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PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC without the transport

I am eagerly awaiting release of the bridge and lens and plan to get the whole turnkey PS Audio music server package once it comes out. I was wondering if it is worthwile to get the DAC earlier and use it with my digital transport (using Marantz UD9004). All I read about is the PS Audio DACs performance when used with the PWT. Is anyone using just the DAC with other transport over S/DIF and how good is it? I am currently using the Xtreme DAC card in my Theta casablanca III.
edorr
edorr OP
714 posts
 
Goes to show that no amount of engineering can take the voodoo out of high-end audio, and the only way to make good buying decisions is to listen to your favorite recordings after 5 rum and cokes and trust your subjective and fatally biased instincts (works for me all the time).
mekong56
137 posts
 
04-26-11: Rockitman
"The connection of your music server to the PW DAC/Bridge is either via wifi router or hardwired ethernet cable. The Is2 connection between the PWT and the PWD is superior to that. Your assertion doesn't hold water, imo."

Rockitman-
I am only asserting what my ears tell me, not really anything more. It just sounds better in my system IMO. My point about taking the power cord, HDMI cable, and vibration of the PWT out of the equation is speculation on my part as to why I think it sounds better to me with the Bridge.

If the the Is2 is really superior, why does Paul McGowan himself say they should sound identical (PWT/PWD vs PWD/Bridge)? Maybe from a technical standpoint it is superior to ethernet, which I am not knowledgeable enough to argue one way or the other. Technical superiority often does not translate into things you can actually hear.
rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
Hi Mekong56,

Irregardless of what Paul says, I don't think they sound indentical (splitting hairs perhaps)...how could they ? The music reaches the DAC in a different way ie: Server/Bridge vs. PWT). I agree...what one hears on one system may not necessarily apply to another person's system....YMMV
Cheers !
mekong56
137 posts
 
Rockitman-
I totally misinterpreted your post. You are absolutely right that there is still a cable influence whether it be i2s or ethernet- my bad. However, there still is influence of the PWT transport power cable, and vibrational issues to consider.
edorr OP
714 posts
 
For the record, the issue is not "I2S" verus "bridge" - the bridge is also I2S. You can see the PWT as a tranport with a bridge build in. Instead of bits coming in through ethernet the bits are read from a disc. The reason it should sound the same is the bridge (either the one in the DAC or the one in the PWT, and in the future the one in the lens) buffers and then completely rebuilds the signal (I2S) and is agnostic to the quality of the bits coming in.

One could hypothesize that the bridge should sounds better because the I2S protocol is very sensitive to transmission and cable lenghts, so having the bridge directly plugged into the data bus in the PWD should be superior to sending the same I2S signal over an HDMI cable. The fact that according to PS Audio the quality of the HDMI cable is paramount is consistent with this hypothesis.
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