PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC without the transport

i own the perfect wave dac, and perfect wave transport. i also on an ess dac designed to demo the 32 bit sabre dac. it features analog devices op amps, digi key linear power supply, xlr and rca outputs, and coax and usb digital inputs. the dac is mounted on a piece of acrylic with a dedicated power cord.

while the ps audio dac is no slouch , i find the ess dac more balanced in frequency response.

oh, by the way, the ess dac retails for $450. both the ess dac and ps audio dacs are appropriate for tube systems. if you have a highly resolved ss system, i wouldn't own either dac.

i have also listened to the latest format hrx (refereence recordings 24 bit/176.4 khz) using the ps audio combination.

I use a Cullen modified Sonos and a laptop with mine and it has been superb. The fact that you can choose native resolution or upsample (or downsample high res) plus the ability to rotate between filters allows you to tweak for your room a little bit. It helped me in my previous room, but I'm back to defaults in the new room.

I'm running ProAc Response 1SC speakers with a Red Wine integrated amp right now.

I am burning my PerfectWave DAC. Right out of the box, however, this DAC is fantastic. I also love the front panel with the touch-screen lcd. It is rich, liquid and full bodied: the perfect fix for my upgrade addiction.

Sota Sapphire, SME 309, Micro Benz Glider, Proceed PDT, PS PWD

Magnih, boy would I love to hear your thoughts on the sound if you could try the PWD with a PWT. I'm still using a Proceed PDT3, and for the life of me have not yet found a better transport for my system (within the limits of what I'd want to spend). If the PWT were to really blow away the PDT it would give me something to think about.

04-21-11: Tonyptony

Sota Sapphire, SME 309, Micro Benz Glider, Proceed PDT, PS PWD

Magnih, boy would I love to hear your thoughts on the sound if you could try the PWD with a PWT. I'm still using a Proceed PDT3, and for the life of me have not yet found a better transport for my system (within the limits of what I'd want to spend). If the PWT were to really blow away the PDT it would give me something to think about.

The PWT will blow away the PDT for the following reasons:
1) The PWT is a 24 bit memory player with a built in digital lens to reclock the data (reduces jitter). This is very similar to the old Genesis Digital Lense, which PS Audio actually designed and manufactured for Genesis.
2) The PWT is a memory player. The data stream is read in, buffered, then error corrected and jitter reduced via the built in digital lense prior to output to the DAC. You can actually eject the cd and it will continue playing for up to 30 seconds. Most other players read data on the fly and error correct on the fly which is inferior to a buffered data stream.
3) The PWT reads up to 24 Bit 192 kHz music files. You can burn 24 bit wav files directly to DVD for playback on the PWT. Red book players can't.

It's a great sounding combo. It's my go to when I listen to digital.