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An evening with the Whest PS.30RDT Special Edition

Well last night I had a great listening session with a few audiophile friends, all of which are anti-forum types...don't blame them!

Anyway, a couple asked me if it would be OK to bring over their own phono stages along for the ride.

'What the heck' I thought, go on then BUT be prepared for a slaughter...which is what I was thinking. Didn't do that classic Homer thing and say what I was thinking!

Anyway, I switched off the Whest PS.30RDT Special Edition in the morning to keep the playing field as even as I could.
The units coming over were going to be off for an hour at least before playing.

7.30pm... a knock at the door and in comes a 2008 ASR Basis Exclusive - nice. Not worried as I have heard one of these before and thought the Whest was way ahead.

7.46 'Knock Knock' - in comes a Boulder 1008. I think a bead of sweat might have trickled down my forehead but hey that's what the evening was going to be about 'Rumble in the Jungle' well more 'the City'.

We powered up the 3 units for about an hour or so and launched into some great.... wine. You thought I was going to say sounds! That came in about 15mins later.

First on - Kate Bush Lionheart - Kashka for Baghdad.
The ASR was first on. Really Nice, musical detailed although Kate Bush sounded a bit 'thin' - lacking in absolute body but overall a really really good sound.
The 1008. It was really quite different. Fuller but slower. We all agreed that it would have been better to have the speed of the ASR with the presentation of the 1008.

The Boulder 1008 soundstage was nice but not like what we all heard next - my trusted Whest PS.30RDT Special Edition. If any of you have ever heard this track - 'flipping hell'!!
The Whest was is a very different league. Not small at all. Where to start. First of all the other guys decided to sell their units after this first track and this is why.

The Whest pulls out stuff from the vinyl that the other 2 units just hinted at. Paddy Bush (Kate's Bro) plays percussion on this track and you can hear what each percussion instrument is made from, but also the instruments have a dimension to them which is 'freaky'.

The rhythms in this track seem very basic on the other 2 units. The Whest pulls out the individual rhythms to enable you to hear the makeup of the track - rhythmically. OUTSTANDING!!

Kate's vocal is fantastic through the Whest. Not too full, or too thin but like Goldie Locks says: 'Just right'. BUT you can also hear her 'manner', the Kate Bush personality which is captured on the vinyl BUT completely missed with the 1008 and ASR.

Not normally my cup to tea BUT here goes: Yellow Jackets - The Hornet. Track name: It's almost gone.

By this time we were well into the evening and although I was smiling I could see my audiophile buddies thinking how to finance a purchase without the 'other half' thinking about divorce.

So, Yellow Jackets goes on and it's the turn of the Whest to play. I've just bought this LP on ebay this morning because my trusted Whest has again opened my eyes to a sub-genre that I would normally not consider.

Don't get me wrong, I love Jazz, but 80's Digital Warner...not normally me. Everything about this LP, every track went down like an excellent glass of wine, champagne or lager (tick which you prefer).

The Whest bought out stuff that the other 2 just couldn't see! The 1008 and ASR were blind to the emotional content of whole thing.

Well after the Whest it was really down hill - all the way. The speed, soundstage, imaging, pace, rhythm, space, imaging, pace, speed, soundstage, rhythm and oh did I mention speed seemed to collapse with the other 2 units.

Great phonostages but that is about as far as the other 2 units go. If these are phonostages then you cannot put the Whest in that category. The other guys were so dumb-struck that the differences could be so large.

The ASR and 1008 play what is on the needle, the Whest plays what's in the groove!

The evening continued and I was offered $$$$$ for my Whest as these guys already knew about my plans to get the Whest MC REF V -NEXT WEEK. But Boy...am I keeping my PS.30RDT Special Edition. It is too good to give up. The performance level is simply breathtaking.

Going from Phoebe Snow to Miles, and from EMI to CTI, the Whest outperformed the 2 other units in every area and I mean EVERY AREA. I have never seen 4 audiophiles behave in such a way - well I tell a lie, show any of these other guys a hi-rez image of a Bullet plug and it's like they are staring into the eyes of heaven.

We finished up listening to the 'Round Midnight' Soundtrack written by Herbie Hancock. Great finishing LP and shows the genius that is Herbie Hancock. This LP also enabled us to take some time out to gloat, cry and sob. I'm one of them - any ideas which one?





dcarol
dctom
111 posts
 
Yes the whest do seem quite minimal for the price. How ever the ref V is cheeper in the US than the UK. It is £10000 in the UK, that is $15000 at least in anyone money.I believe this model is around $12.k in the states.
dcarol OP
62 posts
 
Well since my GREAT evening in with the Whest PS.30RDT Special Edition I decided to put in into my second system and have upgraded to the Whest top-of-the-line MC REF V MK4. I've read some fantastic things about it and very briefly heard one but had a chance to borrow one for 3 evenings after which I bought one... I had to - read on.

I was quite shocked on the difference between it and the absolutely brilliant PS.30RDT SE. The MC REF V MK4 is in a very different ball-park. In fact it is by far the best I have heard, and I have heard plenty in my system.

I don't really know where to start but suffice to say that my vinyl playback system is at a level that I cannot believe sometimes. I mean it does things that makes me cry and laugh at the same time. It is dynamic and explosive like nothing I have ever ever heard. I will write a small review at some point but I know for sure that I am at the end of my vinyl quest. YES, I am there REALLY!

The high frequency is silky smooth, see-through and ultra detailed. The hf area contains plenty of harmonics that I have NEVER heard before. The mid-band is near transparent with a life-like quality, solidity which is dimensionally so correct that it can/does throw you sometimes. It does not sound like vinyl or audio but music with precision. It's really hard to explain but you lose that feeling of playback system and end up with music. I don't care about interconnects and mains cables as the MC REF V MK4 transends all of that 'stuff' which is so secondary to music. The bass is without a doubt the very best I have heard from my TT setup. The bass is pin-point accurate, deep, pitch perfect and has that 'chest-thump' when needed that phonostages never seem to do properly. Yes, some phonostages produce good bass but it's either flabby or you can't pin-point where the bass is coming from. With the MC REF V MK4 you can hear where everything is coming from because there is so much space around the instruments you feel you are sitting in the performance.

Blue-starfish was right about the qualities of the MC REF V. It is utterly quiet, explosive in dynamics, detailed beyond what you might think vinyl is capable of - in fact it takes vinyl to another level, no make that 5 levels.

Yes, it is basic in terms of facilities but then what do you want? Knobs and stuff to detract you from that lack of audio quality OR pure audio quality without the crap that others put on to bump up the price?

The PS.30RDT Special Edition is a great design. Simple, understated and minimalistic. The gain and load underneath and that is it.

The MC REF V MK4 is the same. You get 2 mono channels. Both are matched and contain everything to get that channel working. There is PLENTY inside one of those boxes to the point that there really isn't that much space to put anything else in. What is amazing is listening to one channel of the MC REF V MK4... it is better than 2 channels of anything else I have heard! It sounds silly but it is quite striking just how much the MC REF V Mk4 resolves.

And as for the price...it's £9990 in the UK and some dealers in the US are selling it for $20,000!

At £9990 it is the biggest audio bargain going since the NAD 3020 :))

The MC REF V MK4 is for me so far ahead of the game it makes others look totally overpriced.

I have a major listening session coming up with a couple of friends who are going to bring some 'stuff' with them to compare - should be a fun evening

slimpikins5's avatar
slimpikins5
191 posts
 
I see that this is a very old thread, however I just have to chime in.  I just picked up a used, post-2015 vintage Whest Three SE which is a very nicely built phono preamp with an outboard power supply which connects via 2, 5 pin XLR cables.  The power supply is a dual mono as is the main phono preamp unit.  Each output on the PS is labeled left and right as is each input, so they are matched.  What is interesting is that the power supply for this preamp is very heavy!  It must weigh in at 4 or 5 pounds as it's a large toroid multi tapped transformer, yet the rectifiers and caps are actually inside the main preamp case.  I particularly like the design with the main transformer isolated inside a dedicated chassis and separated by 3 foot long XLR cables.   I purchased this unit used when I saw it pop up for sale as you never see them.  I had in house on demo for the past 6 weeks the new Musical Surroundings Nova III with the optional Linear Power Supply which replaced a Gold Note PH10 I had for three months.

The Whest bridged the gaps in the other two phono preamps.  The Gold Note had very good mid-range performance, but to me it lacked in the upper end sound stage and imaging.  The Nova III was far better in the upper end/sound stage/imaging and much more powerful in the low end, but lacked in the mids which I missed.   The Whest does it all and its like liquid chocolate syrup warmed. I was amazed at how much better it is.  Additionally, its very quiet.

I have been reading quite a bit on the Whest site and the differences between their offerings.  What was interesting is how they use an internal suspension system of the main board to isolate it from the chassis in their very high end units; that is something not offered in the Three SE.  Last night when I was moving the power supply around (while the system was on at a fairly high volume, but with nothing playing) I bumped the the chassis of the Whest Three SE with my finger lightly and I could hear the 'thump' in my main speakers.  That really surprised me as to how detailed this thing is.  It was like tapping your turntable and hearing it in the speakers.  I tapped the chassis of the Three and it was in the speakers.   So what I did was pull out some medium durometer isolation rubbers I have in stock and I put three of them under the chassis of the Whest power supply and three under the chassis of the main Three SE preamp to isolate both from the shelves.  

I put on some very high dynamic range vinyl which was nicely recorded in the 1980's (the League) which I had been listening to last evening and I was completely blown away at what I was hearing!  The sound stage just exploded open as did the imaging.   As good as this unit was before, it just suddenly became extraordinary.  My observation is that Whest is onto something with how they isolate the main boards in their reference series gear.  Mind you that I stumbled upon this strictly accidentally last night, but it has made me rethink how I will mount this gear.  I plan on machining some heavy steel frames with the isolation triangulated feet on the bottom to set the phono stages on the shelving. The weight of the frames, which I may laminate with Acrylic in combination with the medium durometer feet should really dampen the vibration in the room, cleaning up the signal.   I think that I just elevated a $4K Phono stage to an $8K item :)   
lewm
13,108 posts
 
Hi Slim,
Just reading your post.  It's odd to me that no one pointed out the fact that even your unit (a few steps down from Whest's most costly) has an outboard supply, back when this thread was active in 2010-11.  I haven't been to the Whest website in years, but it was not obvious to me that they used an outboard PS, back in 2010, even in their RefV model.  Which is one big reason why I was skeptical of the value per dollar, back then.  Seems to me that in the $10,000 range for a phono stage, an outboard PS is a must.  Perhaps I was too quick to judge (although I hasten to add that I never said Whest products were bad sounding; I only questioned the cost factor.) I would be curious to hear the SE or the RefV.
slimpikins5's avatar
slimpikins5
191 posts
 
 Lew,

I agree with you on the 'must' of an outboard power supply. 

I am not sure what the design philosophy is in terms of all in one box, put I feel that an isolated power transformer with it's field currents from the main box is not a bad way to go.

As far as my Whest Three goes, I am very pleased with the outboard 5 pound toroid multi-tap transformer in its own cabinet which connects via two dedicated 5 pin XLR cables, one to each channel.

The most important revelation determined here is the fact that isolating the two cabinets from vibration and acoustic feedback made such an amazing improvement in overall performance.... not that the Whest Three was lacking, it was surely not.  But the isolation just brought things up to another level.  I am sure that doing a similar mounting with one of the upper level Whest units would improve that particular performance is as well.

I cannot comment on how much better the 40RDT SE., Titan, or Reference models would play vs. the Three SE which I have; I have not heard the others.  But honestly, the Three SE is the best phono stage I have heard.  At least in my smaller world of experience as I have only had the Clear Audio Smart V2, the Gold Note PH 10, the Nova III and now this new to me Whest Three SE.  I am very please to say the least!

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