Denafrips FPGA Firmware Update

I have the Marantz 6006CD and one of things I like most about it is the warm tone but it does lack some detail so your ears are not playing tricks on you.I perfer to use it stand alone,most of my CD’s are jazz and vocal and I perfer the warmer sound playing directly from the Marantz and bypassing my Ares II in the system it is built around. Burr/Brown chips in some componets still have the "magic" if you like a smooth sound.

Thanks for the confirmation. I am getting a little buggy with all of this listening.

Glad to hear that you have the same perceptions as me. Seems that there are a lot of us hearing this synthetic, glassy sound in the highs. Perhaps some systems do not resolves enough to perceive what we are hearing. I am not buying that as my system is VERY on the warm side. ...but who knows. LOL!

Yes...you have me thinking..what do the new DACs (12ths) sound like now.

This gives me pause.

I updated the firmware 3 days ago and it sounded much better than before. The tonal balance is much better from top to bottom. The bass used to be a little heavy comparing to my other dacs, Chord TT2 and Merason Frerot (BB chip based). I am very happy with the new firmware upgrade. The detail and sound stage have also improved noticeably. 

As far as the synthetic, glassy sound in the highs, I do not experience that. It is maybe due to the warm sounding of my tube preamp, tube power amp, and speakers.

My front end: LHY SW-8 -> Lumin U2 mini (via Roon) -> Titan Helen (via Wireworld Platinum Coaxial) -> Pontus II (via Wireworld Platinum I2S)

My system is as follows: Qobuz via Ethernet =>Pi2 Design Mercury Streamer=> I²S =>Pontus II =>XLRs =>Schiit Loki Max => XLRs => Schiit Freya+ Preamp => McIntosh MC152 Power Amp => DynAudio Contour 20s, w/Stereo REL T/5x Subs using REL’s proprietary hi output lines directly off the speaker outputs from the power amp..subs are tuned way back to be "invisible" to blend-in the lower freq. when the recording calls for it.
I have about 25 hours on it with the new firmware. Still have glassiness with some recordings and female vocals have a slightly colder tone. I have decided to run my system 24/7 at low-volume ’till next Sunday..then I will reassess. This is frustrating.

😎

I tried it with IFi Zen Stream -> Pontus II (via usb) this late morning. It sounded very good too. So far I only put about 20 hours after the update. I also need to mention that the articulation of the mid has improved. It added more emotion to the vocal. Before the update, the Pontus II was well behind the Merason Frerot. But, It is very musical now. So, the update has been very positive for me. (Denafrips did ask me to send a screen shot to confirm a successful update.)
However, if you still have the synthetic, glassy sound in the highs after the burn in. you then really need to contact Denafrips. I believe they would like to hear from you about your issues. Especially, you didn’t have that problem before the update.