[Senn-Fi]

Quote:

 
You certainly can.  I used the balanced out to my Dynaudio and single ended to a FirstWatt for a little while.  The output is high enough to not need more gain from a pre.

I had some pretty serious sound degradation issues when I tried to run both the single ended and balanced outputs at the same time.  It was strange, because if I left both the W4S amp (single ended) and WA-22 (balanced) on, it would sound fine.  If I turned one off while listening to the other, I got some serious sound degradation problems.  I ended up just getting a BAT VK-52SE pre-amp and upgrading the W4S amp to some DIY Hypex NCores and now have no more issues.

 

[Solude]

That's one of the amps not properly handling loading while powered off.  In DIY you could have added 10K loads to the outputs for that sort of situation but usually not needed because competent designers don't float the input while their product is off.

 

[Senn-Fi]

I figured as much.  I was/am not sure how often this happens on other amps though.  It did come as a surprise to me because I planned on using the single ended to my integrated speaker amp and balanced to the WA-22 when I was putting this all together on paper.  I really didn't like running the single ended outputs anyway after hearing the difference as I think they sound a bit inferior to the balanced. I am pretty happy with the current setup though and have no plans to "upgrade" anymore.  

 

[ericfarrell85]

Anyone use their PWD as preamp into a speaker amp running HE6's? If so, by how much do you attenuate the signal? Unfortunately I can't go beyond 35 on the digital volume control when using my Odyssey Stratos Plus. I'm sure on 24 bit albums I'm losing dynamic range. Wish my CSP2+ had two outputs, to minimize the irritation of constant cable swaps. 

 

[preproman]

I was.  At the time I would try not to go below 40 with 24bit music on my F1J.  I now have a pre amp so the PWD stay's at 100.

 

[ericfarrell85]

I was looking into the Alpha a little while back, how do you like it? Did you commission the build or DIY? Do you use it on any of your other cans? 

 

[preproman]

Built by SWA.  Just the HE-6 / PWD.  Works great.  Just what the doctor ordered..

 

[Solude]

Prep didn't get an a20, he got THE a20.  Massively overbuilt two chassis beast of a pre =)
 
You can go to 40/100 without loss.  After that it drops.  Matching amps means low gain.  First Watt is usually fine since their gain is reasonable but a lot of amps have huge gain to give the impression they are high power.  Ala 'damn and I'm only at 9 o'clock' impression.  Buyer being unaware that at 11 o'clock, it clipping

 

[GMF2010]

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but this new version of 2.2.0 that PS Audio just sent me sounds 100x better than the old version of 2.2.0 that I was using.
 
As far as I know this version is ONLY compatible with new production PWDs that came stock from PS Audio with MKII installed.
 
I had previously stated that the latest bridge firmware sounded like garbage (2.14b), but coupled with this 'new' version of 2.2.0, it sounds as good as the PWD has ever sounded to me.
 
Just thought I'd pass this along.
 
http://www.psaudio.com/vanilla/uploads/FileUpload/8b/c6172e1ac3229de558301daec8a2b0.rar

 

[preproman]

A "NEW" 2.2.0?  What's the release date?

 

[GMF2010]

Well, what happened was I got the bright idea to load the version of 2.2.0 that was on the PS website. After doing so, my DAC would produce no sound whatsoever. I didn't have any other versions, so my only course of action was to call PS and have them send me the correct version for my new production DAC.
 
That being said, I don't have a release date, but I can say with absolute certainty that this version I'm now using sounds better than the version I had loaded previously. YMMV.

 

[rubenpp]

Quote:

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but this new version of 2.2.0 that PS Audio just sent me sounds 100x better than the old version of 2.2.0 that I was using.
 
As far as I know this version is ONLY compatible with new production PWDs that came stock from PS Audio with MKII installed.
 
I had previously stated that the latest bridge firmware sounded like garbage (2.14b), but coupled with this 'new' version of 2.2.0, it sounds as good as the PWD has ever sounded to me.
 
Just thought I'd pass this along.
 
http://www.psaudio.com/vanilla/uploads/FileUpload/8b/c6172e1ac3229de558301daec8a2b0.rar

 
Thanks so much sharing , i'll try this out tonight

 

[Solude]

Looks like the PL file that keeps changing.  I have 104, 105, 107 and 109.  Would need to get my key to remember which is loaded on the PWD2.

 

[setamp]

I am curious to try this as well.  The version that sounds best to me has the L104 file.  My other files are titled the same but are different in size.
 

 

[setamp]

Thanks GMF2010, that is the first version of 2.20 that sounded good in my system and it sounds better than the 2.02 version that was previous favorite.  I think this one is a keeper.  It eliminates the mid-bass hump of 2.02 and is very clean in the upper mids.  Before this, I couldn't stand the awful treble of 2.20 but this version is smooth as silk.