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Playback Designs MPS-5 Review in Stereophile

I thought there was a thread about MF's review of the Playback Designs MPS-5 in Stereophile. Did I dream that?

I own the PD and love it and agree 100% with MF's subjective review. OTOH, JA brought up some objective "flaws" in his testing and PD answered back that they thought that JA was measuring the wrong things, but thank you.

This brought up the classic, but interesting and informative, discussion of objectivism vs. subectivism and are we testing the right things.

How does this all this color the review of the Playback Designs MPS-5 in the minds of readers here. Overall, was the review positive or negative for PD?

I vote for positve and believe that we're not testing the right things yet. I'm very encouraged by the protocol that Nordost is developing, using actual music signals to explain differences heard when changing things like isolation platforms, power cords, speaker cables, etc. Hopefully there'll be a white paper soon, so that others can try the protocol and either validate it or prove it wrong. I'm rooting for a new protocol and hope it arrives soon.

Dave
dcstep
mtkhl567
157 posts
 
Jb0194, thanks for looking at my system and providing INvaluable feedback, but then again...perhaps not!
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Jb0194, personal 'density' freely admitted. . . but I do not understand the causality chain implied in your post. 
dcstep OP
1,518 posts
 
Jb0194 woke up on Valentine's Day and just needed to say something. It didn't matter if it made sense, apparently.
mtkhl567
157 posts
 
Dave you're right...poor sod...we should feel sorry for guys like that...
changster
40 posts
 
Would love to hear if someone knows the difference between the EMM Labs XDS1 and the Playback Designs MPS-5.

I currently have the XDS1 auditioning in my system right now. According to EMM's website, the technology also gets rid of the traditional DAC chip and the "PLL" thing and uses custom algo's also addressing x-y axis DACs, etc.

I'm only speculating on this but I can imagine Mr Koch before leaving EMM was the designer of the XDS1.

So the question is... is the key technology for the rave sound (according to Fremer, DCStep, Mr Lavigne, etc) of the player in the DSP/algorithms, and if so, now that Mr Koch is with PB Designs, why would anyone buy the XDS1 if future updates on the algorithms are mostly with PBD?

Plus the XDS1 is way more expensive than the MPS-5.

In the latest Stereo magazine in Japan (which I hope to scan fo you guys the pictures) they have internal pictures of both the XDS1 and the MPS-5. I don't know what it says because I don't read Japanese. The XDS1 using a whiteish/pinkish PCB (the picture is on EMM's website too) while the MPS-5 using the green PCB. The XDS1 looks in my opinion a little more "commercially packaged" like nice covers and labeling while the MPS-5 looks a bit more raw. I have no idea if this is good or bad, or how the components differ and whether this is material for the sound, reliability, etc between the two.

Are JA's measurements (noise, L/R imbalance?) in Stereophile partly because of this internal packaging/layout/use of components, and not because the DSP/algo/x-y DAC is fundamentally different than traditional players? It would be very interesting if JA could measure the XDS1 and whether results vs the MPS-5 are similar.

One thing I know is the XDS1 kills my older/almost broken Krell Standard, and it would be awesome to purchase the MPS-5 at a fraction of the XDS1's cost while at the same time sounding better (from updated algo's?). I have yet to hear the PD but hopefully soon.

Food for thought.
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