Just installed new "Yale" operating system on my PS Audio DirectStream DAC

Moose68Bash

I posted this on the "What are you listening to" thread, and then realized it might be worth posting on a separate thread to see whether others have had experience with "Yale" on the PS Audio DSD.

I'd really like to hear others' impressions and opinions. As my comment below indicates, my first impressions are largely positive.

Here is the post from the "What are you listening to" discussion:

"I just installed the new "Yale" operating system on my PS Audio DirectStream DAC, and I wanted to get an immediate impression about whether the new operating system changes the sound. I am very familiar with this recording, and it is very well recorded.

"First comment: It is truly remarkable that you can upgrade a DAC in this day and age simply by inserting a 2GB SD card and rebooting the DAC.

"Second comment: The upgrade makes a difference. Instruments and vocals have greater separation on the soundstage, which appears to be a bit smaller than under the previous operating system, and the timbres of instruments -- guitar, piano, sax, drums -- seem to be even more realistic than before. The timbre of the strings of Badi Assad's guitar as she plucks them is remarkable. The high notes on the piano veritably "tinkle,"as they do in "real life."

"Third comment: Vocals at first sounded a bit veiled. So, I turned up the volume. The result was greater depth and clarity. This may be an issue that resolves itself over time, or maybe not.

Moose68Bash

I listened to a couple of tracks from Yo-Yo Ma's "Songs of Joy and Peace" and another three or four from "Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone."

Compared with my first impressions above I had similar impressions of these tracks, with which I am also very familiar and which are also very well recorded.

The soundstage is definitely less wide than with "Pikes Peak," the prior PS Audio operating system for the DSD. While the soundstage with my main system is typically wider than the outside edges of the speakers, often by what appears to be almost six feet on each side, with these tracks the soundstage was confined largely within the margins of the speakers themselves.

Depth also seemed to be reduced, but less than the width. Front-to-back separation of instruments was still good (sound sources did not appear "to be stacked" on top of each other, but the front-to-back separation was less than with Pikes Peak.

With that said, the clarity, distinctness, and timbres of sound sources were greater than with Pikes Peak.

For example: I listened to Yo-Yo Ma's renditions of the first two of Bach's cello suites on the album "Inspired by Bach." The richness and realism of the sound of Ma's cello was utterly stunning -- everything from the defining sound of each string to the reverberation of the wood in Ma's remarkable instrument. These pieces are played solo, so they are not so telling with respect to the soundstage. It was as if he were sitting in front of me in my room.

At this point, it appears to me that the Yale operating system has achieved some improvements in sound quality, while sacrificing some virtues of the soundstage it "throws."