2. pc-audio
  3. 1238696884

PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC

Not sure if now's the time to ask since this thing hasn't even begun to ship yet, but anyone have any take on whether the new PS Audio PWD is a viable "one box" solution that would rival in quality what a simple NOS dac and USB converter (i.e. Empirical Audio) would provide? Did I tip my hand as to what I own now? :)

Sounds like it will be spendy $3,500+ when you include the "bridge" option to reclock an incoming signal. It doesn't appear to deal with Apple Lossless format (or potentially AIFF), but the one box solution that allows interface via an IPod Touch or similiar device and that offers 16/44.1 via I2S w/o digital filtering looks like it has potential. Of course they had to go proprietary with HDMI to eliminate Empirical or anyone else from the equation for the time being.
mb9061

Showing 1 response by edorr

edorr
714 posts
 
I have $7,000 worth of hardware to feed my perfectwave MKII over AES/EBU (CAPS 2.0 server, Offramp 5 + powersupply + some cabling).

The reason I need this, is I have a Trinnov processor in front of the DAC that only uses AES/EBU, so I cannot use the bridge if I want to use my Trinnov processor.

If I take out the Trinnov, and compare the straight AES/EBU feed (remember, $7K!), the bridge wins (I tried this). Total cost of digital source is now $500 for a NAS and cheap PC.

Bottom line, the bridge architecture eliminates the need for some very expensive digital source hardware, which makes the PWD MKII + Bridge a killer deal. They can be bought used or demo for less than 3K, which will be some of the best money you'll ever spend on audio.
More to discover