August 2009 PS Newsletter

• Hot Air!
• Trade up program ends
• Come and get ‘em!
• Free hi rez downloads
• I2S silver beauty
• How to build a library part 2

Hot air!
I am sure most of you probably think of me when it comes to hot air, and you’re right!  But this time it’s kept in a balloon.  To celebrate our 32nd anniversary Terri and I took a romantic early morning ride in a hot air balloon that circled over the beautiful Boulder valley a few mornings ago.  This was my first experience in a balloon and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous at all: I was.  Check out this photo of the balloon pilot in the early morning hours setting up.

What an experience!  You start early, around 6am, and help get the balloon ready to fly.  This thing is huge: about three stories high.  They inflate it initially with a gas-powered fan and then as we held the mouth of the balloon open, they started these huge propane burners going to fill the balloon with hot air.  Within about 15 minutes we had all piled into this flimsy looking wicker basket and without any warning were airborne.

I am not big on heights so for the first few minutes I had the grip of death on the side of thing and refused to look down.  Terri was laughing at me.  It wasn’t long before I relaxed enough to enjoy the ride.  I think the best part was flying low over the trees and neighborhoods.

The balloons drive dogs nuts.  Can you imagine?  From a dog’s perspective here’s this giant fire-breathing "dragon" floating over their territory.  I felt a bit bad for a couple of them and so I called to the dog in my most calming voice "hey bud!  It’s OK; we’re not going to hurt you".  This scared the dog even more because now the fire breathing dragon was talking to him!  One Golden Lab looked up at me, ran around in circles and then dashed off under the house obviously terrified.  What a trip!

Trade-up program ends

Before we get into the US trade-up program I wanted to mention someone very special; Mr. Jack Bolton of London England.  Mr. Bolton has the distinction of being the very first owner of a PerfectWave pair in the UK.  Mr. Bolton writes "I am bowled over by these units and discovering new things in my CD collection I never knew existed.  I have tried numerous CD players from all the high-end manufacturers, most of them at many times the price of the PW pair, but none came close to the PerfectWaves.  Bravo!"

OK, our trade-up program (Cash for Clunkers if you will) has been the single most successful program we’ve ever done; but sadly it must come to an end.  This will give those of you sitting on the fence the balance of this month (August) to make the best deal you can with your dealer or with us directly to get your hands on a PerfectWave .

As a reminder, you can get a trade-up value for your CD player, transport or DAC for up to $1000 off the PerfectWave of your choice.  This means $1K off of the PWT and/or $1K off the PWD or $2K off the combo if you have two pieces to trade-in.  The value of your trade is the original retail value of what you’re trading in, up to $1000.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

The last day for the program then is Monday, August 31st.  Call your dealer, call PS, but don’t wait if you’re interested.  We will not be able to ship your PerfectWave to you right away as we’re pretty backordered at the moment, but the wait shouldn’t be too long.

What’s the future of the Cash for Clunkers program?  We may bring it back in some modified form at some later date, but we need to let the dust settle down on this and catch up on our orders for PerfectWaves, so this is probably it for the rest of 2009.

Come and get ‘em!

So you might be wondering what happened to the trade ins.  Wonder no more as here’s the deal.  We’ve picked the cream of the crop, cleaned them up, run them through our service department and started posting them on our shopping cart.  You can access it here: http://www.psaudio.com/store/

Over the next few weeks we’ll continue adding more and more as we get them through the process.  We have just about everything you can imagine, from Theta’s to Proceeds, MSB’s to Bel Canto’s to top loaders, front loaders, DACS, even a laser disc player!  Some are at bargain basement prices, others just good deals but all of them are priced lower than what you can buy them on sale sites as we really want to move these out.

What’s cool about our program is we auction off the ones that aren’t worth selling, do a thorough check on the ones we are keeping and will make sure when your purchase arrives that it is what you want, works as advertised and comes  with a 30 day guarantee.  Each one is cleaned up and most have original packing and all the accessories, and then boxed again in an outer box for delivery.  This is a really clean and safe way to purchase used equipment from someone you trust.

I am impressed with the quality of the trades we have received.  The vast majority of these have been well cared for - babied in many cases - and show real pride of ownership.  In some trades we’ve given personal assurances that we’d find good homes for these and not auction them off to the highest bidder; and to those of you we made those promises to, we intend to keep that promise.

As this new paradigm unfolds I start feeling really good about what we’re doing.  On the one hand we’re making it possible for people to get high value for their older equipment and, in many cases; we’re making it possible for our customers to afford to buy something really cool like the PerfectWave.  On the other hand, there are so many folks out there who want to get something great for that second system, for their buddy or family who are just discovering high-end audio, for those that simply cannot afford new products but really want to upgrade their system’s performance and for those setting up a first-ever system, this is a wonderful service to people.

We realize that many folks are sometimes hesitant to go onto eBay or even Audiogon and purchase through strangers and simply keep their fingers crossed as to what they will get.  Checking on the PS site first to see if there’s anything of interest keeps it safe, fun and easy to do.

So, time will tell with this program.  If people really get behind this new concept, who knows where it will lead to?  I figure it this way, so far, this program has been the most successful one we’ve ever done.  I am so heartened by the kudos and positive responses we’ve gotten from people thanking us for making this possible.  Now we need to see if part two of the idea works: moving the trades that matter in people’s homes in a way that everyone wins.  We shall see.

Free hi rez downloads
Seems every day someone else is jumping on the Hi Rez bandwagon and we applaud these efforts.

CNET has a short article by Steve Guttenberg called "why settle for iTunes…?" referring to the Chesky’s HD Tracks site .  "Even hardcore audiophiles have to face the music—brick and mortar record stores are fading fast—and it’s starting to look like the CD is on its way out. Sure, no card carrying audiophile would be caught dead downloading MP3s or iTunes, the sonic sacrifices are too drastic. Well, what if there was a site that offered bona fide CD quality downloads, would audiophiles go for it? That’s HDtracks’ prime directive, but I don’t think the high-resolution download store is just for audiophiles."

You can read the short article here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-9930420-47.html

Once you’ve heard Hi Rez compared to standard Red Book CD’s you’re hooked.  Don’t get me wrong, 99% of my collection is still Red Book CD’s that I love playing on the PWT, but every chance I get to play Hi Rez I take it.

In my case and the case of PWT owners, all we have to do is download the Hi Rez music, burn it onto a DVD or CD and play it on the PWT.  It’s a snap!  In fact, we just posted a simple how-to for Vista users that covers converting from FLAC, burning to the DVD etc.  It’s in our How To Section on the website.

...and before I give you the address of the free download, have you seen the new look to the website?  Sean McGowan went to town and applied his artistic flair to the site and "re-skinned" it as we like to say.  Let us know what you think.  I believe it’s a whole lot easier to navigate.

If you go here: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Complimentary-241764-HRx-Downloads-Courtesy-Reference-Recordings

Our friends at Computer Audiophile have made two items from Reference Recordings available to anyone that wants them for free.  They are available as AIFF, WAV or FLAC and they have two really great selections.  So, download and have fun!

I2S silver beauty
This is really interesting.  Our HDMI (I2S) cable is really picking up traction - but not just as the best I2S interconnects between the PerfectWave combos - in video circles as well.  We have been receiving a surprising number of notes from truly ecstatic owners who are simply bowled over by the performance on the HDMI cable in their video systems as well as their music systems.

I just had to share this forum post from Oddeophile after he got his new cable:

"OK, 24 hours on the I2S-12 Silver HDMI cables…. a total revelation in sound. Oh my is this musical, sweet, focused, revealing, warm, pure and, well, incredible.  Now, this is the total package.

HT - video - on reference blu-ray let it break in for a while. Then, be prepared for a simply jaw dropping experience. Watch a Pixar blu-ray. Then, go to the dentist after your jaw needs to be re-set in place. Now, my Pioneer KURO Elite Pro151 plasma just smokes.

I have heard over and over from those who think they know HT digital transmission over HDMI for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA that how it transmits from the player in digital format to the receiver or processor to decode does not matter as far as the cable goes. WRONG!!!  Dead wrong.

I have experienced such a difference in my HT audio tracks with the I2S12 I can not believe it. To those who would think otherwise… Cool.  Enjoy.  You are missing an experience that makes all the difference.

Let’s put it this way. There are HDMI cables and then there is one HDMI cable to die for. The I2S12 is that cable.

Now, I can revel in the experience. PWT/PWD - CD and HI Rez that fulfills the promise of joyous musical reproduction. HT in a glory I could not have imagined.

Everyone needs to experience this. Somehow, find a way."

Yikes, he’s even more excited than I am!

How t o build a library part 2
Last month’s newsletter had part one of building a music library and this is part two.  In the first installment we covered really basic stuff:  what is a music library and what’s in it.  This month let’s start by identifying the best building blocks for the library and what you’ll need to start building it.  Then next month we’ll build our libraries together.

I decided that the best way for me to write this is to start fresh myself and build mine, along with yours.  So as you read these I will be buying some of the same equipment and starting down the path of building my own library.  At the moment I have a quasi-library on scattered hard drives and so my goal will be to collect all these and place them in one safe, easily accessible spot.

Let’s start by making clear what our goal is and then how we will achieve that goal.  From there, we’ll start to list the choices we’ve identified for you to start building your library.

Goals for the library
We want to build a library that contains all our music, easy to sort through, safe and reliable, available over a network, with zero sonic compromises and does not need an additional computer t o playback.  In this way, we will have the freedom to access our uncompromised music library from anywhere in the house or, for that matter, in the world and we can share our library so others can enjoy it as well.

I know sharing is a bad word these days, but I was taught in grade school it’s a good thing.  Guess that must have stuck.  Anyway, our setup will allow us the freedom to do any of these things to the level of our own comfort.

To fill these requirements we need a depository that meets our needs.  There is really only one way to go if we’re to make sure all our goals are met: a NAS.  NAS stands for Network Attached Storage and is a smart standalone hard drive that connects to a network.

To fully understand the difference between just an ordinary hard drive that might be in your computer or attached to your computer - and a NAS - let’s turn to an example we’re probably all familiar with: a printer.  We all have a printer if we have a computer.  A home printer connects directly to a computer and is used with that computer only.

For a bit more money, you can buy what is called a "network printer".  The difference between a home printer and a network printer is that a network printer can be shared and accessed from anyone on the network and a home printer can only be accessed by the computer it is connected to.

At PS Audio’s offices, for example, we only have network printers and anyone in the building can print to any printer they wish to.  Such printers are more expensive because, essentially, they have to include a small built-in computer.  A NAS is the same.

A NAS is essentially a self-contained computer connected to a network, with the sole purpose of supplying file-based data storage services to other devices on the network. The operating system on the NAS provides data storage, file  systems, and access to files, and the management of these files.

The beauty of a NAS is simplicity and dedication to a specific task.  A dedicated computer inside the NAS sounds complicated but fact is, the only job of that computer is to manage the library stored on it.  From a user’s perspective, this is the simplest, cleanest and most reliable music depository known; and it meets all our goals.

What we’ll need
We need to choose a depository and then we’ll need a way to connect it to our network.  We’ll give you the choices for a NAS this month as well as options to connect it.  Next month we’ll go through how and why we RIP and store our music and the following month we’ll start to build.

Let’s start with the latter requirement: connecting it to our network.  One of the beauties of a NAS is freedom of location.  You can place your NAS anywhere you wish in the home.  You don’t need the NAS c lose by, so even if you buy a NAS that has a noisy fan, no problem, place it in a closet and be done with it.  Your NAS could even be located outside your home.  As long as there is network access, your library is available.

What you do need is either a wired network connection for the NAS to plug into (using a CAT 5 cable - like your computer uses to connect up to the internet), or a wireless connection to your network.  While some off-the-shelf NAS units have a built in wireless mode, like the Apple Time Capsule, we do not recommend their use.  Instead we prefer to keep separate the connection and the NAS.  By taking this route, you will make sure that you can always keep up with the size of your library independently of how it attaches to the network.

Connecting
If you have a wired network connection, plug the NAS in and you’re done.  If you don’t you’ll need to create one and this is where you have several options: only one of which we are going to recommend.

The two types of connection to a network currently available are wireless and PLC (Power Line Communication).  We do not recommend PLC because this uses the power lines to transmit and receive all the digital audio data.  We’ve worked for years trying to cleanup the power lines and are certainly not now going to recommend a device that makes them dirty.  So, wireless it is.

To connect wirelessly, you need what’s called an Ethernet Bridge.  There are several around, they cost about $100, and in our opinion the very best is made by Cisco’s consumer division, Linksys.  The Linksys Ethernet Bridge is easy to use and connect and it is the first piece of my library I have already purchased and installed.  Follow its 1,2,3 steps and plug it in, you’re good to go.

Assuming you already have a wireless router in the house (you’ll need this) the Ethernet Bridge will connect your NAS to your network.  It’s quiet, reliable and maintenance free.  You can even use multiple Ethernet Bridges if you want.  Have one connect your NAS and the other connects your PerfectWave system to your network.

Selecting your NAS
There are many brands of NAS units available on the market today ranging in price from $200 to $1200.  We recommend you choose a NAS with the following features:
• Capable of handling up to 4 terabytes of data
• RAID capable
• DLNA ready
• Fast
• Simple to use

I am attempting to keep this article as short and non-technical as I am capable of doing, so let me just briefly explain a couple of things about the above requirements.

How big is your terabyte?
A terabyte is 1000 gigabytes.  It’s a lot!  A gigabyte is 1000 megabytes and the typical Red Book CD takes up about ¾ of a gigabyte (750mB) if uncompressed.  Lossless compression reduces the file size by about half, so to be conservative let’s say you can get two CD’s for each gigabyte.  This means two thousand compressed CD’s and about 1000 uncompressed CD’s in one terabyte.  If you’re going hi-rez, you can squeeze in about a quarter of these in the same space.  But then, there’s RAID.

RAID means backup.  It means the best way to store your library is with a copy of the library placed on a second hard drive.  Most NAS units support this automatically and we highly recommend you create a backup.  There’s no magic here, so if you need a terabyte of storage, now you’ll need two terabytes to be safe.  You see why we recommend 4 terabyte capabilities.

After some research we’ve narrowed down the list of suggested NAS units that fit the bill and here they are.

• HP MediaSmart Server LX195 .  Up to 5 TB of storage, about $399
• Western Digital Share Space .  Up to 8 TB of storage $799
• QNAP TS-409 Turbo NAS .  Up to 8 TB of storage about $599
• Lacie 2 big network .  Up to 4 TB of storage about $549

All of these NAS units have their good and bad point but all would be fine.  They all need to have a type of music server software installed to manage the library, but that’s easy to add if they do not already have it (most do).  Understand the prices of these drives typically do not include the actual hard drives.  All are RAID capable and all are quick and easy to use.

We’re going to have to make a decision of which NAS to go with and so I have narrowed my search down to two of the four: the QNAP and the Lacie.  You may decide on whatever you wish.

The QNAP is easier to use and if there’s ever a failure of a drive it’s remarkably simple to change drives.  Also, the QNAP device has all the software we will need for our library already installed.  The downside to the QNAP product is reliability.  Most customers have given it a lukewarm reception from a reliability standpoint.  The Lacie, on the other hand, isn’t quite as easy to use, doesn’t have the software installed and will take a bit more work but is generally considered better built and its company reputation is stellar.

In next month’s installment I’ll let you know which of these I went with, but I am leaning towards the Lacie.

Till September
Hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter and the continuing installments of building a library.  If you have a chance, check out our newly skinned website and let us know what you think.  I will be visiting three audio clubs in September: San Francisco, Philadelphia and New Jersey, so if you’re in the area stop by and see the PW series first hand.

Have a great rest of summer and we’ll write again in September.

Paul McGowan

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