COUNT DOWN TO FEBRUARY 26th

Everything Else
61
Elk said:
Alekz said: What did Gordon mean by saying that it comes in a bag?

Deliberate misdirection.


Unless there is an upgrade path for the old PWD, and a new analogue board comes in an antistatic bag ;) In this case I'm interested. If the current PWD is not upgradable - sorry.
62

If upgrade is it something we can do

Or a mass mailing.

Al

63
wglenn said: It has discrete architecture on the DSD side

dCS DAC's use discrete architecture as well. Unless we understand "discrete" differently ;)
wglenn said: areful separation of the power supplies between the incoming and outgoing products.

Same for dCS.
64

I too hope that there is an upgrade for the PWD. I have two of those, not going to run out and buy a new unit, just can’t, blew the bank on PWDs.

65

@Al: PWD don’t play 'dat.

@Alekz: Upgrade path? I’ll let Paul field that one, but it is housed in a PWD chassis….

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wglenn said: but it is housed in a PWD chassis…

... there is a hope ...

Also, from what I understand, the digital board can stay the same, because only the analogue part is claimed an innovation.
67

Well, this seems to make sense from all the clues. Now, the real question is how much better does this new unit sound. Wglenn certainly was impressed, but he heard it on the IRS in a nicely sized room. Certainly favorable conditions to hear all the improvements. I would like to know what others with more modest rooms and systems think of it. As a point of reference I got the chance to hear the new Wilson Sasha II last night and was impressed by the huge sense of space it created. Nothing like my system, which is no slouch, but hampered by a rather small room (it’s a dedicated space and there aren’t any larger rooms in the house). Of course they had >$100k in equipment driving it too, so it was really an unfair comparison, but is this new unit going to sound that much better than my PWD in my room? And what about that confounded bridge?

68
Alekz said: Also, from what I understand, the digital board can stay the same, because only the analogue part is claimed an innovation.


No. All new.

I'm not sure how the dCS is laid out but it sounds intriguing… at twice the price and up. ;)
69
wglenn said: No. All new.

And it does not play DSD?
70

One other thing, the press release says it $5995, given the P10 is $4995, that’s a 20% increase. Paul had said it would be slightly more expensive, but in audiophile parlance a 20% increase is massive! huge! ground breaking! Umm, get my point?

71
Alekz said: And it does not play DSD?


Oops. Sorry. I was referring to the fact that the PWD will not play DSD for comparison. :">
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wglenn said: It's not even a fair comparison and a different animal altogether.

Excellent.

The Lampizator claims discrete, chip-less DSD conversion, but there needs to be something to decode the DSD data stream. In the Lampizator the USB to DSD converter is, in effect, the DAC.

DSD is a two-state, binary stream (up or down). Thus, the D/A can be as simple as a logic gate. It appears the Lampizator buffers the two state DSD data stream, low pass filters it, and then amplifies the resulting music signal.

To remove the inherent noise of a two state binary system, a common approach is to oversample the data stream and relocate the undesired quantization noise to the resulting ultrasonic spectrum - then filter it out.

So what does the PSA unit do?

I like the cat.
73
wglenn said: Oops. Sorry. I was referring to the fact that the PWD will not play DSD for comparison.

Ah, OK, in this case let's wait for the details.


74

Wow, let us all hope we can upgrade our PWD MK II’s.


75
wglenn said: at twice the price and up

1.5 to be more precise. PWDII costs 3,995$ according to the PSA site.
76

Sorry, Elk, I’ll leave that one to Numero Uno. I would be in territory that I have no business being in and don’t want to make misstatements. I can tell you, though, that it represents an improvement on the PWD MkII that is very significant. Nothing subtle or debatable. True, Paul’s system is a spoiler compared to what most of us have but I was able to hear the improvement with the PWD MkII upgrade on my humble stereo and this new offering is, IMO, of a much greater magnitude than the MkII was. =D>

To use the language of the absurd (and I’m good at that), the MkII was, “Ah, niiiiice,” the DSD, “Oh my gosh!”

77

Hi guys. I apologize. I got roped into releasing the press release early against my better judgment. I screwed up and dishonored the forum members by letting them hear the news through third parties. :(( :-?? :frowning: Can you forgive me? ^:)^



Here’s the lowdown. Upgrade path, certainly. Won’t be cheap, probably around $3K. It involves replacing every board inside of the PWD, new analog, new digital, new power supply. All that remains is the front panel display board. So, it’s a big upgrade. We’ll also have a program to trade in your PWD’s (probably $2K) if you’d rather get a new DirectStream instead.



Here’s the press release that started everything. Also here’s the white paper. We’ll have a video presentation soon as well as a website. Again, I am sorry I dishonored this group.

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Alekz said: at twice the price and up


…referring to the cheapest dCS unit at about 11K USD...
79
Paul McGowan said: Can you forgive me?

Free upgrades? >:)
80

Paul you are the most honest owner I have met besides myself LOL

as for the rest in am sure we all are cool

I do have a short list of questions if they can be answered

1 was the testing done using the PWT for both dacs ?

2 does the new DAC have volume control same as before or a full bypass option

3. Did you do a test comparing the two dacs with USB. As this will tell me how improved the USB input is

As I would like to use that.

4 if yes was the test done PCM to PCM ?

5 you might not know but will existing people be able to do DIY upgrade

If we are able too

6 what if any other dacs was this compared to

And please do not answer if you feel it should not be.



Al