has anyone tried PS Audio perfect wave duo

I got an answer from Ryan Conway at PS Audio:

"The DL3 will take virtually any two channel PCM you can feed it as follows:

USB = up to 16/48
Toslink = up to 24/96
Coax Digital = up to 24/192"

So I can hear hi rez today (well, once I figure out how to get 24/96 out of my HP laptop. No Toslink or coax on this bad boy. :-( )

Here is my experience with the PerfectWave transport (PWT) that I received a few days ago.

Nice and well built piece although the drawer makes an awfully cheap sound when it opens/closes. The touchscreen is a nice feature but with the unit I have received it flickers once in a while (intended?).

To evaluate the sound quality of the PWT I compared its music presentation with my 2-channel reference transport/Dac system consisting of a Forsell Air Reference MarkII transport and an Audio Synthesis Dac2 D/A converter connected to a Meridian G 68 XXD pre/pro. Amplifiers were Krell KSA-300S, speakers Apogee Divas and cables NBS or Transparent Audio Ultra/Reference. The power cables for the two transports were matched and provide balanced power from an Equitech power supply (50amp dedicated circuit). For the comparison of the transports I used the same Redbook CDs with Jazz, female opera singer, classical piano, violin, whole orchestra, and choir acapella music. The PWT was connected to the pre/pro in two different configurations: I first connected it via NBS Master S/PDIF digital cable with a digital input of my Meridian XXD pre/pro to provide the D/A conversion (24bit/96kHz) dacs. Alternatively I connected the PWT via an NBS Pro balanced digital cable with the Audio Synthesis Dac2 which in turn was connected to the Meridian pro/pro in the same way as the Forsell transport. So alternative one was "all digital" from transport to digital pre/pro, alternative two included an external D/A converter in addition.
For both pathways the PWT sounded detailed and with a solid lower range. Voices and solo instruments were presented with good texture and placement. The overall impression of the sound was on the bright side and not very lively. It was clean and precise, but somewhat 'sterile' (esp. live recordings). Unexpectedly the soundstage and the volume of the reproduction increased when the path with the additional external dac was taken.
The direct A/B comparison of the PWT with the Forsell transport with the same diverse music material revealed for both setups that the PWT cannot reach the sound quality of the presentation of the Forsell. The Forsell transport presents voices and instruments more solid in their position and more natural in their texture. There is more ambiance/detail in the presentation, it is significantly more lively and engaging. The differences were not subtle and an audience of several audiophiles could pick them up in a blind A/B session easily.
Although the PWT is obviously a very good sounding transport it is no match for the transport (Forsell) used in this comparison as a reference.

I'm not sure if PWT best quality will shine with DACs other than the PWD. I thought the main selling point for the PWT was its mating with the PWD via HDMI I2S connection. A recent review by a British mag showed its SPDIF and USB were inferior to the HDMI connection. Seems like you need to compare the PWT/PWD combo as a unit, lest you lose the synergy.

thanks for the info Roger. i've got the duo incoming with only a short in-store demo under my belt. was wondering why you wouldn't do a comparison of the PWT with the PWD?. i'm pretty close to a know nothing regarding alot of this stuff, but have read almost everything regarding the PSA duo. just finished the owners manual today. the recommended way to run the PWT is with the PWD via the I2S cables, then directly to the amp. pre-amp is ok if you must (Mr M called it the best way in the video).

again....knowing little about dac's and transports in general, i might have missed something here?. PSA itself might share some of the blame too?. they have made statements implying "it's fine" to hook these piece's up in a variety of ways. however, from what this newbe has gotten out of all his PWT/PWD research is this. as of release, the PWT and PWD are made to work together in a pretty specific way. super high res DVD recordings, native and memory playback, I2S connection, asynchronous clock, digital filters ect...all working together. we'll have to tune in later for additional compatibility (bridge, FLAC, folder access ect...). right now it seems very proprietary to me at least. if the point of this comparison was to prove/disprove PSA's claims of compatibility/versatility ....then i understand the set-up and reason behind it. your judgments are very likely spot on imo. no doubt in my mind that at this point when compared by itself, the PWT couldn't out-shine the Forsell.

it does seem that the set-up available didn't let the PWT "do it's thing". to do so it would need to be hooked up as recommended. that's how my demo was set-up and it went fantastic. plan on hooking it up the same way when mine arrive (with the PSA hdmi silver I2S-12).

kinda like trying to re-create a dream.

wish me luck.

cheers
Lev

If the PerfectWave transport can only 'shine' if it is connected via I2S to the PWD, why then did PS Audio separate the two and sell them separately for $3k each? I have evaluated the transport for what is is against another unit with the same intended funcionality and I think this is fair. The fact that PS Audio has chosen not to give more emphasis on the quality of the PWT's S/PDIF and balanced digital outputs is unfortunate, but it is what it is.
Yes I will also evaluate the hi-rez DVD-R music material and try to borrow a PWD before I will come to a final conclusion.
And Levy, you may be very happy with the PW combo when you integrate it optimally into your system (as you describe). All I am saying in my post/comparison is that the PWT itself does not sound as good as a high-end transport like the Forsell.
Good luck and share your impressions when you have the combo at hand.