My suspicion is that some number of drives, beyond the 300 to be installed in new PMGs, will be set aside and reserved for warranty repairs of both the PMGs as well as any PSTs still under warranty. The statement that they will only offer 300 PMGs for sale doesn’t mean that they don’t have extra drives for warranty purposes.
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Indeed the new transport seems to offer nothing new, at least in the literature, which in fact seems to have information copied and pasted from the PWT page! (For instance: the PWT was the first time an “air gap” was used to transmit digital info from the transport, not the new transport).
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I don’t remember where, but in a discussion about the wish for a Stellar SACD player Paul did mention that they did a last time buy for their higher tier series including spare drives.
So here’s a question.
Might PSA make a CD player (CD only) at some point or would that be against the DSD DNA of the company?
Red Book CD done right can rival, and possibly outperform, SACD. I’ll be doing a shootout between the PST and a Teac V701T VRDS (once it arrives). The loser will be up for sale. Most of my SACDs are of the Hybrid variety so I’m not wedded to the format for its own sake.
I can’t speak for @aangen but my suspicion is that an SACD transport hasn’t been made that would prompt him to trade in his Gryphon Ethos.
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Good question. Since it seems there are no more companies makung SACD drives, I will never purcahse another SACD player. CD player yes, but no more SACD players.
I noticed the same thing when as I was reading. Thought may be it was just me how a lot of wording looked familiar. Glad you observed as well, cut and paste. Now that concerns me.
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I agree. The ‘new’ SACD transport appears to largely be a transplant of the old design into a PMG chassis. Given the limited production anticipated, I don’t fault them for this approach. From my perspective, there were no warts in the PST that needed to be remedied.
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I’m of the same mind, I love mine and depend on it every day.
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I have the Shanling ET3 transport with I2S I feel it as good as the PST on redbook cd’s
Nevertheless, blu-ray drives are still being made and they can play CD, SACD and Blu-Ray audio. I use a Sony Blu-Ray player as transport to play my SACDs. Only, as far as I can see, these are of a lesser quality than the Marantz drives PSaudio uses…
Since PSaudio only can make 300 PMG SACD transports, I keep wondering: wouldn’t it be a good idea to make a Stellar CD/SACD/Blu-Ray transport based on such a cheap drive?
In that case those of us that cannot get one of the 300 PMG transports, at least would still be able to play the great SACDs that Octave Records produces 
I have @paul172 rip all my SACDs for me. I have two Oppos in case the urge strikes. The Ethos is endgame.
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Looks like the drawer type drive is coming to an end at least for high end players. The future is likely a top loading drive unit.
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What about the VDRS SACD that Esoteric uses?
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Someone mentioned they make them in house, so it may not be available to competitors.
Will the new DAC be able to be used like the previous ones without a preamp? Being connected straight to an amp and have control of the volume.
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Can we have a video demo of that crazy new remote gadget?
Interview from NativeDSD:
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I’m not sure the new remote they had at the show was operational since they never used it. Should have asked but had to limit my questions to 999, at 1000 I officially become a “pest”. The PMG line will still ship with the same remote the DirectStream components use. Personally, I’m skeptical of minimalist remotes. I have an Apple TV and that remote is too touchy and my Samsung TV remote can be a challenge at times. I have virtual fat fingers (electronic devices like slender fingers) …
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Yes