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Playback designs followup?

There was a flurry of impressions when this player first came out, all of which was very favourable. I would really like to hear from the original users and others who are very familiar with this player about their impressions about its sound.
For the lucky owners, is it still as spectacular as initial impressions suggested or maybe even better with ongoing use??
Thanks
ecka
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
Interesting response, Dgad.

I will say that the Emm line is a top alternative that a prospective Playback Designs buyer should consider. I think they're very close.

I've listened closely to Emm, dCS, Ayre and Esoteric, among others, but "there's no reason for me to change", as someone recently said.
crna39's avatar
crna39
145 posts
 
I use my MPS-5 in a Professional Mastering room. For the past 4-5 months we have provided every DSD and hi-rez tranfer to a major dowload site. The MPS-5 betters our EMM Labs transport/converters as well as our $18k Digital Audio Denmark converters. This is as good as SACD and CD get! I've already made my money back on the unit!
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Dcstep has been "overselling" PD and Rowland for some months now; every thread in which he participates.

Check his posting history.

It's a shillfest.
dgad
782 posts
 
Crna39,

Question for you. As a DSD recording when you do a high res transfer, I assume you can't provide the native DSD file for transfer. Correct me if I am wrong. Maybe you can burn it but for download?

If not, then by Hi Res you mean what exactly, 24-192? If you convert it from DSD to 24/192, don't you lose some resolution? My opinion has been native DSD recordings are excellent but conversions always leave a little to be desired.

Also, playing back a recording on the same item it was recorded on must be great. You can use the Playback for A/D conversion or do you use something else. In that case then what do you use? Also, in that case won't it sound better played back on what was used to make the recording. If the Playback can be used for A/D conversion for the price that is a great value.

One of the things I want is a convertor for PC Audio w. USB 3.0 w. both D/A and A/D conversion. Not there yet from what I have found. It should handle both 24/192 and DSD etc.
crna39's avatar
crna39
145 posts
 
No, the Playback Designs can't do A to D conversion. We use the EMM Labs ADC8IV or the Digital Audio Denamrk AX24 for that. Yes, we furnish DSD files and if the label wants to downsample, we use Weiss Saracon to downsample to a 44.1k base rate. Most of the time we provide 88.2 or 176.4. The Digital Audio Denmark converter will do 32/352.8 which is indistinguishable from DSD64fs.
DSD is clocked at 44.1 so you always want to downsample to a 44.1 base freq.
I don't know of any ADC that will handle USB 3.0 There are several firewire units available. Most DSD is recorded via SDIF BNC.
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