[jc9394]

Yikes is correct, my mistake not clarify it.  It is double boxed.

 

[K3cT]

All right, thanks for both you Yikes and jc9394. 

 
Yikes (no pun intended), when freight is considered this DAC costs almost as much as 1.5 times of the Audio-gd's Reference 7, another DAC that is in my short list. 

 

[jc9394]

Quote:

All right, thanks for both you Yikes and jc9394. 

 
Yikes (no pun intended), when freight is considered this DAC costs almost as much as 1.5 times of the Audio-gd's Reference 7, another DAC that is in my short list. 

That much more there?  Did you checked Audiogon.com?  They are a little more than Ref 7 when I brought mine.

 

[leo1311]

What are the differences between PWD and REF-7 (Audio-GD) in the categories of tonal balance, soundstage, transparency, dynamics - micro and macro?
 
Thank you!

 

[The Monkey]

Quote:

All right, thanks for both you Yikes and jc9394. 

 
Yikes (no pun intended), when freight is considered this DAC costs almost as much as 1.5 times of the Audio-gd's Reference 7, another DAC that is in my short list. 

With the current PS Audio DAC trade-in program, you should be able to get the PWD for $1999.  If you don't have a DAC to trade in, there are authorized vendors that are selling it for substantially less than $2999.

 

[computerparts]

Quote:

All right, thanks for both you Yikes and jc9394. 

 
Yikes (no pun intended), when freight is considered this DAC costs almost as much as 1.5 times of the Audio-gd's Reference 7, another DAC that is in my short list. 

Unless a restrained sound and artificial smoothness is your cup of tea, I'd take the Reference 7 off your short list IMO. I heard it compared to an older Theta Gen Va and I greatly preferred the Theta.

 

[The Monkey]

Quote:

Unless a restrained sound and artificial smoothness is your cup of tea, I'd take the Reference 7 off your short list IMO. I heard it compared to an older Theta Gen Va and I greatly preferred the Theta.

 
I don't have as negative an impression of the Ref 7, but the above does articulate very well some of my feelings about the Ref 7 (i.e., restrained and smooth).  I prefer the PWD to the Ref 7.
 

 

[leo1311]

Monkey,
 
Do you know if your REF-7 uses DSP-1 V4 or V5 module?
 
I sold my Northstar M192 MKII, and now I´m looking for a new dac.
 
Some dac in my list: Reference 7, Reference 8 (Audio-GD), PWD, ECD-1 (Electrocompaniet).
 
My stereo system is: pre and power Cambridge Audio (840E / 840W), Paradigm Signature S6 and a computer + hiface stock
 
Thank you!

 

[The Monkey]

It's the loaner Ref 7 and I believe it is NOT using the v5 module.  I also have a hard time believing that makes much of a difference, but I have not compared the modules.

 

[Mr.Sneis]

whoa whoa, ref7 upgrades?  Where can we find more info?
 
btw, how do you guys feel about affordable transports for the pwd?

 

[jc9394]

Quote:

 
btw, how do you guys feel about affordable transports for the pwd?

I used to own a PWT but sold it after I dug my Sony S7700 out of cellar.  The PWT using IS2 to PWD is better but not $2000 better so I sold it and use S7700 and perfectly happy with it.

 

[IPodPJ]

Quote:

It's the loaner Ref 7 and I believe it is NOT using the v5 module.  I also have a hard time believing that makes much of a difference, but I have not compared the modules.

Believe it.  Kingwa himself even said the difference was significant and he never says stuff like that.
 
But I haven't heard the v4 module that was in there so I don't know how close that one is to v5.  I had v2 or v3.

 

[The Monkey]

Believe it.  Kingwa himself even said the difference was significant and he never says stuff like that.
 
But I haven't heard the v4 module that was in there so I don't know how close that one is to v5.  I had v2 or v3.

Nah, I'm not convinced.

Edit: regardless, this is a PWD thread. The rest of the source forum is dedicated to audio-gd, so let's get back on topic.

 

[K3cT]

 
Quote:

That much more there?  Did you checked Audiogon.com?  They are a little more than Ref 7 when I brought mine.

Yeah, when freight and duties are taken into account and when you live in South East Asia and when your local PS Audio distributor is sticking stubbornly to the MSRP, things become much more complicated. 

 
Thanks for the Agon suggestion, that will be where I look first when the time comes. 

 
Quote:

With the current PS Audio DAC trade-in program, you should be able to get the PWD for $1999.  If you don't have a DAC to trade in, there are authorized vendors that are selling it for substantially less than $2999.

Thanks! I will inquire with my local distributor about this program. Do they accept all DACs? I really don't want to trade in my beloved γ2 though if I can. I hope these vendors want to ship internationally.
 
Anyway, looking forward to your final impressions in the loaner program. 

 
Quote:

Unless a restrained sound and artificial smoothness is your cup of tea, I'd take the Reference 7 off your short list IMO. I heard it compared to an older Theta Gen Va and I greatly preferred the Theta.

Thanks for your impressions, I will definitely keep that in mind. Artificial smoothness can be really annoying as the Phonitor/Auditor I auditioned back then had that symptoms where it glazes the treble in all of your music. 





 
 

 

[Mr.Sneis]

I'm possibly looking at the uber cheap Sony bdp-s370 as a transport using a hdmi de-embedder to pull out digital signal to optical in to the PWD.  Or, maybe just forgetting the notion and holding out for a used xa5400es; in which case I think the xa5400 would just go straight into the pre- (or maybe go into the dac?).
 
Having a hard time justifying either decision though heh.