Perfect Wave System Review

[mauidan]

John Sciacca's review of the Perfect Wave System:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article/review-ps-audio-perfectwave-system

 

[rockitman]

Very good review and I agree. To me, it resprsents one of the best values in digital audio given it's sound quality using the Trans & Dac combo connected via the I2S interface that carries each signal and clock in it own wire eliminating the need to decode a coax signal at the DAC. I also find Native resolution playback better than upsampling...things just sound more natural/unprocessed. It's too bad imo, that most other mid to high end dacs don't give native resolution playback as an option and force you to upsample all input.

 

[fas42]

Yep, nice to see another product showing how much most, other, components out there muck up digital sound. Once you hear it done right, beyond the fairly typically mediocre level delivered by a large number of systems, you start to understand what's possible. It's up to manufacturers to start getting more clues about addressing the quite subtle issues that so easily drag digital down ...

Frank

 

[mauidan]

Very good review and I agree. To me, it resprsents one of the best values in digital audio given it's sound quality using the Trans & Dac combo connected via the I2S interface that carries each signal and clock in it own wire eliminating the need to decode a coax signal at the DAC. I also find Native resolution playback better than upsampling...things just sound more natural/unprocessed. It's too bad imo, that most other mid to high end dacs don't give native resolution playback as an option and force you to upsample all input.

I agree the PWD is a great value.

Went through mine with RF and EMF probes and did a little tweaking.

BTW, if your PWD is more than six months old, there's a firmware update.

See the PSA forum.

There's also talk of a Mark II upgrades.

 

[mauidan]

More on the Mark II upgrade from CEO Paul Mc Gowan:

"The Mark II will consist of an entirely new digital input board, firmware update, new remote control (with Balance control)and a Critical Link fuse. These changes can pretty easily be handled by customers at home and we will make easy to use kits available for the upgrade. Once upgraded, there will be zero difference between the Mark I and the Mark II, even down to the labeling. We made sure this is the case so our loyal PS customers who own or are planning on owning a PWD will be taken care of.

11 new power supplies, analog switching in place ofsaturated logic data paths that we use now, a new built in and user selectablejitter reduction circuitry called NativeX - which will just set you back onyour heels when you hear what this does - even on I2S inputs (which is stillnot making sense to me) - but the engineering team outdid itself.

I can tell you without a doubt this is a major improvement -far more analog like - it's as close to the best analog recordings I have everheard. I am impressed with what theengineering guys did."

 

[rockitman]

More on the Mark II upgrade from CEO Paul Mc Gowan:

"The Mark II will consist of an entirely new digital input board, firmware update, new remote control (with Balance control)and a Critical Link fuse. These changes can pretty easily be handled by customers at home and we will make easy to use kits available for the upgrade. Once upgraded, there will be zero difference between the Mark I and the Mark II, even down to the labeling. We made sure this is the case so our loyal PS customers who own or are planning on owning a PWD will be taken care of.

11 new power supplies, analog switching in place ofsaturated logic data paths that we use now, a new built in and user selectablejitter reduction circuitry called NativeX - which will just set you back onyour heels when you hear what this does - even on I2S inputs (which is stillnot making sense to me) - but the engineering team outdid itself.

I can tell you without a doubt this is a major improvement -far more analog like - it's as close to the best analog recordings I have everheard. I am impressed with what theengineering guys did."

very interesting news. Thanks.

 

[rockitman]

so I recently installed the new Perfect Wav DAC Mark II Kit. From my initial impressions, it's a leap in improvement over the Mark 1 Dac. The soundstage is noticeably wider and deeper with more air around the instruments and voices. As with the Mark one, the sound is smooth and somewhat analog like... No shimmer/shrill or grain.The image is more defined and precise too.This is playing back material whether hi-rez or red book in the new Native X format that bypasses the oversampling circuit.