has anyone tried PS Audio perfect wave duo

thanks for the info Roger. i've got the duo incoming with only a short in-store demo under my belt. was wondering why you wouldn't do a comparison of the PWT with the PWD?. i'm pretty close to a know nothing regarding alot of this stuff, but have read almost everything regarding the PSA duo. just finished the owners manual today. the recommended way to run the PWT is with the PWD via the I2S cables, then directly to the amp. pre-amp is ok if you must (Mr M called it the best way in the video).

again....knowing little about dac's and transports in general, i might have missed something here?. PSA itself might share some of the blame too?. they have made statements implying "it's fine" to hook these piece's up in a variety of ways. however, from what this newbe has gotten out of all his PWT/PWD research is this. as of release, the PWT and PWD are made to work together in a pretty specific way. super high res DVD recordings, native and memory playback, I2S connection, asynchronous clock, digital filters ect...all working together. we'll have to tune in later for additional compatibility (bridge, FLAC, folder access ect...). right now it seems very proprietary to me at least. if the point of this comparison was to prove/disprove PSA's claims of compatibility/versatility ....then i understand the set-up and reason behind it. your judgments are very likely spot on imo. no doubt in my mind that at this point when compared by itself, the PWT couldn't out-shine the Forsell.

it does seem that the set-up available didn't let the PWT "do it's thing". to do so it would need to be hooked up as recommended. that's how my demo was set-up and it went fantastic. plan on hooking it up the same way when mine arrive (with the PSA hdmi silver I2S-12).

kinda like trying to re-create a dream.

wish me luck.

cheers
Lev

If the PerfectWave transport can only 'shine' if it is connected via I2S to the PWD, why then did PS Audio separate the two and sell them separately for $3k each? I have evaluated the transport for what is is against another unit with the same intended funcionality and I think this is fair. The fact that PS Audio has chosen not to give more emphasis on the quality of the PWT's S/PDIF and balanced digital outputs is unfortunate, but it is what it is.
Yes I will also evaluate the hi-rez DVD-R music material and try to borrow a PWD before I will come to a final conclusion.
And Levy, you may be very happy with the PW combo when you integrate it optimally into your system (as you describe). All I am saying in my post/comparison is that the PWT itself does not sound as good as a high-end transport like the Forsell.
Good luck and share your impressions when you have the combo at hand.

Hello Roger,

Thank you very much for your experiment. It provided the best assessment of PWT capabilities. The Forsell Transport is one of the best around
Thank you again

Regarding cry that it was not fair - because PWT was designed to work together via I^2 - its pure bull s...
1 - as you said if that would be the case then PS Audio should ethically to sell PWD separately as well as PW Player (i.e. P+D togeter for about $4.5k).
2 - Assuming that in PSA implementation by I^2 provides no or minimum jitter one can extrapolate that results would be better with I^2 - but by how much??? Day/Night? I doubt. Everybody who dealt with digital clocks will tell you that better clock improves sound and noticeably and that's all.
3 - I am not familiar with DACs you used in this experiment but I will assume that they are on the same level as Forsell. If so then
a)Their jitter suppression must be superb thereby futher reducing the possible difference between I^2 and S/PDIF inputs.
b) their power supplies, their analog output stages would be much, much better then relatively cheap PWD output stage and therefore sound should be much better too.
4 - This is my pure speculation and I could be wrong. If I^2 is so much superior to other methods of digital signal transmission then why only PS Audio, company with so far mediocre ("non remarkable" more polite word if you wish) products - as compare to the level of Forsell product - exclusively introduces it. Why not Wadia, Esoteric and few others - accepted leaders for decades in digital world. Must be a good reason and its not the cost, nor technical expertise nor luck of experience. I don;t know the answer but this fact bothers me a lot

Thank you Roger again. Wonderful experiment with multiple observers.
Rafael

i agree Rodger. if they're gonna sell them separate and make marketing statements regarding alt set-up's...your comparison was 100% fair/valid imo.

just wasn't the camparo/information i was looking for specifically. not knowing alot about transports and dac's in general, i was hoping to see some real world comparisons with the duo against other similar set-ups.

btw...funny you mentioned the transport sound when opening/closing. that was the single biggest negative i remember from my demo.

thanks again for taking the time to report

cheers

Lev

Just got my PWD last night, and here are my initial impressions.

I have two source connections, a Sony Viao laptop (via USB) for playing a small handful of hi rez files I have and a Cullen Circuits modified Sonos (via Coax) with a 96k upsampled output for all my redbook content. Previously I was using a PS Audio DL3 with Cullen Circuits Level 3 mod. The Cullen Modded DL3 reached much deeper and was much more detailed/cleaner than the stock unit. I preferred it by a wide margin to the Benchmark DAC 1 (too analytical sounding for my tastes) and the stock Slim Devices Transporter (lacking in energy for me). I'm using Nordost power and speaker cables, Transparent Audio interconnects, ProAc 1SC speakers, and a Manley Stingray integrated.

Right out of the box, the PWD is immediately even deeper and wider than the moded DL3 - a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one. The accuracy and detail impressed me too. There were things I was hearing in some of my favorite recordings that I knew were there but wasn't hearing on the DL3. Thinks like the resonation of a drum hit or the pluck of the bass string that got muddied or covered previously was there now. of course, this was especially evident when I went to my hi rez recordings via USB.

The thing that has me the most excited - and was not something I expected - is the lack of fatigue. On first listen, it seemed more laid back than the DL3 and I was worried it wouldn't be lively enough for me. But the more I listened the more I realized it is just a higher quality sound. I listened for about 4 hours with almost no fatigue - something I could never do with the DL3. In retrospect, I think I was interpreting the brightness of the DL3 as the vivid sound I like when in fact I just lacked quality. Because I could hear more, I felt more involved with the PWD than I ever did with the DL3. Assuming that trend holds, I'll be very happy to be able to have more extended listening sessions.

I didn't mess with the filters much, preferring to just let the auto filter do it's thing. However, flipping around them I can clearly hear how someone may find a preference for one over the other to suit their tastes. One rolls off the high end a little quicker, one does a little better job of knocking down the clutter you get with a lot of instruments in the mix, and so on. I might even end up developing a preference based on the type of music I'm playing. Let's face it, I listen to acoustic jazz for different reasons than I listen to pop, prog rock, or classical. And yes, I listen to all of them.

I'm looking forward to eventually replacing my Sonos and Laptop with the Bridge when it comes out. It will probably help me eliminate the last bit of glare and hash I get from the Sonos. And I've never been able to get the AISO driver properly configured for my laptop, so I'm always wondering if I should be getting better there as well.

All things considered, I'm extremely happy with my first few hours. Talk to me in a month and hopefully I'm still giddy.