The update has been updated. This is a story of an unanticipated problem and how the manufacturer quickly rectified it.
I installed the update on Saturday morning (for you PD owners it has an "18" in it's file name) and was enjoying the increased bass impact reported earlier. I was going from CD to CD and noting the bass impact and ever so slightly more openness in the mids. The highs seemed about the same to me, but then I came to my friend Al Hood's CD "a little taste". Darn if I didn't hear the solo trumpet break up when it got to bravura style, well over the dynamic level of the rest of the recording. I thought to myself, "gee wiz how could I have missed that when I listened before? Al needs to clean up his production."
Later I was listening to Rose Marie and a trumpet obligato in the CD did the same thing. Next I threw Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band at the PD, playing "Back Row Politics" from the "act your age" CD. The cut was fine until the trumpeters started taking their solos and it just fell apart, with nasty distortion on the trumpet solos.
I wrote an email to Andreas and Jonathan explaining my trouble. Within hours Andreas wrote back for details and asked some questions. Andreas was able to replicate the issue and rewrote the update code. PD users should use the update with "19" in the name, the only one on the site as of today. Install it just like the first firmware update.
I've only been listening an hour now, but I played the offending cuts first, with no issues whatsoever, in fact, the trumpets now have more of the "brr" and "sizzle" of real live lead trumpets.
The most obvious change with the update is the increase in bass impact. If you've got some really hotly recorded lead trumpet (Chris Botti won't do), then you'll hear the "brr" and "sizzle" that you hear when you stand in front of a really good section. (I'm a trumpeter and hear lots and lots of live trumpet). All the rest of the frequency spectrum is ever so slightly more stress free than before (the PD was already excellent in this regard). This update takes what the PD already did well and adds an extra nth or ten to that.
I really appreciate how Andreas jumped on this and had a solution out very quickly. He might have done it even quicker if I hadn't been slow to answer his questions as I was busy with some weekend chores. This is very impressive. It'd be nice if we were all infallable, but none of us are and how we react to a slip is what really defines us. PD gets a top score for this.
The thought crossed my mind to not point out this little slip up, but users need to use this latest update in case the bug appears later. I re-installed the first update and the bug went away, but the final update is better with trumpet, otherwise they're much alike (but for the bug). Andreas says to use the newest update to avoid any issue.
Dave
