Yeah, I was reading that. With my luck, it's a new P10 that's half the price and twice the features. LOL

Since the P3 and Power Base are on sale, I'm thinking it's something power related.

I'm thinking this might be a new PerfectWave DAC MK III with DSD capabilities that can stream over a network.  In an email exchange with them a year or so ago they said that one was in the works.

Today I listened to DSD files playing through the AURALiC VEGA DAC and it is the best digital I've heard to date.

Of course they were hooked up to a pair of Rogue Audio Apollo Mono Blocks, Vandersteen 5aCarbon Speakers, Shunyata Triton/Typhon Power Distributor and all cables were Shunyata's garden hose sized ΞTRON cables.

Me and my son were drooling for a half hour or so, but when we got home and played our new records through our little Decware, Omega and Rega kit (at a fraction of the cost) we were almost there.

My point is that the DSD itself was awesome ... I really liked that DAC A LOT!  And other than the PWD MK II it's the first DAC (that I've heard) that I liked better than the Rega DAC I have (there's something about that little Rega DAC that's very musical to me, but I can see DSD in my future ... I'm hoping this format catches on more predominantly).

I don't think it's a new PWD. I think it may be the Digital Lens finally. We'll see.

No wait a minute, that should be cheaper than a P10.

Don't know. Almost afraid to find out.

Well, Paul has been talking about the digital lens for a while...judging from what you just said, Lon, I guess they never had it out, or incorporated into any gear?

From what Paul's said in his little blog, he made it sound like the gear has had this feature for years, or maybe *could have* had it.

Regardless, I don't think you could do the lens by itself, it sounded like the lens was *part* of the DAC, the final step before it goes analog in fact.

That said, Paul mentioned that if listening to different sources sounded *different* (same source media, just different "source"), then maybe he'd have to investigate further, and he might have to delay the release of the new product - or at least hinted at that. If the digital lens were working perfectly, the media file from USB, HDMI, NAS, whatever, should all sound exactly the same - but it's not.

Jeff, I believe you are right: it's probably that N-Core amp he was working on. Not sure that is going to set the world on fire.

Eric, yeah the Digital Lens used to be a separate component put out by. . .Genesis Technology.

http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/824/

Paul was involved in that. It could easily be put out as a standalone product and he has said that he intends to but it hasn't. Instead it was incorporated into the PerfectWave Transport and then into the Mark II version of the PerfectWave DAC--just the jitter elimination aspect, not the "resolution enhancement" function. It makes a noticeable difference and is a big reason why I bought the PWT and PWD combo and then upgraded to the Mark II version (and then bought another Duo for my second system. It's not going to make "all formats sound the same" but it does reduce jitter tremendously and does make digital sound wonderful.

When the Genesis Technology items come up for sale they disappear in a heartbeat. One of the Decware forum demigods Randy in Caintuck used one forever and a day and probably still does, probably will have to pry it from his cold dead hands. I don't need one as I have the Duo, but a stand-alone Lens would be an excellent prodcut to come out with for PS Audio.

Yeah, he said the Preamp portion was ready, but the Class-D amp portion was not sounding good.

I can't imagine the amp being that revolutionary...unless maybe it has a digital lens built in. LOL

Slightly more insight on the new PS Audio product launch.  A product that will help us get more out of those shiny discs...

http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/buried-treasure/13362/

LOL, you guys beat me to it, I was just about to post this as well:



"We’ve spent the last 100 years of vinyl reproduction perfecting the art of pulling music out of those grooves.  We’re getting pretty good at it.

After 30 years of trying to do the same from the shiny silver discs, we’re getting better.

But there’s a lot of music buried in those little silver discs you’ve not yet heard.

You have a library full of buried treasure.

And soon you’ll have a treasure map that will unlock those secrets.

I am guessing right around March 1."

Yeah, if that "more than the P10" thing is to be believed...ouch that hurts.


I'd really like to see what they next step is. Maybe CD Transport/DAC/Digital Lens in one - if it was a universal Disc player like my Oppo, I'd seriously consider it!

Quote:


Yes, a Universal Disc Player/DAC/Digital Lens all in one would certainly be a great product.  I just couldn't see paying $5000 for a CD player this day and age, or a company putting that much effort for a stand alone CD player since the sales of CD's have steadily declined since late 2000.

Although I know there are probably a lot of guys that still use CD's, but I'm not one of them.  Besides about 50 CD's, I'm all about vinyl and hi-res digital downloads ... I just skipped over the CD phase altogether.

What sounds interesting and coming up is the HDMI DACs that are able to de-embed the uncompressed LPCM 24.96K as 2.0, 5.1, or 7.1 soundtracks, ‘derived’ from the DTS MasterHD soundtrack but not requiring DTS decoding (which is essentially hi-res PCM).  DACs like the HDACC HDMI/USB DAC can do this, as well as the Oppo with some tweaking in the settings.

There is going to be support for this through Universal and a lot of titles are on the way.

Hopefully PS Audio is on this bandwagon!

Agree ... for those who don't know ... Universal is going to be releasing a lot of titles:

From Universal:

Blu-ray Pure Audio Discs: No Compression, No Compromise.  Blu-ray Pure Audio Discs Offer True High-Resolution 24-bit/96kHz Audiophile Sound.

Universal Music Group has gone back to the original master tapes to deliver fully uncompressed, high-resolution versions of many of your favorite albums on Blu-ray Pure Audio Disc. Mastered at 24bit/96kHz, Blu-ray Pure Audio Discs deliver the sound the artists originally heard in the studio when these classic albums were recorded. These discs provide all the recorded musical information. While convenient due to their small file size, today’s heavily compressed music files do not represent the true fidelity of the original album.


•     Recordings are transferred from the original master tapes and delivered in high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz audio

•     No compression is utilized, and the sound quality is vastly superior to MP3 or standard CD

•     Three separate choices of audio file format for playback: PCM 2.0, Dolby True HD, or DTS-HD Master Audio (5.1 available where noted)

•     Your preferred audio format is chosen either by pressing the "Audio" button on your Blu-ray remote or via your onscreen menu display

Blu-ray Pure Audio Discs:

Audio is taken from the original master tapes and mastered in 24-bit/96kHz resolution with a choice of three sound formats: PCM, Dolby True HD, or DTS-HD Master Audio. You can finally enjoy the music in the fidelity originally experienced in the studio.  

I'm looking forward to grabbing some of these titles.  John Darko of Digital Audio Review reviewed Essence's HDMI DAC you can read it here: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2014/02/blu-ray-audio-with-the-essence-hdacc-p...

Quote:


Hi Lon, what are using to decode them?  Its my understanding that not every Blu-Ray can play these (although I could be wrong on that).

Had a brief discussion with a friend regarding the PS Audio announcement and we think it could be the PS Audio PerfectWave Master Clock.

-Master Clocks exist as a product category (typically with very high end digital front ends or studio equipment (e.g. Apogee Big Ben)
-The clock would be a PW line extension and wouldn’t replace either the PW Transport or DAC.
-Previous claims made about master clocks include improved imaging, better resolution of detail and music with more control, authority and power
-There has been a lot of discussion about timing and jitter on the PS Audio forums that could indicate a new device that offers significant improvement in this area

Quote:


Yes you're right there ... any Blu-Ray player can play them, but only players with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio can decode the true hi-res Master Tape Soundtracks buried within the disc.  I'm not sure if these are standard formats on most players at this point in time or not.

But I wholly agree about the Mastering making all the difference though.

beowulf wrote on 02/26/14 at 01:42:35:


But they all have an uncompressed PCM track that all players should be able to decode. And very few of these have 5.1 tracks, and not any I would buy, and I don't do 5.1 anyway.

Hmmm. . .now Paul is saying three grand to upgrade from PWD. That's a lot. I'll probably be sticking with what I have, I am very happy with the sound.

No, there's a thread on the PS Audio forum. I don't frequent that place much, but with this "news" forhtcoming I looked around. The cat is now out of the bag so he's talking about it.

Thread before the news was "leaked":

http://www.psaudio.com/vanilla/discussion/6467/buried-treasure#Item_22

Thread once the news was out:

http://www.psaudio.com/vanilla/discussion/6474/directstream#Item_11

I like that "for now."

Yeah, I really don't have much interest in DSD as in files, but I can see how this MAY be a nice step forward in sonics for my disc sources (love my PWT). As you say, it might come down, there may be specials etc. We'll see, and we'll see reviews, and I agree, more used PWD IIs.

I don't think I am going to be an early adopter on this one.  I also find it hard to believe that this will replace the PW DAC in the product line but maybe I am wrong.  The NuWave DAC is at the $1000 price point and the DSD DAC jumps to $6000.  I think a price drop on the PW DAC might make sense.  1000, 3,500, 6000 to have a nice 3 product good , better, best lineup.

Part 2 of the video is out - this sounds very interesting - it really sounds like they nit-picked this as best as they can, to make it the best it can be.

I'm interested now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv1XWedFgDY&feature=youtu.be

Paul just uploaded this video a few minutes ago -

http://youtu.be/BCCh2j6trJk

Just imagine if you invested $6k into your listening room.

  Wow big bucks! $6,000 reasons to buy more vinyl certainly a thought here.