Or better yet, when they do cease further software development, there will be no more need for additional firmware. Right now, I cannot be happier with how my DMP is performing. Not saying it is perfect as I know there are still “known issues” but for listening to discs, I have had no issues with reliability/functionality/sound quality since the latest firmware. That is of course once I figured out that you have to mash down on the circular click buttons on the brushed aluminum remote. I was getting the click but no mechanical contact within to initiate the basic play/pause/rew/ff commands. The other non-clicky buttons perform fine.
“No, actually, the SACD is based on a different laser than DVD. It is the same laser as a BluRay player.”
If this is so, why not consider implementing a Blue-Ray drive made by Asus or LG in the new transport. There are plenty of these available online or at computer stores. If those could work then it would eliminate the concern of whether or not a new drive would be available to replace a failed one.
I’ve tried one in my PWT and found them to perform better than the the Asus drive the PWT came with.
I would have to surmise that the licensing costs would be prohibitive. That was the reason for the use of the Oppo in the DMP.
Hmmmm, maybe I am wrong. Have to go check my facts. Thanks, Mark.
When I had my pwt i found that using a DVDrw that is IDE not SATA performed better than the SATA dvdrom drive. Never did get to try a bluray drive in it.
Ted pointed out that it was basically a DVD laser. I think I had conflated BD lasers with SACD lasers. Not to mention that Universal drives can do all of the discs.
Yes, this is correct and I stand corrected. It is not a BluRay. My bad.
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The latest SACD drives produced are likely to be Blue-Ray, so you might be right, practically speaking.
The Oppo universal player drives (as used in the DMP) were BD drives, along with everything else. Easy to forget the history/evolution of the formats, as pointed out above. Plus, many SACD players had two lasers of different sizes for reading the CD layer separate from the SACD layer, adding to the confusion.
Interesting, my experience was different. My friend & I compared our PWTs. His had the newer SATA drive and corresponding circuit board. Mine had the older IDE (PATA) drive and corresponding circuit board. His PWT clearly outperformed mine. So I had PS audio update my PWT and again it was superior to the older IDE drive. However, my drive was too be noisy, so I tried a couple of other drives. I tried a Plextor drive and a LG Blue-Ray drive. Again, my friend and I found these drives to outperform the Asus DVD drive the PWT came with.
I wanted to purchase the DMP but my feeling is that the drive will ultimately fail and there won’t be replacement drives. The beauty of the PWT is that I expect it to last as long as I hope to live to play CDs. I have replacement drives ready to replace the existing Plextor drive I’m using if it should fail.
It would be awesome if PS Audio could use one of these Blu-Ray drives in the new player they are developing, so we could continue to enjoy the SACD format. I would be interested in such a player as it would diminish my fear of purchasing a player that will one day become junk when the drive fails. With such a player, I could have a replacement drive or two in storage for when the drive fails.
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My Pwt drive board was a newer board. it had both the IDE and the SATA connections. My experience was with the Sata drive i would come across disks that would lock up the unit. Other disks would not play. With the IDE drive everything worked without issue. Maybe the difference you noticed was due to the change of the drive board. It seemed to me the SATA connection software was not as refined as the code operating the PATA (IDE) port. Sound wise they were both the same. I thought I would not ever give up my PWT. I made the mistake of trying the DMP and the performance was so much more detailed, involving and relaxing to listen too. I was hooked. My PWT was extremely reliable and did everything it was supposed to do. The DMP when I received it sounded great but had issues with extremely long load time, the cover art was hit or miss, actually more miss than hit. I have been working with Barry Solway to get all the issues corrected. My DMP now loads much quicker the remote is responsive it plays SACD’s as DSD as it is supposed to. It is the best sounding digital source over any other i have ever heard in my system. If you ever had a chance to audition one you would be seriously impressed. Don’t worry about drive replacement as PS Audio has stockpiled enough oppos to keep all the ones in the field working for 20 years or so they claim. I am sad to see it come to end of life so soon because of the Oppo decision to shut down their production. I have an OPPO in my home theater. It is very reliable so i have no fear of the one in the DMP. PS Audio will not attempt to build an SACD player on their own due to the licensing costs. That was why they involved the OPPO unit in the first place. I am not interested in the unit they are working on to fill the void in their line up for a disk drive. The DMP sounds so good that it is highly unlikely that there is any further improvement in the Redbook sound quality to be had. Keep your eyes peeled when the new units come out some will jump on them and sell their DMP’s cheap. That would be your opportunity to get one. You won’t regret the purchase.
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Well… It comes down to supply and demand. If supply is low then price of admission will be high.I do not think people will be giving them away.
There will be allot of users who just have to have the next thing so there will be plenty and I would be willing to bet you will see them for $2000 or so. I have already seen someone selling one for $2500.
But the next generation transport will not have sacd capability and the people who do want a sota transport for that privilege alone will have to pony up. I don’t much care for sacd, so we shall see if Paul comes through on a better redbook player as he has already said he can accomplish through a better digital lens system/parts selection to reduce jitter even more. Here’s hoping…If not, I will keep my DMP until it no longer runs… 
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I doubt I’ll find much agreement, but I’ve never found sacd to deliver on the promise. My best sounding cd’s are redbook, for whatever reason. I wouldn’t give the loss of sacd a second thought.
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Ron,I agree 100%… Sacd just does not float my boat [for $ spent] and when comparing some of my sacd disks to cd…well…good old cd firmly plants them in the ground… Of course this is all recording dependent and a dog is a dog no matter what format we listen to.
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It is very questionable that there can be anything more squeaked out of the Red Book CD format. If you watch the video on the designing of the DMP Bob S. said it is easy to put new chips in a design it is much hard to forecast if the sound would actually be improved. I love the sound of my DMP I still struggle with the fact that it does not high speed extract the data without conventional error correction the way the PWT does. It plays the disk on the fly with a small buffer on the output.
That’s like saying computers are as fast as they will likely ever get right now.
Well.Paul said it will be improved upon. We shall see.
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Hearing is believing!