hyperdanny said But the (yes, Paul you're right) very reliable but somewhat noisy-ish drive of the PWT is really the only thing that sometimes bothers me.I must say,my PWT drive is almost dead nuts silent. I hear a very,very slight whirring noise when a cd is playing, and that's only if I place my ear an inch away from the front of the unit. When a cd is loaded and you close the drawer it can be a bit noisy... but that is to be expected from a loading transport mechanism.
Paul, is the US$2000 upgrade credit program for current PWT owners still ongoing? Or is there a deadline to take advantage of this special? Thanks.
I believe it is ongoing.
3rd disc in on my new DMP, OUTSTANDING 
So, I am new to posting here. I have been posting about audio for over a decade on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums where your profile includes your audio gear. I see some other folks here have their gear listed in their closing. I will try to do that in the future. For now just let me say that I am upgrading my gear in several areas and one upgrade I have made is my to digital front-end. For over a decade it was a Sony SCD-1 that a few years back started to become unreliable. I used a Sony XA5400ES as a back-up until I recently upgraded to a DMP, a DS DAC, and a power base. I have the units stacked with the DMP on the PB and the DS DAC on the top. I have replaced the stock HDMI cable with a 0.3 M (one foot) Wire World Platinum Starlight 7 HDMI cable. I posted about this over in the Tweaks thread so you can see from that post that I thought it made a good improvement. I have been playing the stack on and off for the past three weeks and today I did a dedicated listening session.
Before I get into my short review of the PSA stack I will describe my other gear that has been in use for over a decade. My amps are all conrad-johnson tube amps, my cables are all Kimber Select, and my speakers are Audio Physics Virgo III’s with a pair of REL T1 subwoofers. ( I am currently shopping for new speakers). My monoblock amps are driven by a PSA P10 and my front-end (source gear plus my preamp and phono preamp) are driven by a PSA P300. All of my power cords are PSA.
I was an early adapter of SACD’s, I have about 500 or more almost all of which are either rock or blues. My only use of the DMP and DS DAC has been to play SACD’s. I have no digital downloads or computer audio to feed to them.
I considered my SCD-1 to be a reference player which I used to compare other players such as an Oppo which I bought to be used as a bluray player in video system and the XA5400ES which I bought as a back-up player. While both are good SACD players they are not the equal of the SCD-1.
For my critical listing session I choose to of my favorite SACD’s that are both SHM-SACD’s from Japan: “Sticky Fingers” by The Rolling Stones and “Aja” by Steely Dan. I have listened to each these at least 100 times and probably more.
Simply put, the PSA stack is my new SACD reference playback system. It is quicker and more revealing than the SCD-1. By quicker I mean that it has better PRS (pace, rhythm and snap) than the SCD-1 and by more revealing I heard things on these two SACD’s today when I played them on the PSA stack that I had never heard before . I would say that the bass extension on the PSA stack and the SCD-1 are about the same (although this conclusion could be just a limitation of my speaker system). I found my listening session today to be the most engaging audio experience I have had when using a digital source (I have heard the dCS stack many times on systems that are far better than mine and I find the PSA stack to be more engaging when playing an SACD.) I have not heard Ed Meitner’s latest creation for SACD’s so I cannot say that I think the PSA stack is the best, but I feel it must be a top contender. My hat’s off to both Paul and Tim.
I want to ask where on the forum should I post about things that I would like to see added to the next firmware upgrade. When I turn off my Oppo bluray player and the disc drawer is open it closes before the unit switches off. This is not the case with the DMP. I see no reason for leaving the drawer open if the unit is off. Hopefully this can be added to the upgrade list.
Welcome Tony! I’m so glad you are really enjoying the PS Audio Duo. I’d be interested in your impression of Redbook material if you still bother to play such lowly stuff! 
I have about 15,000 plus CDs so I play them a lot and love the sound I get from my system especially with the DMP and DS. Good to see you both here and at Hoffman’s.
Welcome to the forum and thanks for your comments! It’s great that you are enjoying your SACDs this way; if you have any Redbook CDs, you will probably find that they sound much better than you have ever heard them.
You don’t mention what preamp you have. If it’s a c-j, you might consider it as part of your upgrade plans if it’s an older model. For 11 years I used a Premier 17LS. Last fall I upgraded to a BHK preamp. In addition to being overall a more subtle unit, it provides much better bass control than the c-j did – something I wasn’t expecting but which has been beneficial to my system.
I want to ask where on the forum should I post about things that I would like to see added to the next firmware upgrade.This thread is fine. People here are pretty free-flowing about things (in other words, we often don't start a separate thread even when we should). This has good and bad aspects to it. Do as you see fit.
When I turn off my Oppo bluray player and the disc drawer is open it closes before the unit switches off. Hopefully this can be added to the upgrade list.+1 on that. My old Marantz SACD player did likewise.
tonyplachy said So, I am new to posting here. I have been posting about audio for over a decade on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums where your profile includes your audio gear. I see some other folks here have their gear listed in their closing. I will try to do that in the future. For now just let me say that I am upgrading my gear in several areas and one upgrade I have made is my to digital front-end. For over a decade it was a Sony SCD-1 that a few years back started to become unreliable. I used a Sony XA5400ES as a back-up until I recently upgraded to a DMP, a DS DAC, and a power base. I have the units stacked with the DMP on the PB and the DS DAC on the top. I have replaced the stock HDMI cable with a 0.3 M (one foot) Wire World Platinum Starlight 7 HDMI cable. I posted about this over in the Tweaks thread so you can see from that post that I thought it made a good improvement. I have been playing the stack on and off for the past three weeks and today I did a dedicated listening session.Before I get into my short review of the PSA stack I will describe my other gear that has been in use for over a decade. My amps are all conrad-johnson tube amps, my cables are all Kimber Select, and my speakers are Audio Physics Virgo III’s with a pair of REL T1 subwoofers. ( I am currently shopping for new speakers). My monoblock amps are driven by a PSA P10 and my front-end (source gear plus my preamp and phono preamp) are driven by a PSA P300. All of my power cords are PSA.
I was an early adapter of SACD’s, I have about 500 or more almost all of which are either rock or blues. My only use of the DMP and DS DAC has been to play SACD’s. I have no digital downloads or computer audio to feed to them.
I considered my SCD-1 to be a reference player which I used to compare other players such as an Oppo which I bought to be used as a bluray player in video system and the XA5400ES which I bought as a back-up player. While both are good SACD players they are not the equal of the SCD-1.
For my critical listing session I choose to of my favorite SACD’s that are both SHM-SACD’s from Japan: “Sticky Fingers” by The Rolling Stones and “Aja” by Steely Dan. I have listened to each these at least 100 times and probably more.
Simply put, the PSA stack is my new SACD reference playback system. It is quicker and more revealing than the SCD-1. By quicker I mean that it has better PRS (pace, rhythm and snap) than the SCD-1 and by more revealing I heard things on these two SACD’s today when I played them on the PSA stack that I had never heard before . I would say that the bass extension on the PSA stack and the SCD-1 are about the same (although this conclusion could be just a limitation of my speaker system). I found my listening session today to be the most engaging audio experience I have had when using a digital source (I have heard the dCS stack many times on systems that are far better than mine and I find the PSA stack to be more engaging when playing an SACD.) I have not heard Ed Meitner’s latest creation for SACD’s so I cannot say that I think the PSA stack is the best, but I feel it must be a top contender. My hat’s off to both Paul and Tim.
I want to ask where on the forum should I post about things that I would like to see added to the next firmware upgrade. When I turn off my Oppo bluray player and the disc drawer is open it closes before the unit switches off. This is not the case with the DMP. I see no reason for leaving the drawer open if the unit is off. Hopefully this can be added to the upgrade list.
</blockquote>Wow! Thanks for posting Tony! What a great review.
My c-j gear is all from 2002: A P15 Series 2 phono amp, a P16 Series 2 preamp and a pair of P12 mono amps. I want to decide on new speakers before consider what I am going to do about the amps
For a possible future firmware update I’ll just add to Tony’s comment in addition to the drawer closing when the unit is turned off. With my Marantz, when the drawer is open and you press play, the drawer closes, reads the disc and plays. At the moment when you press play, the DMP drawer only closes and the disc is read. Would be nice, IMO, if a one button press could close the drawer, read and play the disc.
Tony, have you tried the DSD without the preamp? That’s the way I always prefer, even though I want to like a preamp in the chain more I just don’t. . …
Electric said ...At the moment when you press play, the DMP drawer only closes and the disc is read. Would be nice, IMO, if a one button press could close the drawer, read and play the disc.With the tray open the touchscreen says "inset disc" and if you press the GUI button it will close the tray, read the disc, and then wait further instructions. With the tray open, and you press play (or open/close button) on the remote (once or twice) it does the same thing. So yeah, at the very least, if you've pressed play on the remote it should go on to automatically do what it's been told and automatically start playing once the disc has been read. If you don't want the disc to start playing automatically, just press the open/close button on the remote, or just slightly push the tray for it to close, read and await further instructions.
I suspect that auto-play is not technically possible, something to do with communication between the OPPO side and the PS Audio side. When you insert a CD in DMP it does actually play automatically for about 2 seconds before stopping, however this happens hidden in the background with screen and audio muted during the short playback process.
A heads-up on a new display anomaly of the DMP:
Has anyone else witnessed this kind of thing with their DMP?
The sleeve of the recording above indicates the title of this particular track as: “El Salón México”. While I am used to seeing onscreen omissions or inaccurate representations of special characters attending vowels in words of foreign derivation, this is a completely new one to me!
Hi Rob,
Did you learn anything from the repair of your DMP? Was the screen defective?
Hi, Nobo,
Since I requested a replacement of my beta-test unit when I returned it before Christmas, I have been out of the loop of any diagnostic conclusions. And I only just received the new DMP about a week ago. I had meant to touch base with Dennis Kerrisk before PS Audio shipped it and ask whether he had found anything uniquely aberrant with the older unit's screen, but I was late to do so. When Dennis did get back to me, he didn't acknowledge a particular fault, submitting only that a new firmware update "in the near future" should resolve any touchscreen issues that I may still find in the new one. And, unfortunately, I have haven't had time yet to spend with the new one to even know if any of the old issues have carried over. I promise to report back once things have burned-in.
Rob wrote: While I am used to seeing onscreen omissions or inaccurate representations of special characters attending vowels in words of foreign derivation, this is a completely new one to me!I've seen this on occasion, along with other inaccuracies. Over the last 20+ years software companies have made great strides in internationalizing their products, based on the Unicode character encoding standard. This sort of thing should not happen nowadays.
Nobo, I promised yesterday to report back with thoughts on how the touchscreen on the replacement DMP performs compared with the unit I was using during the beta test. The new one is significantly more-responsive to navigation from the screen, although the display’s representation of which track or where in a given track the DMP is newly playing from the last tapped or touched input can still lag by as much as several seconds. Fingers are crossed that the next firmware update will resolve this (plus a couple of other display anomalies).
I would also add that fit-and-finish on the new unit is also improved, with tighter tolerances of seams and no misalignment of the disk-drawer face.
That’s great to hear, Rob. Did you receive an entirely new unit, or was the screen and drawer replaced on the original one?
I asked for and received an entirely new unit.
Paul…Are the returned defective units recycled into the system, after a fix…as new? Or are they sold as refurbished units at a discount… after the fix? Just curious. Thanks.