JM saidwoodburger said I haven't messed with the display brightness on the dmp, but the time bar times flicker as they increment - for example, as, say, 2:12 becomes 2:13, all digits flash even though only the last one changes. It bugs me, because it's not an elegant operation. It seems the bar itself also acts this way maybe every five seconds.[moved to bugs thread]
Further impressions from this beta tester:
I decided to test and evaluate this component as if it were my day to day transport. I played cds and SACDs, lots of each, connecting the PMD to the DS via HDMI as I have for years connected the PWT.
My PMD is nearing three weeks since it was installed in my system. I’ve had a few hiccups along the way, but once I settled in to just listening to cds and SACDs (which is almost all of my normal listening to music digitally) there were no problems in functionality.
The sound really has bloomed over the weeks. And I have to admit that the sound inspired or otherwise motivated me to tailor the system a bit for this new “source.” And the overall system sound has benefitted in this manner as well.
Honestly I think I had to come to grips with both the subtle and unsubtle differences between the DMP and the PWT. As has been mentioned a few times in these writings from beta testers “timing” seems to be central to the differences. The overall presentation has bloomed with additional, clear detail, which includes atmospheric “room information” as well. I don’t feel ashamed to admit that this took me some listening to adjust to. But with this adjustment under my belt the I feel the presentation is the best I’ve had in my home for digital discs.
With Redbook discs the quality of mastering has become very noticeable and with the PMD’s dynamic reproduction the soundscape is vibrant. . . or rippling calm. . . or richly resonant. I would say the most pronounced sonic difference between the PWT and DMP for me is the image, the shape of the sound of instruments. With the PWT they are often fleshed out, embodied in space so to speak. The PMD seems to have just a bit less of definition but reveals the interconnection of the instrument with its surrounds so naturally that I believe this is possibly the more accurate representation of the recording. The overall soundscape seems to cohere musically.
Often playing one disc has led to another and another and in listening I’ve alternated between marveling at the sound and trying to assemble thoughts and impressions, and getting lost in sheer enjoyment and sometimes escape within the music.
SACD playback has been in a way a surprise as the quality of the playback I feel is a clear step up for my system. Previous players have had quite good playback I thought, and I tended to settle on the “warmest” sounding I had heard. As a result of the SACD players and Universal players I listened to SACD through I found myself linking the sound of SACD to the sound of vinyl playback in my mind. This has changed, the PMD from the start convinced me that SACD was digital par excellence and I continue to pop in SACDs and revel in the alive and “quick” sound. SACD via the PMD is OMG. I am far more excited about my SACD collection than ever before. I now feel fortunate to have been collecting those that I have over the last decade.
I know the PMD can do so much more: play other audio discs, display artwork, play a USB stick, wow. I don’t have these incorporated in my music life other than a few other audio discs. I listen to vinyl and I listen to cd and SACDs, now using the PMD for both.
A simple summation of my impressions: this is a superior product that any PWT owner would likely be thrilled with. And it offers SACD playback connected to the DS that might well incite SACD collecting fever in music lovers.
Thanks Lonson,very nice review. Sounds as if you have made the choice to keep the DMP. Congrats…
I have a question for the beta folks. Would any of you consider the differences between the PWT and DMP in sound quality to be on par with the sound differences between what you hear with the DS OS updates? Would anyone consider going from Pikes Peak to Yale to Torrey’s more of a musical improvement across the board vs the improvement going from PWT to DMP in red book alone? I’m trying to get a better perspective for the DMP sound.
What I’m asking is…do you prefer the DS firmware updates over the DMP’s musical upgrade over the PWT?
Thanks for any reply on the questions…
I think the difference between the PWT and the DMP is more comparable to the difference between a PWD II and a DSD.
By that I mean it is quite a significant improvement.
Great analogy ear plugs! I’d agree.
On red book playback I concur that the difference between the PWT and DMP is significantly more than one of the firmware changes in DS. SACD on the other hand is a quantum leap over my previous SACD source.
Comparing the DS/DMP combo compared to my M7/M1 SE combo is a bit different. The DMP is opening up with a clearer picture into the recording. The spatial cues have improved as well as I get more hours on it. The mids and high are very similar to the M1 it’s in the bass where the DMP plenty of weight just not the bass definition. The overall presentation of the DMP has less dynamics body as my server M1 setup
I never owned the PWD,so I cant compare it within my minds eye/ear.
Well, it’s even more profound an improvement in important ways than the early firmware in the DSD compared to the newest firmware. Tonal balance between the PWT and PMD in a basic way is about that much transformed. But there’s also a pervasive improvement in areas of precision and pace that is just flat better and is a foundation to the sound.
That’s my best stab at the differences in comparison in use with the DSD via HDMI.
Lonson,thank-you very much. I now believe I can understand what I was seeking in regards to the sound quality differences in my previous post [463]. By the means of your simple, but profound explanation… Now… I think I get it! 
Whew! Glad that came out the way I intended it to. 
And you are right Mark, I am keeping the PMD, sent the PWT back today.
Thanks to @dennis I was able to get my Bridge II to work through MConnect so that I could do some listening to it and the DMP. Now those of us who’d beta tested the various flavors of Bridge II FW know there were changes in the sound of the various FW builds, so given that I don’t know how “final” the version is that I just got from Dennis, take this with a grain of salt.
The DMP is better in my system than the Bridge II my a small margin, using RBCD music. The Bridge II may be slightly “blacker” in terms of noise, but it also has a slightly harder edge to the sound, noticed mostly with female vocals and piano music. But it does make you sit up and take notice of sharp percussive counterpoints in the music. But when I switch back to the DMP everything sounds just a bit more real. Small differences, and I didn’t listen yet to enough music to say it’s categorically true for everything, but at least for the music I did listen to the DMP edged out the Bridge II by a hair. I’m happy to live with both.
I’m THANKFUL for all your hard work, PS Audio folks!
Have a good holiday!
I just installed firmware 1.76. The first thing that came up after the installation was a whited out screen again!! Scary… I powered down and up again and the DMP turned on without problems. I then proceeded to test the unit with a Blu-ray disc, the “2@L The Nordic Sound”. It started playing just fine but I cannot get the DMP to advance to the next track. The Blu-ray Audio of Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life will not even start on Track 1, it jumps to 2. Back to the drawing board??
badbeef said I'm THANKFUL for all your hard work, PS Audio folks!Have a good holiday!
Thanks Mark!
I’ve been favorably impressed with the new DirectWave Player right out of the box. The sound signature was a bit shrill at the beginning, but a week of burning the electronics in dissipated any harshness in the sound. SACDs sound absolutely magnificent; this player has really unlocked the potential of my music system. I feel like I am finally reaping the splendor of SACD playback. I’ve had several players recently ranging from an BDP-105d, to a McIntosh MVP871, and the DirectWave blows them totally out of the water.
The Columbia/Legacy SACD – “The Best of Johnny Winter”, displays the best of the DirectWave Player. Lots of air, and space, surrounding the instruments, and you can concentrate on either the individual tracks that comprise each song, or the totality of the sound. I think that is one neat trick. Mr. Winter’s vocals are crystal clear on every track, and the tones of his slide guitar in “Highway 61” are transcendent. He is missed.
I am also delighted in the way the DirectWave reproduces the DVD-A format. Though not quite as resplendent as SACD, DVD-A offers a fullness that redbook CDs lack. R.E.M.’s “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” maintains a certain ambience to my ear from start to finish, and the DirectWave does a great job of making the disk sound as if it were recorded in one take.
Redbook CDs are rendered beautifully; the player performs that trick of reducing the song to the individual tracks that comprise it. I absolutely love Harold Budd’s “Lovely Thunder”; it is one of my most played disks. I am hearing it with new ears through the DirectWave. It’s absolutely amazing how Mr. Budd sustains notes and chords through an entire track, and how the DirectWave reproduces the sound.
I have flashed the player to version 1.76, and playing a Blu-Ray disk is not working for me. Tried the Blu-Ray version of XTC’s “Oranges and Lemons”’ and the Blu-Ray version of Discipline from the latest King Crimson Box Set – “On (and off) The Road.” In both cases the player appears to read the data and gets to track 1, but no sound is forthcoming. It also shows for each case a total of 255 tracks, which most likely is not the case.
Just sat down with 1.76 in dmp (into ds Dac and then bhk pre)
i had connected my illuminati d-80(?) coax back when there was an issue via i2s. I remembered it wasn’t plugged in so I did, then compared the sound of coax vs i2s cable supplied.
Do you ever just think, “that’s good” in an almost surprised way when you listen?
thats what I thought choosing the i2s feed…
I guess I could figure out the difference logically, but it just was a “whoa! Better!”
the thing is, on my rig, on the pwt, I could hear no difference between coax, i2s, or digital xlr.
Btw: I like the new screen design. Sorry to say, The increment is stuck on 1 and the bar is stuck too.
Sly and the Family Stone Greatest Hits (CD) remastered sounds incredible and is great via dmp - it’s so very clear and cleanly detailed
Keep coming back to the sound of transients as a way of talking about an aspect of the “rightness” of this thing - the leading edges of sounds are more realistic and natural than I’ve ever heard before. Though I suspect it doesn’t end there…it’s just that it’s a big deal to actually hear these things articulated naturally.
The bow attacking the string, the drumstick on the skins, the pick on the guitar, the hammers on the piano strings. This is not to say that they are exaggerated. Rather that there is information there I had been unable to hear before, because it was rounded off, late in coming, if there at all. Don’t know it’s missing until you hear it as it should be.
I don’t disagree. I see this as supplementing my impression that “timing” is the defining difference between the PWT and DMP, and the source of improvement. Everything has been presented correctly with no drift. That helps the transients be properly placed, the body of the notes to appear, and allows the swing of the music to be delivered. I really love this machine.
lonson said I see this as supplementing my impression that "timing" is the defining difference between the PWT and DMP, and the source of improvement.I'm certain you are correct, for what else could it be.
I continue to be amazed with how much jitter influences what we hear.