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PS Audio CD Memory Transport?? Yes Or NO

I have thousands of cds and I have 4 or 5 cd players. To me they all sound pretty similar. I want to buy one that would be a step up. I have Marantz 6005, Pioneer cd recorder, California Audio Labs Mark 2 and an old Oppo dvd player. I have a Wyred 4 Sound Dac 2. LIke I said I cannot tell if any of them sound any better than the others. I think the California Audio actually sounds best to me. I have Prima Luna separates and a Luxman 505U integrated amp. The questions is, will I hear any improvement going to a transport with the hard drive to reduce jitter etc. or will it be a waste of money? Any advice or other suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks,

128x128dylanfan
erik_squires
15,676 posts
 
I'm not sure if you have USB 2.0 support or not.

If so, any streamer, or any home built PC should do a very good job feeding a USB 2.0 capable DAC that is driverless for Linux/OSX. I built my own 2TB server/streamer for around $600 to feed a Mytek Brooklyn PCM and DSD. Works great.

I will say that different DACs have different levels of source sensitivity. My ARC was much more sensitive than my Mytek via coax. It required an exceptionally well clocked source to sound great. In demo's I've heard, an Ayre was also "sensitive" like this, but the Schiit was not.

While experimenting with alternatives I did find teh Wyred4Sound Remedy reclocker. It worked great on Internet sources. If you are a die-hard CD player kind of guy, I'd suggest an alternative like this may give you the most consistent results, but not the convenience of a streamer. :)


Best,


Erik
dylanfan's avatar
dylanfan OP
138 posts
 
I got my ps audio memory transport hooked up last night from the HDMI cable to my Wyred 4 sound HDMI input. Man it sounds great. Older CDs sounds a lot better. Nothing was unlistenable like my other CDs players playing older CDs. Well mastered CDs sound amazing. I am really pleased with this. Now wondering what difference at PS audio Dac would make.

charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,230 posts
 
Hello Dylan fan,
I'm happy to read that you're very pleased with the PWT although it doesn't surprise me. The  PWT is a top tier transport and an asset to any high quality audio system. Congratulations!
Charles, 
hopkinstk
5 posts
 

Charles1dad,

Hello, I recently purchased a B-stock PWT.  Out of the box it had problems with the drive:

1.  After the initialization process, it said to insert disk, during the process of loading a disk, the tray would rapidly close and it took several attempts to time the rapid opening and closing of the tray to get the disk seated.  It never stayed opened by itself.

2.  Once that event was over, the drive was vibrating so loud that you could head the vibration over 12 feet away.  This vibration continued even after I got the disk back out of the tray.  It only stopped when I powered down the unit with the rear power switch.

I contacted Jeremy and the unit is on its way back to PS Audio and the dealer is sending me another unit from his stock.

My question to you based on your experience and being pleased with your PWT is does your unit's drive make that much noise and is the drive noise a distraction to your listening environment.

Does a properly functioning unit open and close in a safe manner and can I expect noise free operation during playback on a proper unit.

I have selected all components of my system to be dead quiet during playback and hope this unit will work with my preferences for extremely quiet electronics.

Thanks for your support

TH

charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,230 posts
 
Hello TH, 
 It sure seems as though you unfortunately got a defective PWT.  I have one of their earlier units and it has been excellent and trouble free for well over 6 years of nearly daily use.  I've had none of the problems described by you. Let us know your outcome with the replacement PWT. 
Charles 
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