PS Audio PWD + Bridge - ripping?


PS Audio's introduction of its much anticipated Bridge looks to be precisely the refreshingly simple breakthrough I've been waiting for to justify finally making the move to computer-based audio.

Prior to this, many of the complications, minutia, tweaks, debates, etc., associated with getting close to SOTA sound quality - separate DAC, dedicated server, and NAS - admittedly initially appealed my gadget geek/recovering engineer side, but ultimately became a tiresome turnoff. I just want to enjoy music on my terms with close to SOTA SQ and minimal complications.

PWD/Bridge's ability to use a simple, cheap USB hard drive for library storage is particularly appealing. PS is apparently working on their own NAS with built-in ripper, but my guess is it'll be probably be spendy and I'm not sure it'll be flexible enough re HD upgrades.

Does anyone know whether it'll be possible to connect USB HD and CD drives directly to the PWD/Bridge to rip discs, or will I have to "do it the old fashioned way", hanging the drives off of my laptop?
schotbus
There is one USB port on the Bridge, but I don't think you'll be able to directly connect a HD or CD drive. In addition to the PWL (PS-A's proprietary NAS), PS-A is also going to develop a new USB router - which, from what I've read, sounds (very) interesting...
No. You will still need a computer to rip. Although unless I am mistaken I believe the PWT will rip, at least there was talk along those lines. In any case a computer would be a less expensive way to rip.
This question is, I believe, addressed on PSA's discussion forum. My understanding is that the bridge will not accept direct input from a storage device via USB.
My understanding is that the bridge will not accept direct input from a storage device via USB.

It will accept direct inpute from a NAS via Ethernet. Also, I believe the forthcoming USB router that PS is working on may connect to the Bridge (via USB).
Will it be possible to rip with PSA's upcoming NAS, which in the pix appears to have a CD slot? This would make some sense. I know PS claims the unit will be their unique design, but it looks an awful lot like a RipNAS in dark clothing.
The PSA NAS will have ripping capabilities. I wasn't aware that PSA released any pics of their forthcoming NAS. Where did you see pics?
What is the USB Router (hub)supposed to do? What are the advantages? Is the Perfect Wave Library still on the books?
What about the new digital lens? It seems that there are a lot of products being promised or discussed by PS Audio that just never are heard of again. I liked the idea of the library in that it would be a closed system with no computer involved, one would just put the CD in and it would rip the files onto the internal hard drives of the PWL.
At the beginning, of the Perfect Wave project, I thought there was talk of the PWT's output being used to send the files to a hard drive system of some kind?

Now there is talk of the PWT/PWD decoding DSD files but again are these promises or just meanderings to keep people excited? Who supplies music files in the DSD format? I thought DSD was property to Sony's patents for SACD.

I'm extremely happy with the PWT/PWD and have ordered the bridge but really have no clue as to the best way to use the product. I certainly don't want to RIP all my CDs using one method, and have to start all over again latter.

Thanks in advance if you know the answers to these questions and don't mind sharing.
Check out the Forum section at http://www.psaudio.com. I did and you can see still have lots of questions.

The "Library," or PSL, is their NAS.

The Lens is incorporated into the Bridge.

Paul, the "P" of PS, recommends for Window people FLAC over the more popular WAV because of metadata issues, but says "we'll have a solution for that - be patient." Their system will read any format, so there's no need to convert or re-rip.
SGR: If you rip to any lossless format you will not have to rip again. If you are really worried then rip to a non compressed format like wav or aiff these can be transcoded to any format you like; flac, or alac with no loss of quality. Of course keep in mind that wav doesn't support metadata very well (can't imbed cover art etc) whereas aiff does, and fwiw I really doubt that PS Audio will try and introduce their own codec, that would make zero sense.