February 2009 AV Journal

Hi and welcome to the February edition of the PS Audio Newsletter….er, PS AV Journal. 

New name for the newsletter
It’s been pointed out that my monthly newsletter is more of a journal than a newsletter so we decided to rename it.  This then is the first edition of The PS Monthly AV Journal. 

I’ll admit that this change is primarily an excuse, calculated to release me of any last vestige of proper literary formatting.   Free at last!

Just a quick note for those of you that did not get a chance to read the Stereophile review of the Power Plant Premier, it’s now online here .

Pickles
Last weekend we travelled to New York City to celebrate our good friend’s 50th birthday.

From a culinary standpoint New York has some of the finest restaurants in the world, but we visited none of them.  Instead, Terri and I always delight in finding the best pizza slice, muffin tops, diners, cream puffs and - pickles.  But not any pickle.

My love is for Jewish fermented pickles.  They come in several varieties: sour and half sour.  They are found primarily at Jewish delicatessens and are served in bowls before and during lunch in the same sort of way Mexican restaurants serve chips and salsa.

Our last day in New York found us in Lansky’s upper West Side Deli feasting on pickles, coleslaw and potato knishes.  I knew right then and there I had to take some home and asked the waiter to set us up with a plastic container of pickles, with as little juice as possible, so I could get through airport security.  Terri was pretty panicked at the thought of stinky pickles breaking loose in my luggage (possibly permeating my new suit), but I knew the importance of coming home with these prize delights, so onward!

Then came the big moment at LaGuardia’s airport security.  TSA was eying me with suspicion as I loaded my suitcase onto the x-ray machine.  I tried to look nonchalant as I smiled that knowing sort of smile at the operator.  It didn’t do any good.  "Bag check!"

"Sir, do you have any liquids in your bag?"

"No."  I had pickles.  

The bag is opened and the suspicious container removed.  "What’s in the container?"  

"Pickles."  I start to fidget.

"Pickles in your suitcase?"  He opens the container, which is wrapped in a plastic shopping bag.  I just know he’s going to confiscate my coveted beauties, of which the sour ones are my favorite.  He slowly unwraps the suspicious bag, pulls the container out with his soiled rubber gloved hand.  "Where are these from?"  His brow furrowed, his look piercing.

"Lansky’s."

"Lansky’s on the upper West side?"  A glimmer of hope.  I nod as if I too am a New Yorker "in the know".

He breaks into a big smile. "Have a nice flight."  

Gotta love New York.

Worldwide specials
Many months ago we promised to have different specials on our products each month.  We started this to help our sales levels in these difficult times, bring customers into dealer showrooms and help our customers own some of our products at lower costs. Our goal is to help you, our audiophile friends, continue to improve your sound despite the tough economic conditions. I like to think of it as our own little “Audio Stimulus Package”.

The specials were always restricted to US customers and available only through our US dealers and the PS website.  But we’re a worldwide company and thousands throughout the world read our Journal and saw US customers getting price specials they could not take advantage of.  I received many a disappointed letter from friends all over the world.

I think we may have found a way to fix this.  Starting this month we are offering many of the same specials in other countries, as well as specials unique to each location.  With each subsequent month’s publishing of the AV Journal we will announce additional countries that have joined in.  Our hope is to eventually get participation of every country in the world.

I am truly excited about this development.  It was not an easy task to figure out how to make these specials available to a particular country without total confusion, but we did.  I would like to personally thank our VP of International sales, Angie Duran, our web development team, as well as all our distributors who have worked hard to make this a reality.

At the end of the day, our customers benefit from this hard work and that’s all that really matters to us.

To qualify for special pricing anywhere in the world you must be a registered AV Journal subscriber.  

Here’s how it works.  Click on this link and the system checks to see if you’re a Journal reader and figures out what country you’re from.  It then shows you this month’s specials for your country.  If there are no specials, you can choose to send a small form letting your distributor know you’re interested in future specials.  I would encourage you to send this note to your distributor through the website as it will help them see the level of interest from our customers directly.

Over time, we will manage to get everyone on board and then let the savings begin!

Soloist Premier report
Last month’s AV Journal had a pretty interesting idea: a Soloist in-wall power conditioner with a Power Port Premier installed and only 200 available to test market this idea.  Wow, it went over really well.  Thanks for all the support.

One of our forum guests writes "I wanted to mention IMHO the new Soloist Premier should be considered a must have for serious Audiophiles and full-time stock item in the PSA production line. After several weeks of break in time using the Pre mier Power Plant, I’m still blown away by the improvements I continue to hear over the old Soloist. I was compelled to stay up an hour later last night listening to Marcus Miller, it was the ear opening auditory equivalent to watching a HD film in 3D"

Nice.  Thanks!  So we will be adding these to our line because so many people are asking for them.  Please be patient when ordering as each one is hand modified by our production staff.  We are hand-converting Soloists into Premier Soloists and it takes quite a bit of time.  For now, we’ll keep the price low and see how it goes.

It’s fun to have dreamed up a product and have such great success.

PerfectWave Transport published
I apologize.  I promised we would publish both the PerfectWave Transport and DAC web pages by the time this newsletter was released.  

There is so much to write about and photograph on these two groundbreaking products that we only completed one: the PerfectWave Transport (PWT).  In early March we’ll release the entire story of the PerfectWave DAC (PWD) so the pair will be complete.

I am delighted to let you know that you can savor every bit of the PWT by clicking on this link .

For those of you just joining the AV Journal, the PWT and PWD are two groundbreaking products that form the PerfectWave music playback System.  The PW components can handle as simple a task as a standalone CD transport or DAC, or as robust a task as one of the most sophisticated music servers ever built.  

The PWT is the only standalone transport in the world that can play both CD Audio discs and wav files of virtually any resolution burned to CD-R or DVD+/-R media.  

It automatically gathers cover art and song titles, displays them on its front panel touch screen as well as stores them, along with artist biographies, on your own personal library web page via GlobalNet (more about this in the next article).

The PWD acts as a standalone music source that can playback just about any resolution audio file from any connected transport, your home network, the Internet or a connected storage device of any kind.  The PWD output connects directly to your power amplifier without the need for a preamplifier.

If you use these two PerfectWave products together, they connect via an HDMI cable with almost zero jitter and without the need for sample rate conversion.

The PerfectWave Series are truly standalone pieces that are an amazing value.

Pre-signup is now available
Our build schedule still calls for a small run, here in our Boulder facility, in late March with the first full production run taking place in late April.  All of March is spoken for and much of April is as well.  Dealers and distributors have placed preorders for these pieces so if you’re interested in this product I would recommend getting your name on the pre-order list with your dealer or distributor as quickly as you can.

If you would like to pre-order, either the PWT or the PWD or the pair, we would need to know what color you want, when you want it and what dealer you’re working with in the US (if you have one), or your country outside the US so we can contact your distributor for you. Email us sales@psaudio.com , or call us toll free 866.406.8946 domestically.

GlobalNet music library access
Part of me feels bad to keep torturing our readers with tantalizing tastes of what the PWT does and how cool it is; then there’s the side of me that delights in it.  This strange dual nature to me always makes me picture the old Donald Duck cartoons where Donald had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other - both encouraging him to do their bidding.  In Donald’s case the angel usually lost….and hopefully I am a little better than Mr. Duck, but…....no guarantees.

So let me tease you with a glimps e into the future of optical disc playback and what the PWT holds for us all.  First a little history.

Many of us grew up with vinyl records and an intimate knowledge of the artists we listen to at the time.  AM stations and eventually FM stations filled us in with the artists lives, their concert dates, their latest releases.  

When we played an album we had a large 12-inch square printed piece in front of us with the picture of the band on the front cover and all sorts of info on the back cover.  This concept was invented in 1938 by Alex Steinweiss and has stayed with us for this many years.  I used to put on an album and read the liner notes as it played.  The heavy paper album covers were made from paper (not plastic) and just felt good in your hands.  It was war m and inviting and large enough to read.  This was immersion into the music and became part of the fabric of modern day life.

Then came the CD with its tiny physical size and a cold and impersonal plastic frame.  CD covers are a sad attempt at replicating Steinweiss’s concept; but it just doesn’t work.  CD’s have tried everything; from printing little booklets you can pull out and read to going to smaller print. 

The truth is modern releases of music on CD don’t have the immersive qualities of album art and (perhaps as a consequence) the artists and publishers don’t treat CD covers as works of art anymore.  ‘Tis a shame.

Part of the initial concept for the PWT was the ability of the machine to display cover art and song titles, which it does quite nicely.  But I wanted to take the PWT concept a step further and create a new class of device that got us closer to the intimacy we used to experience with album art.  Certainly we can’t make new album art but what if we could combine the power of the Internet with our desire to get closer to the music and the artists?

That’s just what we’ve been working on for quite some time now.  When you play a CD or DVD in the PWT the device goes out to communicate with PS Audio’s Cloud Computer GlobalNet.  GlobalNet searches multiple databases as well as its own storage library to identify your selection’s cover art and song titles.  But that’s just the beginning.

As soon as you register your new PerfectWave Transport we create a personalized library page for you accessible from anywhere in the world.  On this page there is a record of every CD or DVD you’ve ever played.  Not the actual music, but the cover art, the song titles and a lot more.  

You will be able to see the artists and the members on the CD.  You’ll know the last time you played the disc, access the artist biography, get email notifications of upcoming concert events, new releases and so on.  You’ll also be able to edit all the information, including the cover art and song titles.  This is important because even the best systems sometimes get the data wrong or can’t find an obscure artist.  With the PWT and GlobalNet, it’s no problem.  You can edit and add the info yourself so the next time you play the disc; everything appears just like it should.

If you’d like to get an idea of what this looks like, head over to the website and click on the GlobalNet tab at the top of the website, then click the PWT image.  We’ve setup a small example for you so you can get the idea.

Music vs. the Music Industry
One of the nice things about getting older is you tend to pay less attention to what people think about what you do and pay more attention to what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.  At least that’s what it seems to be in my life.

So with that in mind I have a confession to make: I sometimes copy music and listen to it without paying.  I put that music on my iPhone and listen to it as I walk into work in the morning.  I get that music from friends, my sons, people email me music, etc.  This causes quite a dilemma for me: I never want to cheat a musician out of anything ever.  It’s not right, these people are some of the finest gems in our society and they deserve to be rewarded for their work.  So, how do I justify it? 

The fact is I buy more music because of this situation, not the opposite – a fact the music industry just doesn’t seem to get. 

Just this morning while walking into work I heard two new artists: Jason Mraz and Ingrid Michaelson.  I fell in love with both and as soon as I got to work I went onto to Amazon and ordered their CD’s.  Both of these artists were people I had never heard of and both the artist and I would be losers without someone giving me a couple of their songs to listen to: illegally.

This story sets the stage for my thought this morning, followed by a more in-depth piece by our friend Seth Godin.

Times have changed and the music industry hasn’t.  They are losing money hand over fist and, frankly, they deserve to.  I know that’s harsh and I don’t want anything bad to happen to anyone but the fact is if you keep manufacturing buggy whips when there’s no market for them you deserve to lose.

Years ago we found out about new music by friends loaning albums to other friends, making recordings of those albums onto cassette tapes or listening to the radio.  Today, the first practice is illegal and the second sucks.  Radio today is pretty much destroyed as a medium.  I simply can’t and don’t listen to it anymore and so my access to new music is severely restricted. 

Desire has a way of configuring change and if you want to find out about new music you will do what is needed; in this case sharing music despite the restrictions.

For another view of this subject, we turn to Seth Godin.  Seth is one of the best marketing people in the world and just happens to also be an Audiophile and a PS AV Journal reader.    Seth Godin has written multiple books on marketing, has a great video called "Sliced Bread " worth watching on TED and writes a daily blog.  His approach is very direct and he feels the same way I do about the music industry and communicating with people: honest, active and personal.

In one of his blogs he has some fascinating insights into the problems of music today and the state of the industry.  I thought it interesting enough to include a few tidbits for your consumption.  If you’d like to read the entire blog (it’s not long) click here .

 "The music industry is really focused on the ‘industry’ part and not so much on the ‘music’ part. This is the greatest moment in the history of music if your dream is to distribute as much music as possible to as many people as possible, or if your goal is to make it as easy as possible to become heard as a musician. There’s never been a time like this before. So if your focus is on music, it’s great. If your focus is on the industry part and the limos, the advances, the lawyers, polycarbonate and vinyl, it’s horrible. The shift that is happening right now is that the people who insist on keeping the world as it was are going to get more and more frustrated until they lose their jobs. People who want to invent a whole new set of rules, a new paradigm, can’t believe their good fortune and how lucky they are that the people in the industry aren’t noticing an opportunity…"

"...the industry will never have enough power to keep someone from pirating something because they think they’re going to end up in jail. The numbers that would end up in jail are too big. They’re probably not going to have enough power to get people not to copy something because they think it will get them in trouble with their mom. After all, it’s an industry built on getting in trouble with your mom. What we’re left with is the argument that if you copy that song, we’ll stop making music. And what the intelligent consumer has noticed is that the amount of music that keeps getting made keeps going up, not down."

The ATV directly into the DLIII
This month’s special involves a killer deal on the DLIII DAC .  This is the DAC that has won countless awards and garnered great review-after-review and now we have a deal you can’t pass up.

But before we tell you about this DLIII special, I wanted to entice those of you who have (or want to have) the Apple TV to use as a fun music server.  I would guess that since I mentioned this product as a music server in a prior AV Journal, hundreds of people have purchased them and are having a ball listening to music through them.

Certainly they are not ultra high-end but they are very good, fun as can be to use and cheap.  If you want to know more you can go here to our How-To section of the website and we have a great article on setting up the ATV as a music server.

But, hang on.  One of the drawbacks with this setup is the need for a preamp or some way to turn the volume up and down if you’re running it through a DAC like the DLIII (which is the only way to listen).  You really don’t want to listen to the built in POS DAC they use, but through a DLIII it’s a pretty nice piece.

Apple slipped in an update some time ago that allows you to use their built in digital volume control so the digital output of the ATV goes into the DLIII and the DLIII goes directly into your power amp.  In my case, I used to have a C100 integrated amplifier connected to the DLIII.  Just to try this, I changed that out for an A100 power amplifier and it’s perfect!

To access this control, go into settings on the ATV and you will see where you can choose to turn the internal digital volume control on or off.  Pretty slick.

This month’s specials
This month’s special is so big we decided to have only one.  The DLIII is on sale here in the US and in a few countries around the world.  This is a chance you won’t get often so grab it while you can.  How much is the savings?  There are two ways to find out: call your dealer and ask, or click here to see .

The DLIII is one of our most sought after products.  Here’s why "...the PS Audio is in a different league altogether, offering an almost frightening level of detail, dimensionality, and bass impact. I hate to default to one of the oldest clichés in the audio-reviewing lexicon, but the Digital Link III really did lift a few veils. Inserting it in the system was the sonic equivalent of cleaning your windows at the end of a dusty summer."  Barry Willis, The Absolute Sound Magazine

At $999 in the US it’s a steal.  But at this special price, it’s something you need to take advantage of as it may be the last time ever it goes on sale.

As I mentioned in the first part of this newsletter, we now provide growing worldwide access to specials.  Throughout the next week or two, we’ll add more countries offering the same specials to customers, so make sure you check this link often.

If you check the link and the system says there are no specials in your country, do me a personal favor and submit the little form you’ll see.  This sends an email request to the distributor showing what product you’re interested in as well as PS.  This is all done without sending any personal info, it’s judge a nudge that gets them moving.  If we have a distributor who is hesitating…...this will put some pressure on him.  ☺

Till March
I am sure excited about the PWT finally going to production.  The new production facility is being built as I write this and should be finished next week.  We added on to our space and moved all the sales staff into it and their old space will become the new production facilities for the PWT.

Hope you are well, drop me a note when you get a chance.

Paul McGowan

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