has anyone tried PS Audio perfect wave duo

Hello Levy3,

Roger concluded: "...PWT itself does not sound as good as a high-end transport like the Forsell"

In response, you wrote: "...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..."

However, transport part of this "specific way" was replicated in Roger experiment in full except the signal was transmitted not by I^2 as recommended by PS Audio. Even if I^2 would be implemented then result for PWT, at best, could be slightly better... nothing more

If my characterization of your objection of stepping out from PS Audio prescribed protocal (as of release, of course ;--) then my deepest apologies.

As self characterized newbie try to distinquish very few, almsot impeccable observations like Roger did from bazzilion of other like above where someone stated that he examined a hansful of hi-rez file using regular USB port which is capable of 16 bit 48 kHz max transmission.

As you can see I am not looking for the budies here but accurate information which Roger provided and this fellow did not. His (probably accurate) observation I attribute in large degree to his faulty methodology and thus almost worthless. I am saying "almost" because others who use noisy computers with non-dedicated UBS port or Sonos as the source and compare to... other PS Audio DAC ( improved by Mr. Cullen or not) should be very clearly happy with his results, and its important and its useful.

All The Best.
Rafael

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

Hello Levy3,

".....use the PSA duo together with the I2S connection and hi res audio. then take the reference transport and plug it into the PTD and do the same. this way....you would be comparing the PWT and the reference transport(forsell) in their corresponding, recommended, optimal set-ups."

Sure, you are absolutely right here. Since I do not own PWD then for me (and people like me) the choice of the DAC has academic interest only - as long as its qigh quality obviously. For people who have or will have PWD, your idea will be much more interesting and more importantly, very relevant. Agree with you - 100% Sorry for miscommunication again.

All The Best
Rafael

Hello Roger,

"Interestingly enough my Dell PC's (T7400) drive and sound card together with the Media Monkey player software played the hi-rez DVD-R just fine.. "

Whar sound card did you use? There are not too many around which can handle hi-rez files without first downsampling them.

"..you have a dac that can handle such high resolution formats (are there any out there at this time?)"

There are number of them: To match level of Forcell try MSB Technology (price range from $7k to bazillion) or Berkeley Alpha. I am sure there are more but I mentioned once I know that they will do this job...well.

If you will buy PWD (with optional Bridge, it can also work as relatively inexpensive music server of rather high quality - lets give credit where its, as seems to be, due) please post your impressions.

Good Luck.
Rafael

Thank you Lev for sharing your observations. I am glad that you like the duo.
Enjoy!
Rafael