I submitted a service request through the website, called the phone # on the website,was put into VM.
As usual Paul and company have nailed it. I just needed to have patience, give support a moment to breathe.
Right out of the box with my speakers pushed back to the wall, so we can use the living room for, well, living, I could notice the increased sound stage, tighter bass, vocals on Off Beat of Avenues by The Manhattan Transfer were more life like, separated in space. This after 24 hrs burnin. Once the tray issue is resolved I’ll pull the trigger on the DAC.
Again, PSAudio has nailed it! Bravo.
@Paul The replacement SACD has arrived. The drawer works as expected. Burnin is happening as I write this. Many thanks to Taylor and Delia for stellar support. The initial music was noticeably improved that I now have the PMG Signature DAC on the way. Once again…Bravo!
Thanks for letting us know! Have fun!
Having bought the previous SACD player (and loving it), I don’t have a strong motivation to upgrade to the PMG model at this time (currently have it connected to my PMG DAC). Do you see a strong incentive to upgrade to the new PMG SACD player as both are engineered with galvanic isolation in mind?
As a casual follower of the PMG SACD it seems that I’ve read somewhere that it is basically the previous generation player in the PMG case. Basically a cosmetic upgrade.
I guess curiosity is incentive in itself and PSA’s return policy helped as well. Also, I don’t think any one feature, like galvanic isolation, can raise the bar without improving a bunch of other elements. The transport mechanism is the same, but I see different circuit boards and power supply. Having SACD capability again is a plus as well, and a single remote to control the PMG stack helps too. But, in the end, better sonics prevailed.
Only you can determine the worth of an upgrade. Sadly, the biggest advances have come at the largest investments.
I pulled the trigger on the PMG SACD TRANSPORT, blatantly obvious improvement right out of the box to me. Greater instrument,voice separation,expanded sound stage. A bit weak in the mids. Going on 24 hours.+ burnin. The usb is operating strangely in my opinion. Using 8gb fat32 drive with one iTunes file. Plugging in, reading usb successfully presents #1 and plays successfully. Able to chose repeat correctly too. It is strange when ending use of usb. Stopping play succeed but gets stuck on displaying Reading usb. Only way to break out is to use the on/off switch. Upon a power cycle sometimes an additional standby cycle is required too. I’m still characterizing the complete procedure. Recycling is the only way to get back to playing discs successfully. This is done on the front panel, haven’t used the remote yet.
Compared to what?
This was the impression I got when I spoke to someone at PS Audio about this (was closing the deal on the PMG 512 DAC) - still on the fence and want to work the kinks out on the new DAC before I consider an upgrade to a transport.
I have about 100 hours on the PMG SACD - I2S to MKII. It’s opened up nicely. Vocal/Instruments float solidly in a black background. Voices more natural sounding. Ted Nugent’s Strangle Hold has super Wide sound stage. Nuge’s Gibson Birdland hollow body is growling and nasty as I expected. Tasty for sure. Chuck Mangione’s flugelhorn is smooth with a tad bit of grit. Stanley Clarke’s I want to play for you album is outstanding.
PMG SACD blows the PWT away! easily!
For PMG SACD transport owners, was there further improvement after 100 hours? If you owned PST before, do you think PMG SACD transport is worth the admission price?
Absolutely on both fronts. I had a MKII DAC and PST. The PMG units are noticeably improved in every way
Now my PMG SACD T. has close to 100 hours, I decided to put a saved AM M2 fuse into it to see how that sound. Well, the fuse was blown, and I am not sure what happened. But I have a spared M-1 fuse too. So, I gave it a try and it did not blow.
This may be the first time an audiophile fuse actually hurts the SQ. With M-1 fuse in it, the sound turned to brighter and less involving. In fact, the treble became thin and edgy. I could not hear more than one hour (after settling for one hour before).
I do not know if M-2 fuse will improve, but the stock fuse has a great synergy with PMG SACD T. in my system. So, I am done with the fuses, until I get PMG Dac anyway. 
I forgot to mention. Since FRR IC cable arrived I have been listening to streaming (it connecting to MU2) exclusive since yesterday, but SACD is continued breaking in with a USB drive. I switched back to SACDs earlier after the fuse episode.
PMG SACD T. (with the stock fuse) has improved by a mile after four days of playing. It is a major improvement over PST I must say.
The transport’s RF remote control unfortunately does not have number buttons for direct track access. I assume the transport could handle such a request if the remote was programmed for it?
If so, could an RF learning capable remote control somehow get access to the correct codes to do so?
Or provide an app/webservice for all PMG devices that provides more options than just the keys to the remote.
Both DS MK2 and PMG SACD T. have been on for two days since my vacation. I found PSA gear needs at least a day to fully settle, and today the discs sounded a lot better. I also moved Stealth CGLE power cord to MK2 so it may have contributed to the great sound. However, I moved Takshaka (w/ MK2 previously) PC to MU2 and it sounded equally great too. Maybe these two cords have better synergy with their new masters. I must say Takshake has a much secured connection with MU2, and I can move MU2 sideway a bit without worrying about shutting it down. It was impossible with Stealth before. So, this PC arrangement will stay.
Back to PMG SACD T that I wanted to talk about. Because it weights over 30 lbs, and I have been using three Stack EQ CSA1 which has a 9 lbs/each limit. I changed the insert to CSA2 which has a weight limit between 9 and 22 lbs each. Surprisingly the sound did not improve. The life of the music was sucked out a bit. I tried a few different arrangement and settle for this:
Two Stack CSA 2 in front, and one Stack CSA 1 in the back middle. This arrangement seems to give the best balance. This makes sense too because the front plate has heavier weight than the back.
I am ordering a PMG512 tomorrow and it has the same weight. It will be interesting if the same arrangement will work better.
If anyone has tried similar footing arrangement please let us know.
I thought you sold your DSD MK2?