Review and Measurements of Paradigm PW-Link Streamer/DAC

[nathan]

I don’t trust the lights. I hardwired it for the initial Play-Fi setup. It did a very long update to start with.

 

[fungd]

Have you tried connecting the wifi via WPS? I've had no problems, but having recently upgraded to a wifi mesh system, that was the only way I could figure out how to connect.

 

[Shirazir]

I have had it only for a little while and it is a bit finicky with WiFi, especially with initial set up.

Have you been able to use the Play-Fi app to configure the WiFi? The initial run of Play-Fi connected to it will likely update its firmware.

Exactly what have you been able to do with it so far?

And what are the exact light sequences you see (without inferring a reboot) in both the power light and the WiFi? There are two different speeds of WiFi blinking that indicates different status (looking to connect to WiFi and waiting for configuration with its own WiFi SSID).

If you aren't able to just turn it on and see its SSID in a phone or tablet, then it may have issues out of the box.

Haven't been able to do anything as yet. Just trying to get it connected.

Here's the light sequence. Just keeps doing this over and over:

 

[Shirazir]

Have you tried connecting the wifi via WPS? I've had no problems, but having recently upgraded to a wifi mesh system, that was the only way I could figure out how to connect.

It seems as though it won't even boot up to the point where I can enable WPS setup. Very strange.

 

[nathan]

Paradigm support is very responsive and may have ideas about doing a hard reset or other tricks.

 

[Shirazir]

Paradigm support is very responsive and may have ideas about doing a hard reset or other tricks.

Yes, I suspect this is going to have to be hard-reset (if that's possible), or just outright replaced by Paradigm.

 

[nathan]

Hope its not dead, for your sake. But it may be.

But as I said, I had to hardwire mine to get it updated when I first opened it up.

I assume youve done the obvious stuff like unplug it for an hour, etc.

 

[Shirazir]

Hope its not dead, for your sake. But it may be.

But as I said, I had to hardwire mine to get it updated when I first opened it up.

I assume youve done the obvious stuff like unplug it for an hour, etc.

Haven't tried unplugging it for an hour, but it's worth a shot.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Vasr]

Haven't been able to do anything as yet. Just trying to get it connected.

Here's the light sequence. Just keeps doing this over and over:

That does look like it is failing to initialize and probably needs a replacement as dead out-of-the-box.

I have had problems where if I turn it off with the front button and press it again to turn it on, I have to do it two or three times before it will stay on. It just turns itself off rather than do that loop as in your case. Don't know if it is related. I just leave it on all the time (it has a standby mode) to avoid this problem. But yours is more serious.

If a hard reset after the power being off for a while doesn't help, try this:
Before it "reboots" and the leftmost button light is on, press that button to switch to optical input mode. See if that button light turns blue and the unit stays on. If it does, press the leftmost button again to switch back to streamer mode. If the problem comes back, the problem might be a bad streamer module. If it doesn't switch to the optical input mode, then the boot firmware is hosed.

 

[Shirazir]

Final update to the saga of the boot-looping PW Link:

Turns out the original power supply had some sort of issue. Not sure what was wrong with it, but in a random attempt at making this thing work, I tried a spare 12v wall wart and lo and behold, it worked.

Thanks for the tips and guidance, everyone!

 

[nathan]

Wow that's a great solution. Contgrats. (Still worth contacting the seller or Paradigm directly imo, to get a replacement power supply....)

 

[Vasr]

That is good to know! Good of you to try out-of-the-box solutions to debug.

Yes, get a replacement power supply. They might send a whole new box. You shouldn't have to pay shipping.

 

[Shirazir]

Wow that's a great solution. Contgrats. (Still worth contacting the seller or Paradigm directly imo, to get a replacement power supply....)

Not what I expected to be the issue, but a lot easier than it being a software bug as I had initially imagined.

Now to get past the "critical audio error" issue when trying to run ARC.

Amir was right, this thing can get your blood pressure climbing!

That is good to know! Good of you to try out-of-the-box solutions to debug.

Yes, get a replacement power supply. They might send a whole new box. You shouldn't have to pay shipping.

I intend on it!

 

[Vasr]

Now to get past the "critical audio error" issue when trying to run ARC.

If you haven't done so, download and run ARC Genesis software from Anthem site, not the software Paradigm points to. This should also update the ARC firmware if necessary when you first run it.

Also, make sure that volume for measurement is sufficiently loud and that the mic input volume on the PC/Mac is not too low.

 

[ripmixburn]

Merely for ARC, I am feeding one device into the Digital In and it's nice as I have no other means to EQ. I have another digital streamers and CD player (one toslink, one coaxial) and would love to give them the benefits of ARC. Does anyone knows of a (cheap) device that has multiple digital inputs that outputs to one toslink? Ideally it could auto-detect. I haven't found one like this, but have not done a deep dive on it.

 

[Vasr]

Merely for ARC, I am feeding one device into the Digital In and it's nice as I have no other means to EQ. I have another digital streamers and CD player (one toslink, one coaxial) and would love to give them the benefits of ARC. Does anyone knows of a (cheap) device that has multiple digital inputs that outputs to one toslink? Ideally it could auto-detect. I haven't found one like this, but have not done a deep dive on it.

View attachment 108372

There are plenty of Toslink switches. For example
https://www.amazon.com/Portta-Toslink-Switch-Switcher-Control/dp/B00KDZEWWO

PS: The auto-sensing ones aren't reliable at all. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't and can be frustrating.

 

[ripmixburn]

There are plenty of Toslink switches. For example
https://www.amazon.com/Portta-Toslink-Switch-Switcher-Control/dp/B00KDZEWWO

Good one and cheap! Have you seen one that has a coaxial port? If not, I think coax to toslink adapters are available.

PS: The auto-sensing ones aren't reliable at all. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't and can be frustrating.

OK, I was wondering. Thanks, good to know.

The PW Link does auto-sense between optical and analog decently, although the unit does require restarts every once in a while.

 

[Jevouz]

Hello All,
Play-Fi Version 6.3 broke my Paradigm Link
Link via toslink to Bifrost2 to studio monitors.

Before the launch of the new rev, I was able to stream at 24/192 from Amazon HD and my hi-res content on my NAS and SSD via ethernet cable.

After the firmware upgrade, I can only max it out at 24/96 if I try full resolution the link lags and crashes.

The presets only work if you have location enabled and running this app in the background really drains the battery, I have a new iPhone and it's ridiculous that I'm out of juice after an 8hr shift that was the whole point of getting the link that I can control the volume from a distance.

I'm returning the link and staying with USB unison, Play-fi and BluOs are not ready for us demanding customers.

 

[DonM]

Has anyone created a calibration file for the Arc USB microphone. I would like to also use it with the REW speaker measurement software. Thanks!

 

[DonM]

I had some problems using DTS Play-Fi and found that the Airport Express is not recommended as a wireless connection device. For more information you can refer to this FAQ:
https://play-fi.com/faq/entry/recommended-routers-and-network-specifications