Nice. 
I’m sitting at the airport. It should come as no surprise that today the PS Audio room sounded it’s best. When I got there and played my tunes it was even more clear that playing time / burn in was the major factor at play. The music sounded great. The upper mid / lower treble of the system (the YGs primarily) opened up nicely. The depth - and more importantly the ability to retrieve musical information within that depth - was as good as I’ve heard. Female vocals were still slightly constrained, but I’m quite sure it was the speakers. When all’s said and done Paul’s room was among a small handful of the best I heard. I don’t do “best in show” because that whole concept is a bit ridiculous given all the variables. I’ll just say the gear a lot of us own came off very very well in a particularly good sounding show.
The Sonja 1.2s in a different room sounded poor, BTW. Granted Paul was using the larger 1.3, but IMO in the same ranges of presentation the YGs sounded better in Paul’s.
I temper my praise when given. Paul and the team succeeded very nicely at this year’s show, but next time Paul reign in some of that unbridled enthusiasm and burn the stuff in before you get there! But then again, that enthusiasm is part of what makes PS Audio what it is!
Thanks Tony and it was a pleasure to see you again. I think the room did open up nicely and I was impressed as well. The system did somethings nicely.
I too went around the show and found little I liked-at all- though one of the better sounding rooms was right next door. The Technics room was really good. They had an expensive class D amp connected to their preamp through CAT5 and some kind of Technics loudspeakers too. The sound was excellent.
I thought compared to previous years there may not have been quite as many great sounding rooms, but maybe part of it is getting familiar with what to expect from many of the rooms that don’t change too much from a previous year. There were some good ones, though. Maybe I’ll post a thought or two on that later.
But first, a few more pics of the PS Audio room. I’m new to the whole take pictures with your phone thing, so it didn’t occur to me until way too late that I should have taken some pictures of the actual people at PS Audio!
Nice photos Tony22! I liked the one with the dowel holding up the JCAT USB cable, the people who designed those connectors never saw an audiophile cable before! Surprised there were only two people sitting in that photo, was it not very crowded or was that early/late in the day? Some day I may make it back there, but I really don’t need any more temptation …
I think you will find that this is not the JCAT USB, pmotz. The connector is in fact very sturdy. It looks rather like a DC power cable than a Toslink.
What is a bit strange though is that the back plate does not seem to correspond with the DS rear side from the marketing pix. (?)
Is it a TS prototype or is it the Regen unit?
@pmotz33sbcglobal-net, in the many years I’ve been going to RMAF I’m sorry to say that year after year the attendance has been getting smaller and smaller. Even up to a half dozen years ago you’d often have to wait just to get a seat in most of the rooms. Now you can be there on a Saturday afternoon and walk up and down one of the show floor hallways and guarantee yourself a straight line walk from one end to the other. Still, it made it easier for anyone to get the prime seat in any room just about anytime over the three days, but I suspect the exhibitors probably don’t see it the same way.
That support, whatever it is, is not holding up the JCat cable, it is supporting an Uptone Audio Regen. That thing is even smaller than I thought! Still, it does look like it should have some support, even when being used with a basic consumer grade USB cable.
J.P.
Paul, I really wish I could have been there! And… please tell me there’s a line level (fixed) output on the new pre?
Indeed.
If you zoom in you will see the Regen unit. You cannot see it in the thumbnail. It is the power supply cable for the Regen that is supported.
I should have taken more pics of the back! Somehow I knew people might like a look from that side.
Tony22, I was under the impression attendance had dropped off for a few years but was picking up with the economy. I was there several years ago and it was pretty busy at times and I skipped many rooms because of lines to get in. I even stopped in the PS Audio room, but Paul was leaving as I walked in so I didn’t get to meet him. I should really try to go next year.
Wingsounds13 and Frode, was hard for me to zoom in on my iPad, damn photo kept moving on me or wouldn’t resize. When I was able to zoom in it was kind of grainy, but yes, I do see something to the left of the JCAT. It blended in with the black background, but it looks like the dowel is supporting both the Regen and the JCAT to me. I guess my never using USB makes this view all new to me!
Bob said Paul, I really wish I could have been there! And... please tell me there's a line level (fixed) output on the new pre?Well, yes and no. You can assign any input to be fixed, line level out - like a home theater bypass. Hopefully that works?
Paul, what some of us would like is a separate output that does not go through the volume control. Something more like a tape monitor output, or processor loop output. Of course, a processor looo input would be nice too. This could give us a signal path like Input (1-4) > fixed pre out > processor (dsp room comp?) >monitor / processor processor loop in > volume > preamp output > amp.
Yes, more features…
J.P.
What JP said. A true processor loop would be best but if there’s no fixed-level output at all that would mean that I couldn’t use the unit with a separate headphone amp, to give one example. Also, I like to take a fixed out and run it into a buffer and then into my whole-house distribution amp. I can do this without a fixed-level output but I then lose the ability to control the main system volume separately from the in-wall speakers around the house. So - honestly - if a fixed-level set of outputs is not planned, I would really really urge a re-think even if it means a delay. I consider it to be a must-have feature.
It’s not so much of a rethink but rather a matter of connectors. There’s simply no room. The back panel is stuffed full - there are 5 inputs, both balanced and single ended, and one set of outputs, an AC inlet, trigger jacks and there’s room for nothing more.
Paul, to specifically respond to your post above, no, that would not work for me - I need to be able to output whatever source the pre is playing at a fixed level in addition to the volume-controlled output. Without that I’d have to rig up some kind of an external source selector and run the output of that into two pre’s, or otherwise figure out how to compensate for not having that fixed output.
Anybody here happy with four inputs and two outputs? Maybe squeeze in an extra set of unbalanced outputs?
monitor/processor loop would be secondary to this, but a significant added bonus.
J.P.
Yeah, that would be fine for me. FWIW I expect that we won’t get the true monitor loop - that seems to be going the way of the rotary phone. I can deal with that, but I really gotta have one fixed-level output. I’d rather wire up an external switchbox if I ever need additional analog inputs than go without the fixed output. Good suggestion.
Paul McGowan said one set of outputs,
Paul can this output both be used at the same time? The balanced to feed the DAC and RCAs to feed a Sub?