Perfect Wave DAC and Bridge

I hope the fans of the dac and bridge can help me understand something. I've followed the progress of the Bridge on PSAs site for a long time. It seems to me that most users are pretty pleased with the sound, but a lot of them are unhappy with the ease of use. Network freezes, inability of the network to find devices and store settings, and an unpolished software interface seem to be common concerns. So to me, it looks like the Bridge has a long way to go before it lives up to it's promise, and from purely a sound quality standpoint, I wonder if it is any better than other very low jitter hardware plus good player software like Pure Music. I am not knocking PSA here. I am very interested in the PWD and Bridge as a more refined and convenient alternative to my Mini/Pure Music/iTunes/DAC approach. So to my question -- are the proponents of the Bridge speaking of sound quality only or the entire user experience?

I can only speak from using a Upnp server for which the Bridge will allow control from a computer when the user does not own an Apple control device.

I am up and running using Jriver software and it works well enough. PSA just released a firmaware update to fix issues with Twonky server software but I couldn't get that to work. No worries though as the folks at PSA are very proactive when it comes to solving issues. They contacted me when I posted my frustration! That speaks volumes.

For years I ran a SB3, then modded it, then bought a Transporter, then a Oppo BDP83, the BDP83SE, then modded that! Then I purchased the PerfectWave DAC and ran coax from the Oppo to the PWD. Then I purchased the PWT (transport) which connects I2S. So then I found myself back to spinning discs. It was after all the best sound I had heard through my system. I've only had the Bridge less than 2 weeks so I don't like to comment much on sound quality until it's had some hours on it (and my ears get some listening hours too).

Now I'm boxing up my CD's making sure everything is ripped properly to my libraries.

I haven't AB's Transport vs Bridge yet, but my ears are telling me this; maybe the best sound I've heard anywhere and is this really 44.1. I'm excited. And if I can simply, easily, scroll through libraries with an IPAD or whatever iDevice I get, all the better. Hell, maybe even dad can finally choose the music of his choice (he's 92).

But like anything else computer oriented, these are still the dark ages in computerland.

For me, the TagNPlay app is well designed and has very good usability, but it has has some annoying instability issues (mine freezes for about 30 seconds about 50% of the times I switch to the app). Not sure when PSA will resolve this but this stuff is so cool you put up with it. Frankly, since we are dealing with computer networks here I had expected a complete stability and configuration nightmare in the first release (which is also what one of the beta testers I personally know reported), so I was pleasantly surprised.

I reported in a separate ("First Impressions") post that to me the bridge sounds about as good as my Marantz ud9004 used as a transport. It is not the "killer" digital source that makes all else short of the PWT sounds 2nd rate. Many others reporting on the PSA site report similar experience. Not really a huge surprise either, because you cannot make the DAC sound better than the DAC. I suspect with a top notch transport over S/PDIF you can get 95% of the performance potential of the DAC, and the bridge will give you the remaining 5%. But both at 95% and 100% the sonics are excellent.

I don't use a PC or Mac with my PWD/Bridge, just a WD HD, Netgear WNDR3700 and the control app on my iPad. Works and sounds great.

SQ is equal to or better than any PC/Mac set up that I've heard.

Desalvo - how does the perfect wave and transport sound on cds compared to the Oppo SE (stock). I have been mighty impressed with my Oppo Se and just wondering if this is a major upgrade from sound perspective. Enjoying this thread - thanks to all for posting experience.