October 2009 PS Newsletter

• Good news for Europe
• Killer deal on Power Plants
• Used DACS and transports 
• Asynchronous USB
• Last FM 
• NAS woes and what we’re doing about it 
• Controller steering committee

Welcome
Hi and welcome to October’s PS Audio Newsletter.  I had to dig my way out of a couple of feet of snow this morning to publish!

In this month’s installment we meet the founder of Stax headphones, travel to New York for the marathon and have great news for our European friends.  We also let you in on a killer deal for Power Plants, used equipment, enter into a discussion about USB connectivity between DACS and computers, discover Last FM, talk about my trials and tribulations setting up the new music library and give you a progress report on our Steering Committee’s formation to create the new PerfectWave controller.  There’s lots to write about, but first a couple of personal notes.

I just returned from visiting the Tokyo High-End show and one of the highlights was meeting the owner and founder of Stax headphones in Japan, 84 year old Naotake Hayashi. After our introduction by my friends Shin and Sada (our distributors in Japan) Mr. Hayashi shook my hand and then gave me a deep bow.  I didn’t respond with a return bow (hey!  I am an ignorant westerner) and Sada kicked me and pointed for me to bow as well (which I quickly did).  Good to have friends!

What a cool guy Mr. Hayashi is and I happen to be one of his biggest fans.  I just LOVE Stax headphones.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with Stax, they make a series of open-frame electrostatic headphones that sound unbelievable. They are expensive, a bit cumbersome, but man alive - just listening to music through them puts you on cloud nine.  What an honor! I don’t know if these are even being brought into the States anymore, but if you ever have a chance to listen, grab it.

The other big news for me this month is New York City this weekend.  No, not the World Series, but the New York City Marathon. I am not entered - it’s 26 miles after all - but a close family friend has been selected as the medical director for this years’ marathon and he’s invited Terri and I to help!  How cool is that?  We’re both trained first aid providers (because of our work for Vail Resorts) and we’re flying out Friday night to join his medical team making sure all 50,000 participants are safe and happy.  I am ever so excited.  If you’re running in the Marathon, look for me driving one of those cool 4-wheel gators!

Good news for Europe
Four months and many thousands of dollars later, we’ve finally gotten CE approval for the PerfectWave Transport and DAC.  Both the PWT and PWD passed with flying colors just a few days ago and the products are being turned over to our Boulder production facility for assembly.

Normally, our engineering department has very little trouble gaining European approval for our products; the DLIII DAC is a good example.  After we finished engineering the DLIII we submitted the product to the testing agency and within a week or so, we were approved.  The PW series is a whole different ballgame. With the touch screen, multiple boards, higher speeds, heavier current, the products had trouble passing the rigorous standards set by CE.

So, for the past few months our engineering team has been working on grounding changes, shielding, etc. all in an effort to make sure we didn’t lose any sound quality and we passed their tests.  I am happy to announce we finally did and we will begin shipping in earnest next month (November) to our friends in Europe.

Thanks for the loyal support and all the patience you’ve shown.  Trust me, these products are worth waiting for and we’re excited for you to start receiving them.

Killer deal on Power Plants
Let me say right up front this is a US only deal.  I do apologize to all our international friends but it’s just too hard (logistically) to pull off anywhere but on home turf.

So, if you were at RMAF (Rocky Mountain Audio Fest) you may have noticed the dozens of rooms using Power Plant Premiers for their power sources.  The power at the show was really crappy (it even cut out completely for about an hour on Saturday) and every exhibitor wants to show their equipment off in the best light possible: hence all the Premiers.  We’ve finally gotten them all back, cleaned them up, re-tested and re-boxed and will make them available as B stocks for $1299.99 each. There aren’t that many available, so if you’re interested, you can pick them up at our participating dealers, our web store, or by simply calling us. I wouldn’t wait too long…..

Used DACS and transports
A few newsletters ago I posted a picture of me standing next to a stack of trade-ups for the PerfectWave series.  That stack has turned into an entire room!  Check out the picture of the newest addition to our facility: the used room.  David, one of our technicians, can be seen in the back working on the equipment.  Each of these trade-ins has been run through our testing area, cleaned up, cataloged and is ready for sale.

We’re talking about hundreds of really great pieces.  CEC transports, Mark levinson DACS, DCS, Sony, MSB, Ayre, Enlightened Audio…heck, the list goes on.  I apologize that we haven’t yet had the time to photograph, document and list many of them on the web store - we’re trying.  The truth is, we just got overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of trade-ins for PerfectWave and they are still coming in!

So here’s the deal, give us a call if you’re interested in anything specific.  Our sales staff will let you know if they’re still here and what the price is.  We usually go with the lower Audiogon Blue Book pricing - depending on the condition.  I just saw a beautiful Theta piece go for only a few hundred dollars.  In a way, it kind of breaks my heart - as I am a pack rat and would like to keep everything - but Terri has laid down the law: move ‘em out!

I did grab a really beautiful Levinson No. 36 - not for its sound but because I love the industrial design work of David Barson who did their design many years ago.  I also grabbed a Slimbox Transporter that was traded in, as it’s nice to play with controllers and stream to it - although I never figured out why people got so worked up over the sound of the Transporter.  I must be missing something.  It didn’t make it in the sound room, so it’s gracing my office system.

In any case, we’ll try and get the list published as soon as we can; meanwhile feel free to call us if you’re interested.  Chances are we have what you’re looking for!

Asynchronous USB
I’ve been getting a few calls and emails about USB connectivity between your computer and your DAC and what I think about asynchronous vs. synchronous.  Apparently there’s a few DACS out now that are sporting asynchronous USB that allows streaming of 96kHz audio.  I am being asked what I think about this.

Here’s the deal: our PWD is one of the few that handles 96kHz audio streaming from a computer, but it is not asynchronous.  I know a few newer DACS use asynchronous USB to stream 96kHz.

As to the question which is better, the answer’s pretty clear: asynchronous.  Asynchronous clocks are what’s used in the PerfectWave transport and as long as you implement it properly, it’s clearly a better way to go when streaming digital audio data.  No question about it.

So, our customers are asking me why we don’t switch over to asynchronous USB for the PerfectWave DAC and the answer’s really simple: there’s really no reason.  USB is hopelessly limited to lower sample rate audio and it must always be tethered to a computer.

I don’t know about you, but for my money these two hurdles are simply too much to get in the way.  It’s kind of like asking whether coax or balanced is better on S/PDIF - the answer is balanced, but who cares?  I want to listen to real high-resolution audio, which for me starts at 176.4kHz and I don’t want a computer anywhere near my listening area.  Certainly 96kHz is better than 44kHz but it’s a short-term answer.

The best solution is just around the corner and it’s called the PS Network Bridge.  The Bridge will connect your computer or storage via your network and stream any sample or bit rate completely asynchronous; delivered to the PWD via I2S without any jitter or problems. You don’t even need a computer actually, all you’ll need is an online storage device (like a NAS) which can be placed anywhere in the house you like.  It’s that simple and elegant and it can even be wireless if you want.

So, while USB is currently about the only way to enjoy high-resolution audio through your computer, in my opinion, it’s a short-term solution.  The best way to listen to high-resolution audio will be through the Bridge when it ships out in a couple of months.  Until then, if you get a chance to play around with one of these DACS, it’ll give you a great glimpse into the future of high-resolution audio.  Go for it.

Last FM
In one of our older Newsletters I wrote about Pandora, the free music service available on the iPhone or your computer.  There’s no high resolution audio or, for that matter, there’s not even CD quality audio on it but what they have is a HUGE music library and a great way to surprise listeners with music.

Terri and I use an iPod into a simple dock, then into a PS Audio C100 integrated amplifier driving a pair of Martin Logan on-wall loudspeakers for our background music system here in Boulder.  It’s a great little setup.  We use the iPod to tune into NPR in the morning and Pandora in the evening. It’s great.

One of our younger programmers, Eric Baer, suggested I try Last FM instead of Pandora and now I am hooked on Last FM!  I just thought I’d share this with you.  Last FM simply has more variety and is always surprising me with music I never heard but is always delightful.  The two work the same: you create a “radio station” based on the music of a particular artist or band.  Then the software finds similar sounding music, based on your selection and plays it for you.

We setup a Guster radio station last night on Last FM and as the evening wore on, we created a Chet Baker station.  Anyway, there’s a free iPod app for both Pandora and last FM and I strongly recommend downloading both and fill your home with great music.

NAS woes and what we’re doing about it
If you follow this newsletter you’ll know we’ve been running a series on building your music library and we were right in the middle of purchasing and then setting up our storage device, the NAS (Network Attached Storage).  Just as a reminder, a NAS is a hard drive that connects to the home network without the need for a computer.  It’s a fairly simple minded device but one that should be easy to add.

So, in last month’s installment I reported that I had purchased the Lacie 2Big 4tB NAS to start my musical library.  I chose the Lacie out of the suggestions we posted for people because I had good luck in the past with Lacie in terms of reliability.  I got the drive, it failed in the first 24 hours; and that’s not the half of it.

Let me tell you my sad story and what we’re going to do about it.  The Lacie drive is advertised as easy to setup and after having figured it out, it was indeed easy but getting to the point of “easy” was a nightmare.  I won’t bore you with the details, but I spent a good 4 hours of time trying to communicate with the NAS.  I finally had to resort to reading the instructions.  Now, let’s understand something: I am a guy and I don’t read instructions until I have no other choice.

After battling this drive for hours I finally communicated with it and started loading data; at which point it failed and had to be exchanged for a new one.  The new one arrives and I again start to load music; only to realize the system wants 40 hours to load about 1.2tB of music.  40 hours!  This is insane and I am unhappy about the whole deal.

So here I am writing the newsletter and listening to the grinding noises the drive is making extracting music from my computer over the network.  It’s been going for days and apparently has days to go.

I now understand the comments I get while in the field speaking with our customers about connected audio.  Many of you are hesitant to get involved because of frustrations like I just described and you know what?  I don’t blame you. I mean, we’ve all been frustrated setting up a turntable or connecting audio equipment and one way to look at this is “it’s just another hassle in the service of building a system”.  But honestly, machines should serve us, not the other way around!

One of our senior design engineers, Jon Magnusson, suggested Ready NAS was a much better choice and less money as well!

So what are we going to do about it?  Read the next section for the answer.

Controller steering committee
Last month I asked for volunteers to help us design the iPod controller interface for the upcoming PS Bridge.  Frankly, I was not expecting that many people to apply; boy was I wrong.  After about three hundred applicants we shut off the form because there was no way we could even process what we had.  However, I read every single one of the applications and chose 35 of the very best to form the steering committee for the project.

May I rant for one paragraph about the power of community?  This simple call for volunteers over the Internet resulted in engaging 35 people of a caliber the likes of which I could not even imagine - and each person signed up because they were genuinely excited to devote their time and thoughts to this project. There are people in this group from NASA, the biggest software companies in the world, musicians, photographers, programmers, human interface experts, designers, graphic artists and music lovers. It just stuns me that we can surround ourselves with so much eager talent that I am simply in awe. Just in awe.  OK, enough ranting.  Sorry.

The committee has been hard at work for a few weeks now and we’ve just published a list of features and functions the controller needs to have.  The forum is not available to the public due to the fact some of the members are pretty high profile people in the industry and want their identities kept quiet as well as the fact we want to surprise everyone with how robust and cool this controller is when we release it.

One of the issues that surfaced in our discussions is the server and the role the server plays in this setup - and that’s where we get back to the NAS I just wrote about. Please allow me to explain.

There are four components to a connected music system: a controller, server, player and the means to store the music.  If we take the main three components: controller, server and player, it’s pretty easy to understand the flow.  The controller is the interface you see and use to select what you want to play. The controller communicates with the server, who sends the selection to your player and you hear the music. Simple.

The problem we are running into is between the server and the controller.  The controller can display only what the server has access to and what the server was designed to deliver.  Some servers are robust and see cover art, song titles, artist’s bio’s, etc. while others are pretty slim and only see the folders where the music is stored: and that’s the rub.  As we’re designing the controller, we realize that we cannot ensure a consistent set of features and user experience unless we have a specific type of server available.

For example, a cool user experience is what you get with the Sonos system.  They’re not high-end, but their user interface is great and consistent.  That is because they supply the server and the controller.

The server software is typically located in the storage device (the NAS).  Different types of servers come with different types of NAS and there’s no consistency.  So, our first thought was to say to folks: ok, if you buy a NAS from any company on this list, we can guarantee you a great user experience with the PS system.  But that’s a flawed approach as well, given my miserable experience with the Lacie NAS (and it’s one of the best).

So, the only way we can ensure a consistently great experience using the PS system will be to build our own NAS and that’s what we’re going to do.  I want to build the first NAS and server dedicated solely to high-end audio that’s easy to use, true plug-n-play and just works right out of the box.  No more setup, no more frustration, just a joy to use and own.

The beauty of this approach is that our upcoming controller will work with most any NAS or computer running almost any server software - so no one will be required to change what they have if they don’t want to.  But for those of you just getting started with connected high-performance audio, may I suggest you wait just a little bit?

I intend to ship our NAS at about the same time as the network Bridge for the PWD, so the first part of 2010 will see us releasing both the Bridge and the NAS and then, finally, everyone can enjoy the benefits of true, perfected, asynchronous high-performance audio at the touch of a button.  It’ll truly be a thing of joy.

Till November
Thanks for reading. As you can probably tell, I am super excited about connected audio and all that it entails.  I really see this as the no-compromise future of audio.  Hook up this system to a Power Plant with a great pair of loudspeakers, the right cables and I don’t know how you could hope for a lot more.

Happy Halloween and we’ll write again in November.

Paul McGowan

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