has anyone tried PS Audio perfect wave duo

no apology needed sgr. your candid thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated. i don't think you are dissuading anyone either. you can only tell it like you hear it. as good as the pet/pwd is or may be....hi-fi gear like levinson cost what it does for a reason imo. i've always believed one gets what one pays for (for them most part). if you want a source that sound like $10-$20k....buying something at $4-6k usually won't cut it =)

look forward to hearing more comments from you as things move along and/or come to a conclusion.

thanks again

This is a good discussion and I think we do need to start setting some reasonable expectations in the community. The PW technology is a 'next gen' approach that is highly convenient and likely represents where a majority of manufacturers are heading. That said, I think a fair label would be that the PW duo may represent the best bang for the buck digital front end for under $10-15k.

However, when you start talking about more than that kind of money, there's some seriously refined engineering going on that we shouldn't expect the PW to compete with. For those spending that kind of money, odds are it's part of a $100k+ reference system with carefully matched components tailored to the way that person listens. Where is that financial and performance divide actually at? I'm guessing it will clear up fairly soon as the reviews begin to emerge.

So, all things being equal, there surely are better combinations out there than the PW duo for many people. But things (money) are never equal and PS Audio is going to satisfy a whole lot of us I think. It certainly is for me.

agreed Shazam. i've been asking how it stacks up against big money gear out of curiosity.....not expectations of equality.

my pair continues to impress. still in awe of the sound coming out. just got my first 3 DVD-A's and was further blown away by what this duo can do. between these new DVD-A's and all the 192, 96 and 88 downloads i've burned.....my PWT/PWD is exceeding every expectation i had going in. but then i had realistic expectations to begin with.

agree on your value proposition too...getting this sound for 4k (using trade program) is a *huge bang* for the bucks spent imo.

I should hope that anything costing three to eleven times more would sound better. Just how much better can digital sound though? I just hooked my PWD up and it is incredible right out of the box via coax. Once the Bridge is installed via internal I2S it should sound even better.

I can understand why the newer (latest) and pricey digital gear might sound better - considering the newest technology (i.e.: new filtering systems that specifically address "pre-ringing" - such as Meridian/s new apodising filter; and the newest technology designed to address jitter issues). What I can't really come to believe is how anything with older technology can (or should) sound better (even if they were once the proverbial “kings of the hill”) - there have been some comparisons to really great - but older (antiquated), gear here. That the new PS gear is only listed at $3,000 (each) is truly something to be very excited about.

same here I run over 100 hours on DAC and I'm using cheap OPPO player as transport, difference between Cullen's DLINK III and new DAC is huge and you could tell right away without comparing A and B.
I've had many different DACs and CD players before including some exotic Esoteric SACD players etc and I really like what I hear from PS AUDIO Perfect Wave DAC.
I even try USB connection and was playing high res files at 96 point not 48 like someone stated early and they sounded great.
I'm waiting for bridge to see how that would work for me since eliminating transport would probably improve sound a lot.
I never try DUO just because I think bridge will be better option here and it would make great Christmas gift.
I hope that would be available soon.