PS Audio PW vs. Bryston BDA-1 vs. Wyred 4 Sound

I have to second Mcondon opinion regarding the PerfectWave DAC. I am blown away on how good my system is now that mine is burned in.

I use it with the Oppo BDP83SE digital out and a Squeezebox 3. Amazing. But here's a funny story.

We had/have/going to have again hopefully today, the PW Transport. First unit had control issues and IMHO has a terrible bug that needs to be fixed. We listened to 2 disc's. First one was Alison Krause/Robert Plant "Raising Sand" in Hi Rez. At first I thought I screwed up the burn and I burned this music from HD Tracks.com. It sounded weird. I didn't like it somehow. I let it play and left the room. I came back with "3 Guitars", another hi rez download cued up and playing. We were stunned. It was absolutely amazing. We are listening to a one of the tracks when the heating unit turned on. My wife got up to shut it off and I wondered why the &$#! heater turned on, it was warm in the room from my Pass Labs heater! She walks by the left speaker and stops. It was in the recording. Now understand, this isn't one of those dissect your music for fun and leave the musicality for another day source's. There was such a balance and flow, continuity in the music for lack of better descript, that I've rarely if ever heard.

I went back to the Raising Sand disc. What I realized then was how different it sounded. The actual flow of the music was now at a different level. It was displayed almost as if at a slower pace where the music flowed from note to note. Sorry, I'm no reviewer and I'm struggling to find the proper adjective to decribe what I heard. I'll try to write a review when I get this thing back into the system. Just not enough time with it.

But if I have to find a tool to eject every offending disc that my wife or Dad or whomever (myself?) inserts on a 3K Transport, I take issue. How hard can it be? if; "invalid disc" then; eject disc, Not freeze machine :-|

i'll third the ps audio gear. have not heard the BDA-1 but have no doubts it's a fine DAC. have owned the pwt/pwd since release and compared it to several other digi front ends (2 that where much more expensive). nothing has sounded better imho. every comparison i've done has resulted in the owner of the other source buying or wanting to buy the pw duo. i'll spare you all the accolades but until i hear something better....the pw combo is IT for me.

Really looking forward to hearing about the comparisons of the three DACs listed in this thread. I ended up purchasing the Wyred 4 Sound DAC 1 due to it's price. I have the new Magnepan 1.7s with a Bada tube hybrid preamp and separate 300w 4ohm Bada amplifier.

The sound is incredible through the system. Very detailed and very realistic sound. For the first time in my experience, Magnepans are sounding great with rock music. It could be the new 1.7s but I do feel it is the combination of the Wyred 4 Sound DAC 1 with the new Maggies. I don't get the same feeling from my previous Pacific Sound modified DAC which is very good, but not up to the standards of the Wyred 4 Sound.

I can't tell you if one is better than the others (I have not heard the other two) but I will tell you the Wyred 4 Sound DAC should be listened to if you are considering purchasing either of the other two.

just a comment about the digital interface between the ps audio pwt and pwd.

i own the pair and have compared the hdmi (top-of-the line), coax and fiber optic.

for my taste the hdmi was producing a spectrally unbalanced sound. there was too much treble in comparison to midrange and bass. i preferred the coax, as it seemed to generate a balanced frequency response.

i have found just the opposite regarding the hdmi hook-up for the pwd. the hdmi was sonically better in almost every regard to the tos or coax in my system. i found this to be true even when a cheap hdmi was used and even more obvious when i switched to a hi-grade hdmi line. no comparison to my ears.....night vs day.

different strokes....different folks.