Just a quick question, would this combo sound better with the nativex turned off? Have you tried it?
I am using the AP2 with PWD MII and would love to hear the OR5 using I2S.
I am using the AP2 with PWD MII and would love to hear the OR5 using I2S.
Audio Voodoo - A tale of Offramp 5 and PWD MKII
I own a perfectwave dac MKII, and recently inserted a Trinnov all digital room correction / cross over system into the digital chain before the DAC. The upshot is I can no longer use the PWD bridge or I2S input, because the Trinnov only has AES/EBU digital in and out.
Thanksfully, the MKII upgrade came along just in time, because the difference between AES/EBU and I2S are now very minimal.
Since in NativeX mode the PWD MKII is asynchronous, you would expect the PWD MKII has become largely immmune to jitter and noise in the upstream digital signal path, and any money spend on very good clocking and jitter and noise reduction upstream is a waste of money at worse, and a very low return proposition at best.
While a plausible argument, I wanted to test the theory and got myself Empircal Audio's new Offramp 5 USB converter with turbo-clock upgrade (30 day trial). This replaced a hiface EVO with bolder power supply. My source is a CAPS 2.0 server, running JRiver with Jplay plugin. Boy was I in for a surprise. The offramp 5 was a big step up.
Next, a used monolith battery power supply for the offramp shows up on audiogon, and naturally I scoop it up. Now things get really interesting - this was an ever bigger step up that than the Offramp 5 itself.
Bottom line: even though the science of digital audio signal processing has improved vastly, apparently there is still a voodoo element to it. Theory can only go so far explaining what will sound better. No substitute for trying things out yourself. I could not be happier with the Offramp 5 and monolith.
Thanksfully, the MKII upgrade came along just in time, because the difference between AES/EBU and I2S are now very minimal.
Since in NativeX mode the PWD MKII is asynchronous, you would expect the PWD MKII has become largely immmune to jitter and noise in the upstream digital signal path, and any money spend on very good clocking and jitter and noise reduction upstream is a waste of money at worse, and a very low return proposition at best.
While a plausible argument, I wanted to test the theory and got myself Empircal Audio's new Offramp 5 USB converter with turbo-clock upgrade (30 day trial). This replaced a hiface EVO with bolder power supply. My source is a CAPS 2.0 server, running JRiver with Jplay plugin. Boy was I in for a surprise. The offramp 5 was a big step up.
Next, a used monolith battery power supply for the offramp shows up on audiogon, and naturally I scoop it up. Now things get really interesting - this was an ever bigger step up that than the Offramp 5 itself.
Bottom line: even though the science of digital audio signal processing has improved vastly, apparently there is still a voodoo element to it. Theory can only go so far explaining what will sound better. No substitute for trying things out yourself. I could not be happier with the Offramp 5 and monolith.