PS Audio PerfectWave Transport first player to support HRx recordings
Just when we thought the high-definition audio format war had fizzled out, with neither SACD nor DVD-Audio the clear winner, a new player has stepped onto the scene. PS Audio is releasing the first stand-alone box that plays HRx discs, normal CDs or DVDs that contain high-resolution, high-bitrate WAV files. These reference-quality discs are direct recordings of digital masters, before they're down-sampled to 44.1 kHz for CD production. Until now, the only way to access the recordings was to copy the files off the disc to a media server with a high-end sound card capable of handling the 176 kHz, 24-bit recordings.
The just-announced PS Audio PerfectWave Transport automates this process; it rips discs to its internal memory and then makes them available to networked devices. When paired with the PerfectWave DAC, the system can output the high-quality audio to your amplifier. The Transport supports downloads of album art and track listings to display while it plays back HRx recordings.
There's no word yet on the cost, but this kind of audiophile gear usually fetches steep prices. Deciding on a purchase can be tricky, because while a CD clearly sounds better than most cassette tapes, the improvements at the high-end of the spectrum become increasingly more subtle, making the quality-improvement-per-dollar drop sharply. Not making things any more attractive, Reference Recordings, the only company we could find issuing HRx recordings, does so on DVD-Rs instead of commercially pressed discs, which doesn't exactly scream "professionalism". Definitely hold off on sinking your money into one of these systems until you get an opportunity to hear it in action and can decide if it's worth it for you.
This story around the web:
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PS Audio debuting world's first HRx disc… [Engadget HD]
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PS Audio debuting world's first HRx disc… [Engadget]
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PS Audio unveils PerfectWave Digital… [SlashGear]
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- DAC, SACD, DVD-Audio, HRx
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Comments (7)
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Dan (5:51 PM on Thu Jan 1, 2009)
Best of Show award for “Greatest Technological Breakthrough: Reference Recordings’ HRx ultra-high resolution (176.4/24) digital music format.” (Alan Taffel: The Absolute Sound April/May 2008)
Audiophiles have the highest regard for Reference Recordings' professionalism. Issuing on DVD-R has nothing to do with professionalism - it's just the best way to do it. HRx is unquestionably state of the art. Also see http://www.referencerecordings.com/HRx1.asp.
Stephen Schenck (11:30 AM on Fri Jan 2, 2009)
I disagree - no one would buy commercial DVDs burned to DVD-Rs, nor major-label album releases on CD-R. Professional companies stamp their discs; issuing releases on consumer-grade recordable media sounds like a business being run out of someone's basement. Maybe "the best way to do it" if you mean "cheapest for RR".
Dan (7:58 PM on Fri Jan 2, 2009)
You need to read about what this technology is all about. Issuing on DVD-R has nothing to do with cost. It's about state of the art music playback for audiophiles, not your average consumer. The article states, "Until now, the only way to access the recordings was to copy the files off the disc to a media server with a high-end sound card capable of handling the 176 kHz, 24-bit recordings." The DVD-R contains .WAV files that, until the gadget above came alonge, were copied onto a hard drive, then played back using a special sound card and a hi-rez DAC. The PerfectWAVe allows you to play hi-rez audio without a computer, although I've heard that music sounds better played from a hard drive than from a disc.
Stephen Schenck (11:14 PM on Fri Jan 2, 2009)
I get how the tech works, all right. But that doesn't make releasing discs on recordable media any more legit-sounding. It's not like these are custom mixes; they're pre-compiled data discs. Microsoft doesn't burn a copy of Windows to a DVD-R every time someone orders one.
"I've heard that music sounds better played from a hard drive than from a disc" - Audiophiles will tell you a lot of crazy stuff like that which is scientifically unsound. Unless something's not shielded properly and the DAC is picking up noise from the optical/hard drive, that's a bunch of hooey, like saying optical cables sound better than digital coax cables or vice versa. Always keep a critical mind when wading through audiophile circles.
Steven H. Taylor
(1:19 PM on Thu Jan 1, 2009)
No clear winner? Already since years, the average week sees more SACD releases than DVD-Audio sees in an entire year. Besides, the installed base of SACD-compatible players has recently grown from about 13 million to over 20 million thanks to PlayStation3.
Stephen Schenck (11:32 AM on Fri Jan 2, 2009)
You're right about sales showing SACD the champ; I meant that neither has stepped up as a high-definition replacement for CDs, which never lost their market foothold.
Paul McGowan (5:44 PM on Fri Jan 2, 2009)
While I agree with Stephen on the surface of it, that DVDR's aren't as pro as a commercial pressing, let me try and help put this into perspective. At the moment, this is a very bold move for Reference recordings. They are, in fact, a very small company and until our player arrives in March, nothing but a computer setup can play these so the market's VERY small. probably so small it doesn't make sense to press 1000 of these but, in fact, they have.
The pressings they are releasing now are commercial DVD's not DVDR's. But even if they were DVDR's, their output is very low. What they are doing is real cutting edge stuff and we're happy to support them and the new high resolution formats.
Let's face it, we won't sell that many players, maybe we'll sell 1000 players over the course of a year. Others will follow. This isn't a large enterprise, but then cutting edge products rarely are at first (unless they're from Sony).
We've invested about $400K and 2 years of development to design this piece. Which, is a drop in the bucket for Sony or Phillips, but a sizable investment for a medium sized company like us - given the limited number of transports we'll sell. One of the reasons this is so difficult is the file system for DVD's (UDF) s entirely different than the file system for CD's. We had to design two operating and file systems, place all of them on a 440,000 gate FPGA to make all this work. It's quite amazing actually the work that went into it.
In any case, the point I want to make is that supporting high resolution PCM data - in this case direct bit-for-bit copies of RR's master tapes - holds the promise of more than just "slight improvements". The sound quality of these recordings are breathtaking and once listened to, it makes you want more.
So, we're pioneers - but that's what we do. BTW, this transport will retail for $2999, which given the R&D bucks and limited run size is quite a bargain.
Thanks for posting this on your site and taking the time to comment.
Paul McGowan
CEO
PS Audio International
www.psaudio.com
paul@psaudio.com