The SugarCube Is Here At Last...Clicks & Pops R.I.P.

You have to identify the problem in your workflow and components. It is possible to consistently and precisely capture the qualities and character of an LP. It can’t be done with basic equipment, unfortunately, but as you scale the quality ladder the difference between an original LP and the digital needle drop result narrows to the point of disappearing.

The Sweet Vinyl Sugarcube SC-1 Mini is superb. It contains a lot of processing power, a lot of fast RAM and - above all else - some brilliant firmware. In a high quality signal chain, the SC-1 does not audibly degrade a signal unless the LP being processed in real time is so badly damaged that it is beyond (digital) repair. The SC-1 Mini is a superbly well-designed component that works brilliantly, but it cannot perform actual magic.

 

Has anyone got their hands on the SC Mini phono stage unit? Keen to hear if it works well with MC cartridges.

 

Agreed. I'm 100% happy with the sound THROUGH the SC so I just need to find a way to capture that sound. The digital out of the SC-1 Plus direct into a PC seems to be the optimal way to do that.

 

Indeed. The fact that the SC ADC/DAC path sounds transparent to the source proves that.

My SC1 recording chain is more convoluted than it should be, going through 2 ADC and 2 DAC before capture. With the SC1-Plus it will be just ADC direct to PC.

 

Just FYI, I think I found where on the app it shows what version you are currently running. In the pull down menu in the upper right corner under "About"...the very first line should be the version number that is running. This shows I just got updated to 2.o-1016, as I was on 1.73 a few days ago.

 

you live in the uk. where have you ordered it ?

 

Through the Indigogo campaign, with SweetVinyl's cooperation.

 

Still waiting for my sc-1 to

I'm still running the 1.74 software with my sc1. According to Dan they should all be updated by the first week in December. So hopefully soon...

 

Dont hold your breath..I had a message starting 10 days ago that I was going to get an update..10 days passed then I got this...

An update is currently expected at 12 days from now.

You are running SugarCube 2.0-966-gd2a3e7da-20191006-0520-prod+sc2beta

I have no idea why it would take 2 weeks to update a minimum of devices to a new firmware release, unless they are running over dial-up. Very frustrating to have to wait when you were one of the early folks who took the risk getting one of these

 

Indeed, and I was chewing nails waiting for the update to hit my SC-1 - but they did explain how their updates roll out a page or two ago. It seems odd, but at least there's an explanation.

 

It actually has to do with being cautious to catch bugs on rollouts - we have hundred of SC-2s in the field and close to 1,000 now of total SugarCube units by early next year. The algorithm is slower at first and faster at the end - and already it has helped us find things we could not in our own testing and than we push a new update that restarts the process - overall it is a software best practice so you don't have forklift style upgrades and every suffering if there is an unforeseen issue not exposed in our own testing.

We did add the ability to know when you are in line - we thought that would be helpful to know when it will hit a particular unit.

 

Yeah knowing when you are in line for an upgrade is great until it gets to the day of the upgrade that the initial notification told you to wait for and it says you now have 13 more days to wait. The plight of the forgotten SC-2 owner

 

He’s just told you that they caught bugs in the initial batch, would you prefer to have a new buggy version or an older stable one? They’re just a small team, give them a break.

 

Right - letting you know when the update is projected is based on it working during the rollout - and not a promise that you will get a version with a bug that was fixed if we can fix it. In the end we are doing the best we can to handle all the users demands and requests - but we can't keep everyone happy all the time - and I think one would be happier to know that software is being upgraded and worked on rather than not at all, and that it is in line for an upgrade - rather than no idea what the schedule it is - even if that changes.

 

I would actually prefer to be told via

I would prefer to have the ability once an update is available to apply it with the option to rollback if there is an issue..now THAT is software best practice.

 

Look I love the product, it is the greatest thing to come along for needledrops ever, was it disconcerting to not get an email, an update anything telling me that that model I bought in beta and never got out of beta was being discontinued, yes it was. Heck I dont even care about the tagging functionality but when you tease a significant update to the click processing detection functionality then yes I would hope that those that have been in perpetual beta would be first in line to reap the benefits of the update.

 

After dealing with Fedex being incompetent, I finally have my SC-1 Mini.

I'm playing The Blue Nile's Walk Across The Rooftops and Hats now. I'd say these copies are VG+ with come noise during quiet passages. At a repair setting of 1 I'm getting virtually click-free playback. No discernable difference with the bypass function on to my ears via speakers. I'm very impressed.

In case anyone is interested, out of the box this looks to be running version 2.0-751-g4b91213-20190506-1941-beta+dev.

I'm wondering when this will get a newer version or if this this the newest FW for the Mini.

 

Only reason I ask is because it looks like the firmware on mine is from May, so I wasn't sure if there were any newer versions.

 

How do you find that out?

 

Holding the Bypass button will bring up the firmware version number.

 

Yup--looks to be the same fw version as seen in the About section in the Android app.

 

Thanks but that doesn't tell you when you are due for an upgrade.

 

If you look on your Web GUI on a PC/laptop or else on the phone app - Click on Support then Updates - It should tell you there.