PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC without the transport

i was thinking the same Sgr. i won't be surprised to find myself buying a new bridge for $1000+ down the road sometime (after psa discovers the current hardware can't cut it).

i'll guess that the target price point played into the design a little to much regarding the hardware design. like you, i'm using and enjoying the thing. it still has way to many bugs for me to believe software tweeks will get it all sorted out.

however....i know nothing about this sort of stuff so my opinion might not be worth the standard 2 cents =)

we'll see.

I believe PS has acknowledged that the CPU used in the Bridge isn’t robust enough for decoding FLAC (or might I say, “could be more robust”). I may be wrong. I do know however, that many folks with an understanding of these matters consider the CPU the weak hardware link. Decoding FLAC requires more “processing power” (memory…“whatever” it takes…) than other codec’s and hi-res FLAC (e.g.: 24/192) requires even more than 16/24 FLAC.

I believe that PS is working on the FLAC codec and writing new code in an effort to make the FLAC decoding process more efficient. In theory, this may very well resolve the issues involving the decoding of hi-res FLAC files. Hopefully, the software solution will indeed resolve these issues. If it does, then the main hurdle will be the implementation of gapless playback.

Obviously, sound quality is of vital importance and it does appear that PS is aware of the correlation between firmware upgrades and sound quality – so hopefully, they will be able to duplicate the SQ of the very best versions (e.g.: “.08”), or perhaps even surpass older versions, in the final firmware version.

Once these major areas have been addressed – and remedied –then PS can concentrate on tweaking Tag-n-Play, eLyric, and all other interfaces and forthcoming protocols.

Bottom line is that I do not believe the current Bridge is a lost cause. I may be wrong, but I am very hopeful that PS is truly on the brink of perfecting the Bridge. I guess the real question (or concern) is just how much longer will it take them to finalize execution…

Of course, anyone familiar with the intricacies of network computing could see the stability issues with the bridge architecture coming from a mile's distance - so many variables not controlled by PS audio.

I suggested to PS audio last summer they should release an asynchronous USB to I2S (using the PS audio I2S interface) converter before the bridge. This would be easy to build, sound as good as the bridge, and give PWD users either a temporary or permanent option to the bridge. It would also open up the big market of computer audio users committed to their PC/Mac based systems to the PWD.

They decided against it because of (commendable but not pragmatic) commitment to a network based architecture.

Does anyone know whether the firmware updates affect how the Perfect Wave DAC sounds when playing CDs on the PWT. I read over on Head-fi that the newer firmware sounds better than the older firmware, but they seem to be using the Bridge exclusively, not the PWT. I am wondering whether to go through the hassle of updating the firmware if i only use the PWT.

Discussions about various firmware releases affecting the sonics are all about updates to the bridge firmware and not the DAC's. The PWD firmware updates have addressed several issues unrelated to sound quality, but some of the issues addressed include better support of burned media formats, decreasing the audible 'pop' when selecting different options on the PWD, and setting the default volume level to 50 at power up instead of 0. It's really pretty easy to update the PWD's firmware. Just copy the files to an SD card (2GB max), install the SD card in the DAC, then power up the DAC and the firmware is updated as the system boots. Remember to remove the card from the DAC so it won't attempt to reload the firmware every time you power up the DAC.