PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC

At that price it would have to outperform Ayre QB-9 and what are the chances of that happening?

The price is actually $3000.

I heard a pre release unit at an audio club 2 months back, but I can't make any meaningful judgments about sound quality from the demo, since the gear and music was unfamiliar.

But based on the quality of their current DAC, I am confident it will be excellent sounding (since the new one is 3X the price and the latest technology. They have also learned things from the modded DLIII's that were being done, to incorporate into the new design.

I do think it can handle any codec except ALC, but Paul McGowan did say the unit's firmware is user upgradable to accept new codecs, as they appear (or become popular) It does flac for example (at various sample rates), and they added Reference Recordings HRX compatibility since I saw the demo.

I don't know if the bridge reclocks, but it will allow the unit to be hooked to a hard drive or network, and browse song titles from there.

I hope that sheds some light on the unit. PS AUdio has a forum on it's site where the discuss the nitty gritty, future features etc.

Combined with their new DAC, also $3,000, it will very likely set new standards. The reviews have been excellent. My friend, who is an audio dealer, and a trusted one at that, said the demo at the CES show was very impressive. Six grand is not an option for me tight now....

I believe it'll run $3500 w/ the "bridge" that provides reclocking from what I've read. If it gets rid of the need to have a computer in the equation, I'd probably be interested. I have an MHDT Havana tube dac right now though that I'm pretty happy with though it's fed by a more expensive USB converter. A "one box solution" plus a hard drive might be a better solution in the long run versus a computer/converter/dac scenario. It will be interesting to see this play out over the next 12-18 months.

My real question is how will it compare to the Modwright transporter? All the reviews on that say it is amazing... I have a regular transporter right now but am debating between upgrading it or getting the PW.