just got my pair hooked up this morning. been running them for about 7 hours now and they're sounding phenomenal. using the high grade PSA IS2 ac-12, silver hdmi and 2 PSA PW AC-5 power cords. the PC's are running to my PSA Quintet which in turn is using a PSA PW AC-10 power cord going to a dedicated 20A line. have 5 XLR IC's to try out but currently have Tera Labs RSC Air 2 connected. other 4 to be tried are Cardas GR's, Acoustic Zen Silver Ref II's, Audio Art IC-3SE and AudioQuest Colorado's. Krell S-300i integrated is what it's all going through. aerial 7b's and velodyn dd12 sub is where everything ends up. it'll take me a while to sort out which IC sounds best.
DAC is set to native and auto filter mode per PSA recommendation. testing music is a wide variety of stuff but mostly rock but some jazz and classical too. hi res dvd in 24/88 and 24/96 was jazz and classical only.
units were packaged nicely and a snap to set-up. went with the silver exterior finish and it looks good. got a laugh out of the white gloves and liked the soft cotten PSA bag each unit was wrapped tightly in. i'm not a huge fan of touch screens. prefer old school buttons but the touch screen's will work fine imo. no flickering and easy to read at least. was glad to hear my transport drawer didn't have the kinda cheap sound the unit i demoed did. opens and closes nicely with a solid sound.
any comments i make regarding the sound need to taken with a grain of salt. i'm new to hi-fi and have very limited experience with other DAC's/Transports. my comparisons were done against a Consonance Turandot CDP that imo....is a decent/nice sounding player(standard cd only).
right out of the box the duo sounded good. i could hear it start improving/opening up after about 3-4 hours. not sure how much "better" it will get but even if it stays right where it is....i'll be plenty happy.
regulare CD's.
biggest difference i noticed right off the bat was soundstage. it is huge!. very tight/extended bass and incredibly smooth top end. mids are crystal clear and without any harshness. the most un-digital sound i've ever heard coming from a digital source. outstanding tonal balance and imaging with great detail as well. at the risk of sounding cliche-ish, i'm things i've never heard before.
high res DVD-RW 24/96 and 24/88
Note: i have no frame of reference what so ever here. it's the first time i've ever played downloaded hi res stuff on my system. again....more grains of salt please.
was totally blow away here. have no clue where to even start so i won't. i'll just say it sounded phenomenal in every sense of the word. have never been exposed to anything like this so i'm speechless. i would have guessed that this was a completely new/different system.....not just a source (and connection) upgrade.
no doubt most of you veterans will need to look deeper then my basic/rudimentary comments. wish i could comment further but again...a mans got to know his limitations =). debates regarding what's ultimately "best" or "better" will be left too those of you who know what "better" is(i don't). this much i can tell you.... when compared to my Consonance cdp, it is MUCH better. i'm in heaven and couldn't be happier
unless something unforeseen comes up....i'm now in a very happy place. need to finish up my IC tests but that's about it. put a fork in me because i'm done for a while. plan on upgrading the krell integrated too separates next year but that's still a ways off. for now...it's time to enjoy the music for me!
cheers
Lev
DAC is set to native and auto filter mode per PSA recommendation. testing music is a wide variety of stuff but mostly rock but some jazz and classical too. hi res dvd in 24/88 and 24/96 was jazz and classical only.
units were packaged nicely and a snap to set-up. went with the silver exterior finish and it looks good. got a laugh out of the white gloves and liked the soft cotten PSA bag each unit was wrapped tightly in. i'm not a huge fan of touch screens. prefer old school buttons but the touch screen's will work fine imo. no flickering and easy to read at least. was glad to hear my transport drawer didn't have the kinda cheap sound the unit i demoed did. opens and closes nicely with a solid sound.
any comments i make regarding the sound need to taken with a grain of salt. i'm new to hi-fi and have very limited experience with other DAC's/Transports. my comparisons were done against a Consonance Turandot CDP that imo....is a decent/nice sounding player(standard cd only).
right out of the box the duo sounded good. i could hear it start improving/opening up after about 3-4 hours. not sure how much "better" it will get but even if it stays right where it is....i'll be plenty happy.
regulare CD's.
biggest difference i noticed right off the bat was soundstage. it is huge!. very tight/extended bass and incredibly smooth top end. mids are crystal clear and without any harshness. the most un-digital sound i've ever heard coming from a digital source. outstanding tonal balance and imaging with great detail as well. at the risk of sounding cliche-ish, i'm things i've never heard before.
high res DVD-RW 24/96 and 24/88
Note: i have no frame of reference what so ever here. it's the first time i've ever played downloaded hi res stuff on my system. again....more grains of salt please.
was totally blow away here. have no clue where to even start so i won't. i'll just say it sounded phenomenal in every sense of the word. have never been exposed to anything like this so i'm speechless. i would have guessed that this was a completely new/different system.....not just a source (and connection) upgrade.
no doubt most of you veterans will need to look deeper then my basic/rudimentary comments. wish i could comment further but again...a mans got to know his limitations =). debates regarding what's ultimately "best" or "better" will be left too those of you who know what "better" is(i don't). this much i can tell you.... when compared to my Consonance cdp, it is MUCH better. i'm in heaven and couldn't be happier
unless something unforeseen comes up....i'm now in a very happy place. need to finish up my IC tests but that's about it. put a fork in me because i'm done for a while. plan on upgrading the krell integrated too separates next year but that's still a ways off. for now...it's time to enjoy the music for me!
cheers
Lev