Last week I took the PSA factory tour. Got to say it was ear opening and the highlight of my vacation. I expected a large group but I was surprised to be the only one. I was guided by Taylor who was great. The whole thing was surreal because everything seemed so familiar from watching Pauls videos. Noticed many familiar faces hard at work assembling PMG products. And then who walked in but Paul himself! He was exactly like the guy who made all those videos. He graciously took the time to answer my questions.
That’s me the star struck one on the left
I was shown around including the recording studio but the listening room filled with PMG components was what I really wanted to experience.
I was surprised to find the listening room to be sized like that in an actual home. The stack included a VPI turntable but the PMG phono stage seemed to be the only piece absent. We didn’t listen to any vinyl.
View from the listening position
The PMG DAC, preamp and transport were present however and we listened to all. Also present was a couple of Powerplant 20s and BHK 600 power amps. On the bottom shelf was what looked like a DS component of some sort, maybe a DS MKI? Behind the rack was the new PSA sub but it wasn’t hooked up. Audio quest interconnects of some sore were used. All were fed to a pair of FR-30s. I’ve seen photos of them of course but, got to say, they are much more impressive in person.
I haven’t actually listened to a lot of systems of this caliber. I’ve never been to a show. However, I’ve been involved in the hobby for most of my life and this system presentation represents THE IDEAL of what I have been striving towards. It sounds like the perfect combination of musically and detail. It has wonderful depth but in a natural, not overblown, way. Its overall flavor was very much like my own system but better in every way. The standout for me was the bass of those FR-30s. I’m not particularly talking about the deep bass here though that was stellar. What impressed me most was the overall balance and natural definition in the mid and upper bass. I’m sure much of this is a function of the wonderful room. I have a problem with my own room with a bass mode that is tunable by small adjustments in listening position. I can tune it but I’ve never eliminated it like here. This is about as perfect as I’ve ever heard- anywhere. It gives me hope that there are major gains to be had in my own room, perhaps with bass traps. Just to be clear, all this talk about bass does not mean that other aspects of the sound were less than great in any way. They were not. I told Taylor that I wished I could move into this room and never leave.
One thing I didn’t mention was the Airlens in the rack that makes me wonder if we were streaming through it or the PMG DAC. Streaming was exceptional. The thing that made my time in this room so useful was the ability to offer suggestions from my own playlists that I was very familiar with on my own system. Taylor also played me the title track from the Octave Records SACD “Mini Brazilian Beats”. It was the first listen of DSD with a PSA DAC and it sounded great- just like everything I heard that day.
There was no comparisons made with non PMG equipment so I really can’t say how the new and old DAC compare. I do expect that we will soon be reading some very positive reviews of PMG products.
