I was on the PS Audio beta team for the BII - so I've had mine for about a year now I believe, maybe longer.

I agree it's easy to setup if you're tech savvy enough to get your software setup how you like it. I still have some issues with that (And I'm tech savvy), but that's mostly just preference in how I like to do things. I really like how I have Fubar setup on my host PC (via USB), so it's tough for me to switch.

Sound wise, I felt the Bridge II sounded sharper and more accurate. But I spent a lot of time getting my USB sounding great via good software and adjustments, and I felt it edged out the Bridge II in sound quality after all my efforts. The BII, had I had it sooner, would have saved me a lot of experimentation getting the USB sounding good.  After getting the Regen and short Curious cable, plus a battery power supply, my USB sound is far superior to the BII. Plus I can play my 2X DSD via USB.

I don't have Tidal so I can't comment on that, but I can see how the BII would make it sound better - it's got the digital lens thing going.

As for your USB not sounding as good as the BII - I firmly believe it can sound better, but it takes lots of effort, and it's easy to throw it off with a software setting.

LR…I agree with your comments on the sound of the Bridge II.  It has an accurate, clean sound.  Not sure if you associated negatives with sharp in your system.  The Bridge lets through a lot of detail, but it sounds musical to me.  

I don’t know if my network would withstand high res audio streaming and not sure if that is what causes hiccups with the Bridge in your system.  

I may download Minimserver or JRiver for Mac to test streaming of high res files.  I think my main concern would be dropouts due to the wireless bridge I have connected to the Bridge II.  I have a bunch of high res PCM files I can try.  I also have most of the Opus samplers in double rate DSD, but wouldn’t be able to stream to the Bridge, which is a bummer.

Sounds like USB has great potential.  I’m not sure how much higher I could go with my MacBook.  Battery/SSD/Audirvana/Regen/Curious USB Cable, but I will continue to experiment.

I wish my local dealer carried the Aurender or Antipodes line of music servers so i could demo how those sound in my system.  I used to build my own computers, mostly for recording music, but I don’t have time for those projects at the moment.

TIDAL is great for my musical taste.  Access to tons of music and CD quality.  There are only a few things that I haven’t been able to find.  For me, there is less activation energy and monetary commitment to explore new & different music and listen through my main system at the same time.    

Lon…I have the PWT too.  My initial reaction is that the Bridge sounds different, but I haven’t done enough A/B comparisons to make solid conclusions.  I also don’t know if the source files are the same (TIDAL vs. CD), which would complicate the assessment.  The PWT v2 sounds like it would be perfect for you.  If I recall correctly, you have a lot of SACD's and Redbook is supposed to sound even better vs. the PWT v1.  A win/win.

Lon…I have and will continue to enjoy my PWT.  I have it hooked up to my DS exactly as you do and with the same HDMI cable.  The sound is fantastic…very detailed with an analog liquidity.  For me, it set the benchmark for digital.  The PWT has a slight warmth that reminds me a bit of analog.  

I never got into buying physical media, ripping it to the computer, storing the physical media, and then playing the music via a computer.  But that’s what most folks were doing/forced to do for computer audio because 1) they already owned large collections of physical media and 2) the new music they wanted wasn’t available in CD quality+ either via download or streaming.  TIDAL changed everything, at least for me.  It’s like having access to the worlds largest CD collection.  

Over the past year I have been building my music collection in the cloud and my goal was to have streaming sound as good as discs played via the PWT.  I have closed the sound quality gap significantly with the Bridge II.    

Unfortunately, many folks had less than desirable experiences with the Bridge I (instability, gapless, etc), but my experience with the Bridge II has been great.  It took me < 1 hour to setup and I haven’t had a single dropout or reset.  Streaming TIDAL now sounds great and it’s simple to control via an Android tablet.

If the industry adopts the Meridian MQA high res compression format (high res files that are about the same size as CD quality) then things are headed in the right direction for the music lover.  Convenience of streaming and amazing sound quality.  

I have no doubt the PWT v2 will sound more detailed than v1.  If the Bridge 2 is any indication, the digital lens has been improved and the PWT v2 will have a similar increase in transparency.  Paul claims the PWT v2 will be better than the Bridge 2 and I would say the same thing if I was him…

Enjoy the music!