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An evening with the Whest PS.30RDT Special Edition

Well last night I had a great listening session with a few audiophile friends, all of which are anti-forum types...don't blame them!

Anyway, a couple asked me if it would be OK to bring over their own phono stages along for the ride.

'What the heck' I thought, go on then BUT be prepared for a slaughter...which is what I was thinking. Didn't do that classic Homer thing and say what I was thinking!

Anyway, I switched off the Whest PS.30RDT Special Edition in the morning to keep the playing field as even as I could.
The units coming over were going to be off for an hour at least before playing.

7.30pm... a knock at the door and in comes a 2008 ASR Basis Exclusive - nice. Not worried as I have heard one of these before and thought the Whest was way ahead.

7.46 'Knock Knock' - in comes a Boulder 1008. I think a bead of sweat might have trickled down my forehead but hey that's what the evening was going to be about 'Rumble in the Jungle' well more 'the City'.

We powered up the 3 units for about an hour or so and launched into some great.... wine. You thought I was going to say sounds! That came in about 15mins later.

First on - Kate Bush Lionheart - Kashka for Baghdad.
The ASR was first on. Really Nice, musical detailed although Kate Bush sounded a bit 'thin' - lacking in absolute body but overall a really really good sound.
The 1008. It was really quite different. Fuller but slower. We all agreed that it would have been better to have the speed of the ASR with the presentation of the 1008.

The Boulder 1008 soundstage was nice but not like what we all heard next - my trusted Whest PS.30RDT Special Edition. If any of you have ever heard this track - 'flipping hell'!!
The Whest was is a very different league. Not small at all. Where to start. First of all the other guys decided to sell their units after this first track and this is why.

The Whest pulls out stuff from the vinyl that the other 2 units just hinted at. Paddy Bush (Kate's Bro) plays percussion on this track and you can hear what each percussion instrument is made from, but also the instruments have a dimension to them which is 'freaky'.

The rhythms in this track seem very basic on the other 2 units. The Whest pulls out the individual rhythms to enable you to hear the makeup of the track - rhythmically. OUTSTANDING!!

Kate's vocal is fantastic through the Whest. Not too full, or too thin but like Goldie Locks says: 'Just right'. BUT you can also hear her 'manner', the Kate Bush personality which is captured on the vinyl BUT completely missed with the 1008 and ASR.

Not normally my cup to tea BUT here goes: Yellow Jackets - The Hornet. Track name: It's almost gone.

By this time we were well into the evening and although I was smiling I could see my audiophile buddies thinking how to finance a purchase without the 'other half' thinking about divorce.

So, Yellow Jackets goes on and it's the turn of the Whest to play. I've just bought this LP on ebay this morning because my trusted Whest has again opened my eyes to a sub-genre that I would normally not consider.

Don't get me wrong, I love Jazz, but 80's Digital Warner...not normally me. Everything about this LP, every track went down like an excellent glass of wine, champagne or lager (tick which you prefer).

The Whest bought out stuff that the other 2 just couldn't see! The 1008 and ASR were blind to the emotional content of whole thing.

Well after the Whest it was really down hill - all the way. The speed, soundstage, imaging, pace, rhythm, space, imaging, pace, speed, soundstage, rhythm and oh did I mention speed seemed to collapse with the other 2 units.

Great phonostages but that is about as far as the other 2 units go. If these are phonostages then you cannot put the Whest in that category. The other guys were so dumb-struck that the differences could be so large.

The ASR and 1008 play what is on the needle, the Whest plays what's in the groove!

The evening continued and I was offered $$$$$ for my Whest as these guys already knew about my plans to get the Whest MC REF V -NEXT WEEK. But Boy...am I keeping my PS.30RDT Special Edition. It is too good to give up. The performance level is simply breathtaking.

Going from Phoebe Snow to Miles, and from EMI to CTI, the Whest outperformed the 2 other units in every area and I mean EVERY AREA. I have never seen 4 audiophiles behave in such a way - well I tell a lie, show any of these other guys a hi-rez image of a Bullet plug and it's like they are staring into the eyes of heaven.

We finished up listening to the 'Round Midnight' Soundtrack written by Herbie Hancock. Great finishing LP and shows the genius that is Herbie Hancock. This LP also enabled us to take some time out to gloat, cry and sob. I'm one of them - any ideas which one?





dcarol

Showing 5 responses by lewm

lewm
13,514 posts
 
Hi Slim,
Just reading your post.  It's odd to me that no one pointed out the fact that even your unit (a few steps down from Whest's most costly) has an outboard supply, back when this thread was active in 2010-11.  I haven't been to the Whest website in years, but it was not obvious to me that they used an outboard PS, back in 2010, even in their RefV model.  Which is one big reason why I was skeptical of the value per dollar, back then.  Seems to me that in the $10,000 range for a phono stage, an outboard PS is a must.  Perhaps I was too quick to judge (although I hasten to add that I never said Whest products were bad sounding; I only questioned the cost factor.) I would be curious to hear the SE or the RefV.
lewm
13,514 posts
 
Dear DCarol, Keep your shirt on. I was just thinking out loud, as one does during a face to face conversation. I did concede that I had not heard either the Whest products or Raul's phonolinepreamp; I was only comparing the known features of the two products in relation to their cost. I don't believe I referenced any review articles, and you would be right to criticize me if I did; I just went to the Whest website to find out about their products, and I found very little in the way of useful facts that could inform a knowledgeable audiophile. I apologize for my blather, anyway.

V12s ARE better than V8s, if both engines are in a Ferrari.
lewm
13,514 posts
 
Speaking of "the best tube unit(s)", has anyone compared the Whest to any one of those (e.g., Aesthetix, ARC Ref, Alaap, Einstein, Thor, etc)?

My only theoretical beef with Whest is that I don't see where the cost of their upper end products is justified in terms of chassis and parts quality, power supply complexity, etc. Of course, one should not think that way, but still...
lewm
13,514 posts
 
Thanks, Auxetophone. But are you agreeing that the parts quality for the upper end Whest phono stages does not seem to justify their pricing? (Prices in the US market are additionally inflated by the importer or distributor, apparently.) At the same time, I agree that fancy and expensive parts do not alone make for good sound and that there is a virtue in doing more with less. Moreover, one would rather pay for good sound than for parts.
lewm
13,514 posts
 
Dear Raul, I take your point. If they really have done all the things they claim, I can see how the price is justified (but perhaps not the US retail prices for the same items). In contrast, however, I would think that your own phono stage, with an outboard power supply and separate discrete "tuned" circuits for MM and MC, is a better "buy" than either of the top two Whest phono stages. (I have heard none of these, as you know.)

Re the Whest, I would like to know more about the power supply design and implementation (it's hard to imagine how a really state of the art PS could be squeezed into that single slim chassis) and I would like to see a photo of one of their top units with the cover off, so we can see the innards. These are things they could do to support their product better. The website is a bunch of platitudes, like the ones you quoted above, using all the audiophile buzzwords, which is not to say the products are not superb.

On the other hand, I cannot ignore the fact that the end users here and elsewhere seem to love the product, and there are no used ones for sale here or elsewhere except from folks who say they are upgrading within the Whest product line, which probably means I am full of baloney or burritos. Oh by the way, Raul, it is disingenuous of you to dismiss tube phono stages as being simple to design and implement. That's just a silly bias.

Interesting point about ASR. I noticed something similar about the Rowland preamps; there is almost nothing inside those beautiful chassis'. Also, the Graham Slee phono stages use op amps, and, heaven help us, tantalum caps in the signal path (and their website brags about that), yet Fremer and others have raved about them. Go figure.
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