toning down the ps audio perfect wave dac

"the only time i've felt it was treble heavy/bright was when using 100% silver core ic's. not sure why?? as others use silver core ic's with the pwd and have different feeling/results."

Simple explanation: The silver is broken in these IC's.

Everyone ready to learn something? Now for the Technical Explanation:

I have been designing and manufacturing cables since 1996, but not anymore. My brother helped with the technology since he is a metallurgical engineer. I hold several patents on cables.

It turns out that the reason that one IC sounds good has nothing to do with the resistance of the conductors. In fact, some of the best sounding ICs have powdered carbon for the conductors, which has very high resistance. They obviously have their length limits...

The thing that makes or breaks a typical IC is the crystal-lattice in the metal conductors. The more uniform the lattice (less fractures) and the more pure the silver, the better the SQ. Polishing the outer surface is also beneficial. This is why gold and silver are both good choices for ICs. They are both ductile materials, indicating a well-organized crystal lattice. However silver is a lot more finiky than gold. This means that the silver drawing, casting and annealing processes must be correct and tightly controlled, or the silver wire is "broken" from the get-go. Also, the cable fabrication process must also be carefully planned in order not to further damage the crystal lattice and compromise the sound of it. The good news is that even "broken" cables can be somewhat repaired by doing a good slow cryo-treatment process on it. The best possible scenerio for silver is to do all of the conductor fabrication process correcly, then spool it on really large spools, then fabricate the cable with bending it a minimum amount, and finally cryo-treat the whole cable.

Just take a piece of "fine" silver and bend it a few times and you will feel it harden, indicating millions of fractures in the lattice. It should be "dead-soft" to be used in an audio cable.

Most high-volume cable manufacturers do not understand this. Even their silver right off the spool is broken. Usually, its only the knowledgeable boutique hand-fabricators that get this right IME. If you ask the right questions, you should be able to determine if the manufacturer knows what they are doing with silver.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

when i substitute another digital source in place of the ps audio combo, the "hot treble" or thinness in the highs disappears. thus, i would think that the problem is either the transport, dac or both. i have a variety of cables. one is gold, one is copper and one is continuous cast silver, the neotech nei-1002. i find using the gold ic as a coax digital cable, with the mojo audio copper ic helps.

incidentally, as i said, it was the technician who suggested that i replace the caps and use carbon fiber resistors, and discouraged me from upgrading to level two, with either firmware choices.

there exist caps which can alter the spectral balance.

i should also note that one of my cd players is a better transport for 16 bit discs than the ps audio transport. my settings for the dac include filter 5 , coax and native 44.1 sampling rate.

I've not found the duo to be bright. I use a copper Signal Cable HDMI between the two. I use Signal Cable Silver Resolution for interconnects, which I believe has 4 strands copper and 4 strands of silver. I do use all copper Signal Cable speaker cables which Frank claims is a the best match for most systems. The upgrade is really a mo brainer transporting the PWD to near reference heights according to many that have compared it to the very best, price no object DACs.

While I do concur that there are better transports than the PWT it is still a great piece for the money.

MrTennis, I know from your posts that you've been less Han satisfied with the combo. I do admire your stubborn, resolute ability to find the key to getting your combo sound as good as u can. What are you using for power cords?
Steve

I will answer your question directly rather then taking you different placeS already done. You will wan't PIO - paper in oil caps. Ampohm will do what you want. They have several still available and tend to focus more on the mids. I think The Tube Store still has some available. The tin foil, aluminum or copper ones are fine. I would try to get the tin foil or copper ones.

Based on seeing your posts over the years and your dislike of any tipped or bright highs, these are for you. Give them 50 hours before reaching any conclusion.

They are large however and may or may not fit.

Another choice if PIO will not fit are AudioCap Theta's. They are film caps and much smaller. Very warm and non-fatiguing.

Two great, lower cost options. This step will in fact give you what you are looking for based on my experience rolling caps in gear.

I have an orig MKII and agree with Jdoris. What made you think PWD is the problem? Have you demo other dacs in your system?