January 2010 PS Audio Newsletter

• Starting off with a bang
• CES report
• Out Appling Apple
• The new amp
• The PML and Bridge update
• Cable costs on the rise
• The Reference Link

Welcome to the January PS newsletter.  In this issue we cover the meaning of the absolute sound (the basis of the magazine with the same name), talk about no-compromise audio available at the touch of a finger, give a sneak peak at our new 87 pound power amplifier, give you an update on the network Bridge, announce the official name of the PerfectWave Library and go way back in time to unveil an amazing discovery in a warehouse in Taiwan.  Enjoy.

Starting off with a bang
Finally got back from all the insanity we call CES in Vegas, with all the new products and innovations like the DVD rewinder on the top…. (it’s a joke).  For us it’s 10 straight days of setup, teardown, display the products, do demos and talk to a lot of people.  No one likes the setup and teardown but the chance to speak with all the dealers and end users is something I thrive on as do the other PS’ers.  It’s great fun to meet everyone, say hi to our industry friends.  The only downside is living inside a hotel for 10 straight days - I don’t mean just sleeping there, I mean everything, from the gym, to the show, to the dinners and lunches and breakfast - you never leave!  Yikes!

After returning from CES I finally got a moment to sit down and get some reading done and the first thing I pickup is the 200th edition of The Absolute Sound magazine (TAS).  I could not put the issue down.  I went straight to Robert Harley’s intro page and it was absolutely inspired writing.  Next I read Dave Wilson’s ad.  Wow - renewed respect for one of our industry’s great speaker designers.  Next I read HP’s comments and then the Pièce de résistance: a reprint of HP’s review of the Infitnity/Magnepan QRS 1D.  I was in heaven reading all this.

I never had a chance to hear the QRS 1D at Harry’s (here’s a picture I found of the QRS - and the QRS 1D was without the bass drivers in this picture) but I did have a chance to hear the original Infinity IRS in HP’s listening room - and the IRS was the successor to this hybrid creation called the QRS 1D (a combination of Tympani 1D bass panels and the Infinity QRS on the top and midrange - which if anyone out there has any of these components, email me and I’ll buy them!).

Stan Warren (The S in PS) and I went to Sea Cliff for the first time to try and impress Harry with our new phono preamp - and wound up spending the entire day and night mesmerized by the sound of the system.  In fact, we never even pulled out the phono preamp we came to show Harry. We simply walked out of his house in a daze and flew home the next day; so stunning was what we heard. When we came back to the office, everyone was anxious to know what HP thought of our creation and were more than a little miffed that we never even played it.

I am telling you all this because these articles really reminded me of our beginnings in this industry and our mission today, of why we are here and of where we are going.

TAS (the magazine) is all about reviewing how audio products measure up to the absolute sound. The definition of the absolute sound is “the sound of unamplified musical instruments in a real acoustic space”.  As Robert Harley pointed out so accurately in his editorial, there aren’t many absolutes we can look to for guidance on anything: except audio or visual.  It’s the challenge we have always tried to live up to since we started.

And reading this reminds me that we are a company helping bring high-end audio into the 21st century.  Our mission is only slightly different now than it was when we started some 38 years ago: to create a system that gives you the absolute sound of music at the touch of a finger.  It’s a wonderful challenge and one we are eager and anxious to present to the world.

Speaking of beginings, watch HP’s keynote address on You Tube. It’s a 4 part series about our industry that starts at the very beginning. Here’s the link to part 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNTwL4QOzBk

CES report
And speaking of bringing the Absolute Sound of Music at the touch of your finger….that’s exactly what we were demonstrating at CES!

Check out the system we were showing.  Magneplanar 3.6 loudspeakers, held up by Grant VanderMye’s Mye stands (that made a remarkable improvement), a pair of Martin Logan Descent subs, three RPG diffusers , a PerfectWave DAC and Transport and a prototype of the new PerfectWave Power Amplifier.  The sound was the best we’ve ever had at a show.

..and the touch of a finger part?  You guessed it, the much talked about PS Audio Bridge built into the PerfectWave DAC, playing out of our PerfectWave Music Library, all from our iTouch controller.

I haven’t seen grins on people’s faces like we had at this show in years.  Seriously, we had to ask a few people to come back the next day to play some more because they were having too much fun to leave. I think we had a couple hundred songs to choose from, many were acoustic covers locally recorded in Boulder by big name groups (Cold Play, Jason Mraz, Stevie Nicks) and simply ripped into our library and played back to the utter delight of everyone that walked into the room.

One of the reasons we chose the Magneplanars is they are so revealing and we wanted to pull off some side-by-side demos of CD’s played through the PerfectWave Transport vs. the same cut ripped in Apple Lossless and played back over the Bridge. Stunning.  I didn’t find one person that could tell me which was which and that, my friends, is a really big deal.

We all get how much fun it is to have our entire music collection available at the touch of our finger but to have this convenience and fun without compromise? Unheard of.  I do not know of any other system in the world that has what the PS Audio system has: the finished handheld interface coupled with the no-compromise performance.  Nope, others out there have one part or the other but so far - not all together.  I am sure they’re not far behind but at least for a couple of minutes, we showed the world what it was like to have it all - and it was a real thrill for everyone there.

Out Appling Apple
One of our heroes in the industry is Chris Connaker , founder of Computer Audiophile who gave us one of the greatest compliments we’ve ever received at a show in his CES report.

“As I said in the opening paragraph I was pleasantly surprised with PS Audio’s advances. To be honest I told the guys as PSA that I didn’t think they could pull it off. We’ve all heard about PS Audio’s ambitious goals in this area and I really thought there was no way a high end audio company could actually meet the goals (iPod Touch application, HRx 24/176.4 playback, metadata from its own server, a NAS, etc…). I am very happy things are working out great for PS Audio.

In fact I Tweeted via the Computer Audiophile Twitter page that PS Audio may have out-designed Apple with its iPod Touch application. The app is as simple as it gets while still including all the extras a user could want. I played with the PS iPod app for quite a while trying to use all the features and possibly find its weaknesses. The whole experience was simple. I didn’t find any real weaknesses but I did offer a suggestion or two. I’m sure the PS Audio guys had already thought of my suggestions and were just playing along to make me feel smart :~)”

Chris has seen it all but when I looked over at him playing with the app, there was that same grin everyone else seemed to have.  Just when he thought he had the app figured out, I showed him how you touch the “I” icon and the screen flips around to display the artist’s or bands bio information.  If you really like something you’re playing, simply hold down on the song and you can then slide your finger to add it to the playlist or to your favorites folder.  I won’t go into major details here, but it’s way cool.  If you’ve played with the iPod software on an iPhone or iPod Touch, all I can say is “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”

The new amp
It isn’t often I get to build something I want in exactly the way I want it.  Most products are a negotiated piece: make the dealers happy; make the customers happy, etc.  So it’s a rare occurrence when I have the freedom to just build something for myself and be able to offer it to the few customers that want it as well.

I can do this because in 2011 we’ll be designing a whole new line of practical, affordable, desirable power amplifiers to compliment their connected music systems.  In the meantime there are those of us (me included) that want a no-compromise power amp to match up with the PWT, PWD and PML that isn’t practical.  So, since the market is limited, I thought - let’s just design something exactly the way I want and hand build versions of it as others want some as well.  Limited production, built to order.  Why not?

The best sounding power amplifier we ever built, in my opinion, was the Classic 250.  We sold several hundred of these beasts and those that own them aren’t about to give them up. It’s rare indeed to see one of these on the used market.  We had a few reliability problems with some of them, but those eventually were resolved and the amp did quite well until the release of the G Series of power amps and preamps.

I am going back to this design for the output stage (which is totally unique - a times one current amplifier only) and since it’s being built for me, I may just decide to put a tube in the front end!  Yup, close to 40 years building and designing audio equipment and I’ve never used a tube.  I love the sound of tubes, but just never found the perfect place for one: the input stage of this amplifier just may be the perfect place.  Only time and a lot of experimenting will tell.

What we played at CES was an 87-pound version of this new design with a solid state, class A, FET front end and it sounded luscious.  Driving the demanding Maggies was a breeze for this 500 watt beast and much of the magic heard in our room was because of this amp.  I’ll let you know if we get close to launching it.

The PML and bridge update
If you read our forums you’ll know that one of our engineering teams is working on the PS Audio network storage library (NAS), while another dedicated team is working hard on the network Bridge.  The Bridge is the hottest item on our plate right now because all PWD owners are anxious and excited to get connected!

The schedule now calls for the Bridge and the iPod controller app to be released in the second quarter of 2010.  This means we’re running about one quarter behind schedule - and if we manage to release the Bridge and controller on the new schedule, that’s not too bad for timing.  As our engineering group likes to point out, it’s really hard to be on schedule with products that break new ground since you don’t know what you don’t know!  Makes predicting schedules tough.  But progress is good, we played a prototype at the show and it’ll happen.

So much for the Bridge; and on to the NAS, which we finally named.  It is officially the PerfectWave Music Library or PML for short.  Its name, which purposefully sounds nothing like a computer, network gear or technical in any way shape or form, belies our goal for this device.

Let me first spend a few words explaining the system again and where the PML fits in, why it may or may not make sense for you to own and how everything fits together.  I do this at the risk of repeating myself because of an experience I had at CES with an end user.  Allow me to digress for a moment.

About day three of the show a guy walked up to me and started asking questions about the NAS, the server, the controller and so on.  His brow was furrowed most of the time and I could tell he was struggling to understand it all.  I think the next thing he told me was incredibly illuminating for many of us.

“Paul, I am not stupid.  I am a physician and a learned person by nature.  I get almost everything technical and obviously I am not an idiot.  But to be honest, all this is simply baffling to me.  I just do not get it. Please help.”

I sympathize with his plight and understand how confusing this all is when all any of us want is to listen to music!  Networks, and NAS and wires and bits, oh my!  That is why we at PS are working hard at untangling this complicated ball of technology and will make it easy and simple to step in. Really.

As I have mentioned before, a connected music system is actually kind of simple if you ignore the details for a moment.  There are three main elements you need: a means of controlling the system so you can choose what you want to listen to, a means of playing it back over the loudspeakers and last, but not least, a way to store everything.  That’s where the PerfectWave Music Library comes in.

Skipping the details of the PML for a moment, it is really nothing more than a giant music library. It provides the means to add content to the library, check out content from the library, distribute content and protect the contents wherever and whenever you want.  Perhaps most importantly, it’s all pre-configured and drop dead easy.  I think of it in the same way as the old mobile libraries.  Remember them?  There was this big walk-in van and it was as easy and convenient as it could get.  One day it would just drive up to the school and it provided everything you could possibly want, all in one easy to use package.  That’s the PML.

Do you have to have a PML to enjoy the benefits of a no-compromise music library?  No, not at all.  We’ll make sure that all the elements necessary to build this system are available to anyone interested in using them.  We understand there are many of you that already have storage devices or computers full of music and want to do this on your own.  No problem, we’ll support you.

The main message I want to convey to you all is that the PS system is going to be available on multiple levels: everything from complete plug-n-play systems to support for the DIY.  You choose what you’re comfortable with and we’ll take care of the rest.  After all, we’re all after the same thing.  Music at the touch of a finger.

Cable costs on the rise
I can’t remember the last time we had a price increase: it’s got to be a couple of years ago. In fact, the last two price changes I remember were actually price reductions of the Power Plant Premier, the DAC and the GCPH (which is still on sale for $300 off for a few more days).  But, alas, with the skyrocketing prices of copper, we have little choice but to announce a price increase for the AC power cables.

Starting on February 1, 2010, the price of the AC series of power cables will increase approximately 20%.  If you want in on the older prices, better grab what you can now.  We have a new shipment coming in and these will all be at the higher prices.

In order to help combat the higher prices we will offer all of our cables in a shorter 0.5 meter length. This will allow you to still get into the power cable you desire, be it a Perfect Wave AC-12 or a Jewel C7 at the original entry price points.

The Reference Link
I seem to remember reading a story once about someone’s grandfather passing away and when the grandson went to visit grandpa’s house he opened the garage only to find a brand new 1920 automobile that grandpa had but never drove.  What a treasure!

Well, we have a similar story.  Angie Duran (our VP of Sales and Marketing) and I went on a trip to visit our dealers in Asia and along the way we met with our Taiwan distributor, Enkei.  Mr. Huang and his son Kevin run Enkei.  Mr. Huang is affectionately known as “the Chairman” of the Taiwan audio group because he headed up all the retailers for years and years.  He’s a consummate Audiophile and a wonderful man.

On our visit we went to their warehouse and noticed, off in a corner, a group of PS Audio boxes from the era of PS where I was not a part.  This was the era where PS produced the Ultralink, the Lambda and all the terrific digital audio equipment of that era.  I think the Ultralink was named as product of the year if I remember correctly.

Upon a closer look I was stunned at what I saw: about 10 brand new, never opened Reference Links. A Reference Link was an Ultralink DAC on steroids.  It was an amazing piece of engineering, containing a full-on Ultra Analog DAC and Ultra Analog A to D converter.  Just take a look at the picture of the insides.  These were all hand built in the Ultra Analog labs in San Francisco.  They are a complete preamplifier with 5 analog inputs (that were then passed through the A/D converter and into the Ultra Analog DAC) and a complete Ultralink DAC.  At the time, this was state of the art.

I have one in the PS Museum and can tell you straight out as a DAC, it still sounds incredible. This was the pinnacle of the 16 bit, 44.1kHz DACS of the day and in its day, sold for $3K.

Mr. Huang asked me if any of our customers would be interested in owning one of these beauties.  I was certain someone would so we shipped all 10 back to PS in Boulder.  Each one is brand-new, never opened, and complete with remote control, full on DAC, preamp and an amazing performer for its day.  If you’re trying to put together a second system, something for the budding Audiophile or for just the thrill of owning one of these beauties, let us know.  We’ll offer them for $800 each and there are only 10.  You can email sales@psaudio.com

Till February
Thanks for taking the time to read the newsletter and I am glad we had a chance to catch up with each other.  Feel free to drop me a note and until February’s issue, enjoy what’s left of January! Let’s all hope for a great year.

Paul McGowan

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