Stream-IF User Manual
11
UPGRADING THE FIRMWARE IN YOUR STREAM-IF
Playback Designs is constantly innovating new algorithms and methods for audio processing and from time to
time may release new firmware for the Stream-IF that may further enhance the sonic performance or add new
features. New releases will be distributed as audio wave files. They can be played into the Stream-IF via its
USB input just like any other audio file. The Stream-IF processor will automatically detect this file and update
the firmware. No audio will be audible as the processor will automatically mute all outputs.
Upgrade Procedure:
1. Power on the Stream-IF.
2. Connect your computer with the included USB cable to the USB input on the rear panel.
3. Load the wave file with the update firmware into your player software on your computer. As
iTunes on Mac computers is not a bit perfect player you cannot use iTunes for this procedure, but
we have confirmed that Audirvana works perfectly on Mac computers. On the Windows platform
we have verified Foobar and Roon, but JRiver won't play this file.
4. Play the file.
5. The front panel will indicate UPDATING. It is important that at this point you no longer touch the
system, nor your PC, nor the remote, don't change the input, don't turn the power off. Go have a
glass of Playback Designs wine, because it will take about 2 minutes for this to finish.
6. Once playback has finished the front panel will return to either normal display or it will say
FAILURE. A failure can happen when you didn't follow the instructions in the previous steps or
your PC had a dropout during playback. If this failure happens, don't panic, but follow the next
steps precisely:
a. DO NOT POWER OFF the Stream-IF.
b. Disconnect your computer from the Stream-IF.
c. Push the RESET button on the front panel.
d. Push the standby button to turn the Stream-IF back on again.
e. Re-connect the USB cable.
f. play a normal audio file to make sure everything is still working normally.
g. Stop playback and go to step 3.
7. If playback of the update file has finished and the front panel does not display any error message,
but indicates normal operation then stop playback and disconnect the USB cable.
8. Power off the Stream-IF by disconnecting it from the power supply (simply cycling through
standby without physically pulling the power cable out is not sufficient).
9. Power on the Stream-IF and check the software version in the setup menu to confirm everything
worked okay.
