[J. R. Hill]

Well, my S2 lasted three months. It was playing fine until earlier today, when I noticed the front panel wasn't showing my USB resolution. I pressed the menu button a couple of times, thinking that would fix it. It did not, so I went to the back of the box to unplug the USB and plug it back again, when I noticed the power supply was not connected. When I tried to reconnect it, the place where you plug the power supply in broke off and fell inside the unit. Now, the device will not play at all - won't even be recognized by my PC. I discovered that the 2-year warranty on the unit stated I had to contact their USA distributor, which I have. Now, it's wait and see time. Obviously, I am bummed out. Now I have to wait for probably a couple of weeks at least until I can get it repaired/replaced. I can't believe the power adapter slot could be so flimsy and that it would cause the unit to fail. NOT happy right now.

NOT happy about warranty support. I called up Audio Advisor last Monday, who I bought the DAC from, through Amazon, to get warranty support and have NOT received an email nor call. I called them today and am waiting for a call back.

 

[J. R. Hill]

How are the soundquality of the pro-ject pre box s2 digital compared to more expensive dacs like marantz hd dac1, audiolab mdac+, nad m51. etc.?

Warranty support aside, this is a great sounding DAC. I had the Marantz HD-DAC 1 and sold it after I got the S2. The only thing better on the Marantz DAC was the headphone amp, which was better than the S2. With the S2 having MQA support (which I have heard and does sound great), it is a no-brainer.

 

[exdmd]

Warranty support aside, this is a great sounding DAC. I had the Marantz HD-DAC 1 and sold it after I got the S2. The only thing better on the Marantz DAC was the headphone amp, which was better than the S2. With the S2 having MQA support (which I have heard and does sound great), it is a no-brainer.

It is a no brainer until it breaks @Left Channel has put a lot of effort into this thread much praise.

 

[Verbena]

It is a no brainer until it breaks @Left Channel has put a lot of effort into this thread much praise.

How long did it last for you until it broke? I've read on other places that pro-ject has quality problems with their box products, so maybe it is valid for the s2 digital too?

 

[exdmd]

How long did it last for you until it broke? I've read on other places that pro-ject has quality problems with their box products, so maybe it is valid for the s2 digital too?

Misunderstood I think. Don't own an S2; with all the complaints I would not buy anything from Pro-Ject until they get QA sorted, if they ever do.

 

[Verbena]

Misunderstood I think. Don't own an S2; with all the complaints I would not buy anything from Pro-Ject until they get QA sorted, if they ever do.

So are QA issues with pro-ject box products a constuction or partsquality problem or is it more a production or quality control problem? If I'm right s2 digital is an outofhouse construction so maybe it has better quality than the other pro-ject products?

 

[exdmd]

So are QA issues with pro-ject box products a constuction or partsquality problem or is it more a production or quality control problem? If I'm right s2 digital is an outofhouse construction so maybe it has better quality than the other pro-ject products?

You need to ask @Left Channel who seems most in the loop. Nice to have an MQA enabled DAC under $500 but seems buying an S2 is a crap shoot. If you really need/want MQA I would buy a Mytek Liberty at $999 or wait for another option, sure some company has a product in development.

 

[J. R. Hill]

Warranty support aside, this is a great sounding DAC. I had the Marantz HD-DAC 1 and sold it after I got the S2. The only thing better on the Marantz DAC was the headphone amp, which was better than the S2. With the S2 having MQA support (which I have heard and does sound great), it is a no-brainer.

Okay, I did get a reply from Audio Advisor and they gave me an RMA. We will see!

 

[Left Channel]

So are QA issues with pro-ject box products a constuction or partsquality problem or is it more a production or quality control problem? If I'm right s2 digital is an outofhouse construction so maybe it has better quality than the other pro-ject products?

Exactly the opposite. The Czech manufacturing partner is responsible for much of the inferior part substitution choices, inconsistent assembly, incomplete testing, and slapdash user manual. I don't know where they make their turntables, but I suspect this entire product line is made by that partner. It was also designed by an outside contractor, a well-known developer in the UK. Somehow they did not back him up with proper testing resources or a firmware update distribution plan. Their so-called tech support staff (actually Marketing/PR) and dealer network were unprepared to support the product and communicated poorly. We can only hope that the rough patches are behind them, and that future production runs will work out better, but they've lost me as a customer forever.

 

[vintinfinity]

I've got a week left to return this thing. I quite like the features and the sound of it, but it just glitched on me today in a weird way. Was listening to regular 44.1k files through usb and it started pausing and starting then glitched out all the way and stopped the music. The screen showed -88 all of a sudden with a large 4 to the upper left of the 88. I unplugged it because it wouldn't budge from that point with the volume control. It then showed -750 or so after plugging it back in and was clicking down by jumps of 10 as I turned the dial toward zero. Still didn't work, so I unplugged it one more time and it was back to working fine for the most part. But it was glitching out on Tidal MQA tracks more than usual for a little bit. It's currently playing a bluray via optical...

not sure if I should risk it breaking on me if it's doing stuff like this after just three weeks of being treated gently. Full refund rather than a warranty repair is kind of enticing if this is a common theme with this DAC.

 

[Verbena]

Tidal for me have been a little unstable the last days. First it started with glitches than stopped. On saturday it started suddenly changing to next song after some time. No trouble with deezer, and everything with bluesound node 2.

What other dac choices are there that are comparable to the s2?

 

[dwbrown]

Ditto, I had the same at the weekend with the S2 and my Raumfeld Connector (backup source streamer), and Tidal. I think there may have been a glitch in the matrix.....

Some info from HQ - All the units with broken USB connectors will be repaired FOC, they will be repaired with better quality connectors which are also being used in the factory now.

You should contact your dealer initially who will organise getting it back to a repair agent in your locale.

As for DAC choices comparable to the S2 - At that price point with that feature set - looking around - very few if none really in the real world at the moment.

 

[Mark Dirac]

With the S2 having MQA support (which I have heard and does sound great), it is a no-brainer.

left channel calculates that there are ~10x more hi-res tracks at Qobuz than (MQA) tracks at Tidal. Which has made me realise that instead of buying PBS2D, I could have spent the $300 to upgrade to 30 months of the hugely expensive Qobuz Sublime+ hi-res streaming service - high-res without any MQA messing about.

 

[Left Channel]

The glitches reported by @vintinfinity are serious, and I'd return the unit ASAP as the cause could be hardware not firmware. The MQA issues are far more common, probably caused by some interaction between problems at Tidal and deficiencies in MQA-provided code for all DACs. But other manufacturers seem to have gotten a handle on this, and you don't see the same level of complaints from Mytek or iFi users, for example, so Pro-Ject does not deserve our patience on this. And thanks to poor communication from Pro-Ject Support, we don't even know if fixes for any of these issues will be incorporated in the next firmware release. That release (if any) would fix the MQA/ESS filter transition bug they are (or should be) working on.

Personally I listen to Qobuz more than Tidal, and as noted above I've found about a million reasons to do so. You do get what you pay for. But most of the time I play the Radio Paradise FLAC stream or SomaFM in the background, and I support them as well. Sometimes I even forget I have a library of downloads and ripped CDs.

 

[exdmd]

Tidal for me have been a little unstable the last days. First it started with glitches than stopped. On saturday it started suddenly changing to next song after some time. No trouble with deezer, and everything with bluesound node 2.

What other dac choices are there that are comparable to the s2?

Make sure your download speed is at least 30 MB/s; 50 or 100 would be better. If you are throttled to 20 MB/s Tidal can be iffy. The only DAC with features comparable to S2 with MQA I am aware of ATM is Mytek Liberty but at > @2X price. Also take a look at Nano iDSD BL @ $600. I would go with Mytek has been building pro gear since 1992 I am not hearing of any issues with the Liberty. Really hope Pro-Ject gets their quality up to par.