Is buying a used Perfectwave Transport a good idea? I found one for sale for around $1200 though I will offer less. The only thing I don’t like about it is its black and not silver. Any thoughts?
Thanks Ed
I sold one a couple of years old and received $1600. $1200 is a fair price. You could trade something in (up to $600 in credit) and get a refurb from PS Audio. Refurb price is $2k with a one year warranty.
Disc spinners are useful, but I’d suggest ripping and going with computer file music.
It is still a great product and one we continue to support.
I do have a huge music collection on a dedicated computer and it is what I listen to 95% of the time. But I still have thousands of CD’s that are really not even worth getting rid of. I would like to have a quality transport for a at least occasional use. I don’t actually have any CD player’ other than my computer, right now.
Thanks for your reply netspecht-2
Any chance I could swap the black face plate for a silver? I’m kind of anal about my system looking as good as it sounds! Black would be ok but I do like silver equipment better. By the way why is the US the only market that has black as the only choice … at least for mass market stuff … just saying.
I would buy a new/refurbished but as a “beer budget”, retiree audiophile I have to get the most bang for my audio buck.
Thanks for your reply Paul and I love your daily email/blog. I read it every morning with my first coffee!
You would actually need more than the faceplate. You need 4 corners and side plates too. PSA helped me with a damaged side plate but no corners are available.
The appeal of disc spinning alludes me, whether PWT or whatever else. I just don’t see or hear any advantage of a disc spinner over networked server playback. I’d like to know, what do you hope to gain for $1,200 over what you currently have?
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Good point watchdog.
As stated above Brodric, just to have the option in the future.
Some people do like the tactile experience of loading a disc, pressing a button and seeing the mechanical wonder of the tray close. I do understand that. Unfortunately my disc spinner was a temperamental DMP, and sometimes it decides whether the tray opens, closes, plays, or stops. It doesn’t always listen to me, so I stopped listening to it. Just waiting on the long promised spaghetti free software that might change my opinion.
Most computers add a lot of hash and noise to the process of playback that are a bit of a pain to circumvent, plus network traffic isn’t always isochronous in nature; retransmits and such can occur at any time for a variety of reasons.
These aren’t issues with disc playback in the same way, though obviously error correction can occur there as well.
do you still feel the same way, now that you moved up to the Esoteric playback?
No. My eyes have been opened. Spinning the disc is vastly superior, and the inconvenience of the process is something I can live with.
grasshopper, i hope your ears follow your eye’s path towards openness 
…
I’m basing this assessment on a quality CD transport like the Esoteric. I wasn’t impressed by the sound of PWT. I did like the sound of the DMP, slightly more-so than server playback, but it doesn’t come close to a high-end disc spinner.
i do believe you can get your money’s worth…if you have the moneys
A used DMP would be a good buy for CD playback, probably better sounding than most server options.
The recent firmware update 3.14 for DMP, really does take it to the next level in sound quality…the more the spaghetti is untangled… the better it gets.
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I just did a upgrade to the 3.14 on the DMP and with my brother in attendance, we went back and forth between 3.14 and 3.13 and it wasn’t even close. 3.14 was much more real and involving sounding. My brother was not interested in upgrading, he has the DMP and DSsr combo also, but after hearing the difference, he had to do the upgrade also. We weren’t expecting any change to the sound and cover art and playing cds were never a problem in the first place, but now with 3.14 the sound is even more dare I say it, analoge like, and more musical. My system is very sensitive to firmware changes.
I have to thank Paul and Co. for giving these extra enjoyments with these updates.
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Which Esoteric?