more detailed but the bass was bloated and I too turned my sub down. Also, complex pieces sounded congested at times. I went to bed that night (last Saturday and only six or seven hours after I updated) and I wasn’t worried because Alvin said it could take five to ten days to break in. I didn’t listen to my system again until Friday night. I set up my pontus the same way before the update (OS, phase, and fast). When I started listening, I could tell the bass was much tighter and detail had greatly improved. At this setting, I enjoyed the increase in detail and expanded soundstage, but I felt like the warm feeling and magic was gone. So, after a couple of hours I changed the OS setting to NOS and after a few minutes (maybe 10-15) the warmth and magic was back. The detail, expanded soundstage, and lower noise floor all remained but the Denafrits signature sound was back and improved. I'm going to listen again tonight and change the setting from fast to slow to find out if I can hear a difference. I’m very satisfied with the update and believe it will continue to improve. I have a very relaxed system to begin with, so additional detail, tighter bass, and lower noise floor will not make it too bright or fatiguing. I think Alvin and team spent a lot of time testing this upgrade for each model and they would not release them if he and Denafrits were not confident in the outcome.

@thimmy118 I also have the pontus ii and the hermes and right after the update I experienced the exact same changes in sound. The mids and highs were more detailed but the bass was bloated and I too turned my sub down. Also, complex pieces sounded congested at times. I went to bed that night (last Saturday and only six or seven hours after I updated) and I wasn’t worried because Alvin said it could take five to ten days to break in. I didn’t listen to my system again until Friday night. I set up my pontus the same way before the update (OS, phase, and fast). When I started listening, I could tell the bass was much tighter and detail had greatly improved. At this setting, I enjoyed the increase in detail and expanded soundstage, but I felt like the warm feeling and magic was gone. So, after a couple of hours I changed the OS setting to NOS and after a few minutes (maybe 10-15) the warmth and magic was back. The detail, expanded soundstage, and lower noise floor all remained but the Denafrits signature sound was back and improved. I'm going to listen again tonight and change the setting from fast to slow to find out if I can hear a difference. I’m very satisfied with the update and believe it will continue to improve. I have a very relaxed system to begin with, so additional detail, tighter bass, and lower noise floor will not make it too bright or fatiguing. I think Alvin and team spent a lot of time testing this upgrade for each model and they would not release them if he and Denafrits were not confident in the outcome.