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Perfect Wave DAC Owner Unite
Oct 15, 2012 at 9:55 PM Post #752 of 1,683
PWD2 has been poking me for a while now and I can't find anyone that describes the Mk2 in a way that would make me worried about the buy.  And if the deal goes through, I'll be able to sell it without losing my shirt if for some reason I got bamboozled by the entire internet :wink:
 
Oct 15, 2012 at 10:35 PM Post #753 of 1,683
Quote:
solude said:
Hows buying a 009 going :p
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Oct 16, 2012 at 12:04 AM Post #754 of 1,683
Quote:
solude said:
Assuming I do see one this year, what amps are synergising well with the PWD2 and LCD-3?
 
I think I've read that PWD2 owners prefer the balanced outputs which likely rules out a lot of options and that the PWD2 likely uses summing to generate the single ended outputs.
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I'm enjoying mine with the Bryston, using the balanced outputs.
 
Oct 16, 2012 at 12:56 AM Post #755 of 1,683
Quote:
jc9394 said:
Anyone using an Apple Airport Express to connect to the PWD Bridge?  I recently changed from Gen1 to the new one and notice there is slightly better sounding, not sure it is the amount of bandwidth it can handle or not but all my music are FLAC or Apple lossless on NAS from 30 feet away. 
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I can't answer this yet, but maybe I'll give it a shot in a little while.  I have the newest Gen Airport Express upstairs to extend my network, and an older one in the basement with the PWD to connect to the Bridge via the ethernet port.  I can swap units, and put the old one upstairs and the new one with the PWD.  I'm getting 80-120 mps speeds with the old AE 802.11n to the bridge, and it hasn't seemed to hold back the sound quality at all.  With the old AE, the Bridge sounds very close to my Macbook Pro with Amarra 2.4 using optical input into the PWD, so maybe the Bridge is supposed to sound significantly better than Amarra via optical and I don't know what I'm missing.  It's hard for me to imagine that using a newer wireless network extender would affect the sound, if the bandwidth is already wide enough.
 
I also wanted to add for those who are using the AE just for it's optical out that it's really not all that good, and the Airport Express optical into the PWD is noticeably worse than using the Airport Express ethernet > Bridge (as in flatter and blander, less spacious, less detailed and less refined).  There is a better wireless optical digital extender out there - the Audioengine D2 acts as a wireless DAC, with a transmitter that has both optical and USB input and a receiver with optical and analog output.  When I compared the optical digital output of the last generation Airport Express vs the Audioengine D2 with my PWD, there was no comparison.  The Audioengine D2 was noticeably better and made the AE sound like a toy.  
 
After that, I vowed not to use the Airport Express optical output for any serious listening or product evaluation.  If I can't get a direct connection or use the Bridge, then I use the D2.  Granted, the D2 costs $599, but the sound quality is just as good as a similarly priced wired DAC, so it's a good choice even for those who don't have the PWD.  Too bad it doesn't have an ethernet port to connect to the Bridge.  
 
Oct 16, 2012 at 1:37 AM Post #756 of 1,683
I finally disconnected my PWD so that I could get snapshots of the back jacks, in order to determine which Mk2 upgrade board I need.  If not for this PITA, I would have done it once the WES was sold.  So, now I think I'm ready to order, but...
 
 
 
 

 
I look at PS Audio to find my version - http://www.psaudio.com/products/audio/media-players/pwd-mki-to-mkii/pwd-upgrade-purchase-page/
And I'm still confused because my coax input has a different nut than what it should have when combined with the XLR output that I have.
 
Based on the style of output I have, and the fact that it's RCA coax and not BNC, I'm either 2B or 3C.  But, my coax input only matches option 3B and 3D.  Anyone wanna suggest which verison is mine?  I think I have the 9th version they don't know about.
 
Oct 16, 2012 at 9:37 AM Post #758 of 1,683
Quote:
headphoneaddict said:
 
I can't answer this yet, but maybe I'll give it a shot in a little while.  I have the newest Gen Airport Express upstairs to extend my network, and an older one in the basement with the PWD to connect to the Bridge via the ethernet port.  I can swap units, and put the old one upstairs and the new one with the PWD.  I'm getting 80-120 mps speeds with the old AE 802.11n to the bridge, and it hasn't seemed to hold back the sound quality at all.  With the old AE, the Bridge sounds very close to my Macbook Pro with Amarra 2.4 using optical input into the PWD, so maybe the Bridge is supposed to sound significantly better than Amarra via optical and I don't know what I'm missing.  It's hard for me to imagine that using a newer wireless network extender would affect the sound, if the bandwidth is already wide enough.
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The max I got from the old AE is around 40-50MBPS while the new one I get around 150MBPS
 
Quote:
headphoneaddict said:
I finally disconnected my PWD so that I could get snapshots of the back jacks, in order to determine which Mk2 upgrade board I need.  If not for this PITA, I would have done it once the WES was sold.  So, now I think I'm ready to order, but...
 
 
 
 

 
I look at PS Audio to find my version - http://www.psaudio.com/products/audio/media-players/pwd-mki-to-mkii/pwd-upgrade-purchase-page/
And I'm still confused because my coax input has a different nut than what it should have when combined with the XLR output that I have.
 
Based on the style of output I have, and the fact that it's RCA coax and not BNC, I'm either 2B or 3C.  But, my coax input only matches option 3B and 3D.  Anyone wanna suggest which verison is mine?  I think I have the 9th version they don't know about.
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Quote:
solude said:
That's unquestionably a Version 1.
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X2, it looks like the one I got but I recommend to give them a call just in case.
 
Oct 16, 2012 at 2:03 PM Post #759 of 1,683
IMHO, the MK2 upgrade is a no-brainer if you already own the PWD, especially if you manage to find it at a discounted price.  Relative to other incremental upgrades I've made (like headphones cables, power cables, interconnects, tubes, tube dampers, feet, etc), which in the aggregate equal or exceed what I paid for my MK2 upgrade, lithe MK2 clearly led to the most noticeable improvements.
 
However, it's a bit disconcerting that PS Audio seemed to be working on a firmware upgrade, and there hasn't been any mention of that in months as far as I know.  Not that I'm unhappy with the currently available versions, but I would have liked to see all the discussion about the pros and cons of the different firmwares at least lead to an announcement that, in PS Audio's opinion, the current firmware is as good as it's going to get.
 
Oct 16, 2012 at 2:07 PM Post #760 of 1,683
Wasn't the last talk about firmware about how they had brought in an engineer to research the effect of processing time on the sound?  Ie 2.1 and 2.2 use 'better' code but the result isn't favoured by some who prefer the slower 2.02 and 2.03 processing code.
 
Oct 17, 2012 at 2:41 AM Post #761 of 1,683
PS Audio says I have version 1.  Will order as soon as my credit card statement goes out this weekend, so I'll have until 12/17/12 to pay it off to avoid interest.
 
Oct 18, 2012 at 8:04 PM Post #764 of 1,683
Congrats Solude...What happens to the Metrum/AP2?
 
Oct 18, 2012 at 9:01 PM Post #765 of 1,683
It gets compared.  I can't find a 'pro' who dislikes the PWD2 but do have a ton of friends who dislike PS Audio gear and find their gear too warm and muddy.  They also dislike the Peak so meh :wink:
 
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