limahuli

Young also started a Facebook page but removed all the content this week. The video with Crosby, Petty, etc was one of the things removed. I think you can still follow/join: https://www.facebook.com/OccupyAudio A Linn blog entry from last summer: http://blogs.linn.co.uk/giladt/2011/08/listening-to-the-harvest-studio-master-with-neil-young.php

Paul McGowan added to the thread this morning: http://www.psaudio.com/ps/forum/viewthread/2621/P90/ --------------------------------------------- "Here’s the current plans for pricing, subject to change but you heard it here first. What is for sure is that the new price on the PWD MKII is $3995. I wish we could have held it to $3499 but we cannot. The upgrade will be the same cost - $995. As I mentioned before, early adopters will receive an opportunity for less. We’re thinking right now $799 for a limited time. What’s involved. OK, taking advice from the forums, the biggest part of the upgrade process is replacing the digital processing board. To do that you remove the top cover (4 screws on the bottom), remove a couple of the outside locking nuts on the connectors, 4 screws that hold the board down and a couple of plugin connectors. Pop the new board in, reverse the process. We include a new Critical Link fuse to be replaced. If you already have a Hi Fi Tuning fuse don’t bother. Put a new SD card in and update the software, sit back and be ready to rock. Some minor notes: inside one of the connecting cables gets replaced - we have a special coaxial version iof a ribbon cable to use which lowers the noise floor."

Another thing I like about the upgrade is the new remote will include balance control. I just moved in with my girlfriend and the listening space in her living room isn't exactly perfect -- no matter how much tweaking I do the left channel always seems louder than the right. I'm using the PWD as a preamp, so having control over the balance will make a BIG improvement.

On the PS Audio "Future Products" forum Paul McGowan has announced an update to the PerfectWave DAC. Upgrade kits will be available to owners of the original PWD. Availability hasn't been set, but the formal announcement should happen on or around November 15. Here's the thread: http://www.psaudio.com/ps/forum/viewthread/2621/P0/ McGowan on page 3 of the thread: "We are now planning to announce the Mark II version of the PWD on the 15th of the month, but I will (am) doing it here first. I haven’t gathered all the details together yet so please don’t hammer me quite yet - but yes - it’s official, there will be a Mark II. Here’s what I will tell you. The Mark II will consist of an entirely new digital input board, firmware update, new remote control and a Critical Link fuse. These changes can pretty easily be handled by customers at home and we will make easy to use kits available for the upgrade. Once upgraded, there will be zero difference between the Mark I and the Mark II, even down to the labeling. We made sure this is the case so our loyal PS customers who own or are planning on owning a PWD will be taken care of. Pricing will be the same between the cost increase of buying a new Mark II or upgrading an existing Mark I. However, we will have an early adopter pricing structure for Mark I owners who want to upgrade - so Mark I owners will save a few bucks doing the kit themselves. I will be leaking out the differences in pricing, features, etc. over the next few weeks. Stay tuned." --------- and page 5 of the thread: ---------- "The digital input board is really the digital processing board it’s how all the signals (including the Bridge) get handled and then parsed out to the analog board. This is the all critical board when it comes to anything digital and it’s where anything jitter related is going to occur. Here’s more of what we’ve managed to do. I think I mentioned the power supplies? These are actually pretty critical and what we did is design an entirely new type of supply that’s ultra low noise and much more precision and not prone so much to back talk from the other supplies. We’ve then placed them in strategic area where there’s a chance for jitter to enter through the power supplies. This, in itself, made an amazing improvement - but there’s more. In the Mark I (and most DACS we’re familiar with) CMOS switching is employed for the gates and clocking - basically everything having to do with the digital signals. The types of gates being used can be thought of as saturated logic - meaning when they go into the on state they are saturated on. When they transition to the off state they have to go out of saturation and it is here that the problems come up. Switches that transition from a saturated state are not predictable when and how they transition and this can (and does) cause an interesting form of jitter. What’s fascinating about this is its unpredictable nature - every switch leaving saturation state reacts slightly different and at a different time - which seems to be one of the reasons unit to unit variability is more common than we would like. After all, one of the “promises” is that “digital is digital” but as we have all found out, nothing could be further from the truth. We have replaced all critical CMOPS saturated logic switches with - get this - analog switches. These switches are the same used in analog volume controls and input switches for analog signals. They are fast enough, never go into saturation and are completely predictable, identical and controllable. We are running our critical path digital audio data through these analog switches and the sonic differences are remarkable. I hat to sound trite but I swear they sound far more analog like. smile Certainly the Mark II does. I have to head out to the airport this morning (we’re going to help out at the NY City Marathon this weekend). But let me touch on NativeX briefly before I go. We’ve managed to incorporate a major part of the Digital Lens technology into the new Mark II and its function is labeled NativeX. So when you go to the sample rate selection on the touch screen (or the new remote) you can switch from Native to NativeX. NativeX works on all inputs including the Bridge. Whatever signals we run through the digital section of the DAC - in Native mode - bypass the built in sample rate converter on the DAC. Now, most of you know I am not a big fan of sample rate converters - but got talked into putting it on the PWD by the sales people who did not want our product to not have some of the same features as did other DACS. That decision turns out to be a good one - so I stand corrected - but none-the-less I still don’t like SRCV’s and won’t use them. Our DAC is the only one I am aware of that gives you the ability to bypass the SRC (which is what Native Mode is) - and this is a holdover from stubborn Paul not liking what the SRC does to the digital audio. One benefit to the SRC - and the reason why every other DAC on the planet has one - is it’s an easy way to get rid of jitter. You place the SRC at the end of the digital chain and whatever happens before that to cause jitter (like saturated logic switches or bad sources) is manipulated out and the output of the SRC has jitter levels around 1ps - very low. What I dislike about SRC’s is the way they do this - with a second clock and digital manipulation in the time domain - and the resulting degradation of thew focus and naturalness of the music. I equate SRC’s to “women of the night” - great looking and enticing but not pure and natural. So we added much of the Digital Lens technology we’ve been working on for so many years right into the new Mark II - and because we didn’t have enough space on the touch screen display to call it that - we simply named it NativeX because it fits on the touch panel. smile NativeX is, in fact, the Digital Lens and now you can activate it with the touch of a finger for any source. So, for example, if you’re playing a jittered source, click in NativeX and bingo - jitter’s reduced to below 1ps right before the DAC and done so without the use of those nasty SRC’s. It’s really amazing what it does to the sound - no one has failed to appreciate it. In fact, Dave Paananen our director of engineering (whose not an Audiophile) still is shaking his head in disbelief (too much education is his problem). What’s really whacky is how much it helps the Bridge and the PWT I2S inputs - something I would have thought wouldn’t happen. Shows what I know." =============== As a PWD "Mark 1" owner for the past year, I'm excited. Also, full disclosure - I'm not a paid employee of PS Audio, but I contribute a music column to their PS Tracks blog.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRF8BDSD12XT/ $310, but they make cheaper ones. Caveats: I have yet not tested this Blu-Ray player with the Bluray Player for Mac software. I've only used this player for ripping CDs to my MacBook Pro so far. The thing is incredibly fast.

One thing I've heard elsewhere is that a MacBook Pro running on battery will be quieter than a Mini running on AC, but haven't heard anything other than anecdotal evidence to support it.

Some of the prices look good, but I can't help thinking this site was rushed in conjunction with CES. There's too many blank pages, and the RSS feed links say "check back later." The feed headlines from Stereophile and Computer Audiophile aren't really headlines or subject lines- they're truncated posts that you have to click through. The whole vibe of the site is...well, hurried and incomplete.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro base price of.... $2500.