PS Audio PerfectWave DAC Upgrade

Mrtennis: I am very sensitive about anything that sounds overly analytical or fatiguing...so I am in the same camp as you. I think the MK2 is a significant improvement over the MK1, so long as you install firmware version 2.0.2 in the MK2. The MK2 DAC using 2.0.2 firmware is more musically involving than the MK1 with better defined bass and better soundstage. In no way is the MK2 worse sounding, fatiguing, or overly analytical. The improvement is very obvious with the PW Transport in my system, although not quite "mind blowing", just substantially better. Mind you, I still think the SQ from the Perfect Wave Transport far exceeds the SQ from other inputs and from the Bridge. The Bridge has not lived up to the hype yet, which may explain why so many PW DACs are for sale.

hi mcondon:

are you suggesting that the only benefits from the 2.02 board are bass definition and an improvement in staging??

i use either i2s or coax as my input from the pwt to the pwd.

Question for Jiminia and anyone else: What sonic differences have you heard with the PWD between these input options:

1. Ethernet into the bridge
2. Computer USB to OR5 to PWD via I2S
3. Computer directly to PWD via USB

My main interest is the comparison between 1 and 2 and why they would be meaningfully different, if they are.

Drubin - here is Jiminias post:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1320430393&openflup&74&4#74

As for why, its simply differences in jitter magnitude and spectrum. Jitter is the #1 performance limiter in digital audio.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Thanks Steve, I had read that but somehow forgot that he covered all that ground. The one missing piece is Ethernet to the bridge. What's the jitter profile of that?