Perfect Wave DAC and Bridge

The PerfectWave DAC itself does not contain the Digital Lens circuit which buffers the I2S digital data. I2S also transmits all of the clock signals independently from the data stream. You currently only get the benefits of the Digital Lens circuit and I2S transmission with either the Bridge or the PerfectWave Transport feeding the DAC. So using the AES/EBU input will not theoretically provide the same sound quality. PS Audio plans on introducing a stand alone Digital Lens in the future that will accept standard digital inputs and output the data in I2S format over HDMI to feed their PWD. Hope that this helps!

I just received the Perfect Wave DAC/Bridge yesterday and got it running using Twonkie with a $150 Seagate 2 TB external hard drive and I use an I Touch for the remote. To say I'm enamored is an understatement. Accessing my CD collection and gobs of Internet radio stations from the I Touch along with volume control from anywhere in the house is unbelievable. This totally changes access and ease of listening to music from CD's, radio and vinyl.

The sound quality appears very favorable but I haven't done a lot of critical listening yet. I'm still rediscovering all this music as a result of ease of access. I was using a Raysonic CD player and a Linn LP 12 for my source but I believe the CD player will be retired. I had no idea how transformative this could be. TMH

Exactly the info I wanted! Interesting... Well - once you have it at 800 in the back of the device you might as well go with ethernet and the cheap connection. If you do Lynx its basically same price as Bridge. So, if they offered an external Lens, lets say for 800, then you'd have to spend 800 on Lynx and then 800 for the Lens, so its probably not for computer music as much as getting that last 5% from other connections, maybe from an existing CD player for example.

So, the interesting comparison at this point is:

JRiver / Lynx / Berkeley
vs
JRiver / Ethernet / Bridge+PerfectWave

Anyone compare those yet? I know people have compared PerfectWave vs Berkeley, but I'm thinking of those specific combos.

While in general I would have thought the Berkeley to be much better, perhaps with this lens stuff the PerfectWave is competitive?

Tmhayes,

Would you mind giving a little more detail on your setup? Is your external hard drive connected to your computer, router or PWD with wire? If so, what kind of wire? I'm having a little trouble figuring all this out for myself. I'm obviously not computerly inclined. Any help would be appreciated.

Tomcy6:

Assuming that you are referring to the PWD with Bridge…

Your external hard drive will connect via USB to a computer (or a NAS). Said computer or NAS needs to be connected to a wireless router (wireless for wi-fi interface with a controller – say an iTouch). I would however recommend connecting the computer (or NAS) to the router with Ethernet cable (CAT 5 or CAT 6 – although it won’t make a difference in this application). You then need to connect the router to the PWD/Bridge via another run of Ethernet cable (this is the only wired option for a network interface with the Bridge)…again, Cat 5 cable is fine. There is a way to interface wirelessly between the Bridge and router, but that would require a wireless dongle. Your best bet is to go wired.

Hope this helps.

Happy New Year!

_Ben