PS Audio Nuwave DSD DAC Upgrade & Commissioning

[@riccitone]

Amazing and simple tweak. Thank you for this! Pi2AES too is such an astounding deal. Essentially a ddc and steamer in one putting out super clean digital to your Dac. And for so cheap. I had a similar experience when upgrading the streamer, not to mention filtering the Ethernet signal before the streamer as well. Puts a new light on the rest of your setup 👍🏼

[@audionautica6843]

Yeah, the Pi2AES is fantastic - the whole reason I went that path was to ensure I had the absolute best digital signal possible. I have a wifi to ethernet router so the ethernet to the streamer is unique to it. As the Pi2AES has I2S, I knew that in time I would need to get a DAC with an I2S input. I now have that DAC.

[@kenmcglown6642]

My high end audio streaming only audio system sounds just extremely incredible!!! Tidal, Qobuz, ripped CDs, all sound amazing on my audio system. And the combination of convenience and sound quality just blows my mind every time I sit down in front of my audio system. Yeah, at age 65, I grew up on the wonderful sounds of vinyl, CD, reel-to-reel and cassette tape (8 track, too). It's all good in the neighborhood. Congrats on your new DAC and the improved SQ that it brought. Happy listening.

[@audionautica6843]

Thank you! What do you find is the main difference between Tidal & Qobuz? Volumio supports both, but I just picked the one with the least strange name!

[@kenmcglown6642]

@@audionautica6843 I went through a long, extensive, A/B comparison between Tidal and Qobuz, just so I could put the debate to rest in my listening room. In doing so, I was unable to hear a consistently discernible enough difference in sound quality between the two in order to be able to declare one the clear winner over the other. So, I use Tidal, in Roon, as my default.

[@audionautica6843]

I think that's a good result!

[@georgeap4893]

Great story and result! I too had similar luck in purchasing a pre owned ps audio Perfectwave mk2 dac for similar dosh also here in Australia. It was a trade in the dealer didn’t want in his inventory Despite being old from abt 2012 it sounds awesome… Source is WiiM ultra streamer into ps audio dac ((also acting as a preamp as it have remote control volume) into clone pass labs amp into ls3/5a speaks (found in e-waste) On line comments say this should not sound great……amp doesn’t suit speakers apparently… I beg to differ… Congrats on your score😅😅😅 Keep up the good work☺️

[@audionautica6843]

Fantastic - yeah, there's a used Perfectwave mk2 DAC tradein that a dealer has for sale right now - AUD4k!!! There's only one person that needs to think your system sounds good, and he is thee.

[@georgeap4893]

@ I also use a nad cd player to feed the dac….. however I also have an e-waste Meridian 808 which has a great sound via its own dac….but it’s display and remote appear to be cactus…I wouldn’t mind yr opinion on what to do about it…..

[@audionautica6843]

@georgeap4893, I'm not familiar with that Meridian, but if I were to make a wild guess there's probably a microcontroller on the front panel that looks after the display and the remote. Check that the cable going from the display to the main board is not damaged. Sometimes if it is a flexi-pcb they can crack. Also check the cable is connected properly at both ends. Then check for obvious problems on the front panel board - visible damage, has it got power. Does what is working give clues as to what is not working? As I say, this is just a wild guess having no knowledge what is actually inside your player.

[@georgeap4893]

@ thanks for your comments-there is a lot more I could say should you be interested-prob best to be by DM… rather than bore all others Cheers

[@WoodstockG54]

Good $$$ value. Sharp contrast though to the Accuphase.

[@vendelius]

Great Video... Enjoy your Great System

[@terriludolf6101]

be careful with the rca outputs when pulling strong holding cables.

[@mikeg2491]

@@terriludolf6101 I hate grippy rca cables. I guess if you got a cat or something they exist for a reason but I’ve cringed at some of the ones I’ve bought off Amazon and feel like they’re going to pull the back off my vintage mcintosh amp with them.

[@potsy9973]

I have the same one in my #2 system, its silky smooth detail with great bass articulation and slam. Big fan of PS Audio but more so their Class A/B circuity.

[@audionautica6843]

Awesome - glad to hear from someone with a similar experience. There really doesn't seem to be much on the net about these DACs.

[@shaneonpole]

What is your main music input source?... MP3s, HD FLAC or DSD files or Streaming via streaming service such as Spotify? The weakest point of most system is not the DAC but is the quality of the actual input source or file quality of your music (bit rate, bit depth, Kb/s, lossy or lossless.

[@audionautica6843]

Tidal! Check out my other video on my streamer. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pavaqZaBlL9ghas

[@shaneonpole]

@@audionautica6843 Yes, I watched this video about your Streamer. In my opinion, your Hi-Fi set-up is a bit overly-complicated and hence your audio signal could be improved by some simplification. The more cables, connectors, software and boxes of kit you have, the more artificial and unwanted signal-noise is introduced or the more signal-degradation or colouration-artifacts you get. It's only fair that I share with you my Hi-Fi Setup: Music Input Source is mostly 192Khz/24Bit FLAC lossess files physically stored on SanDisk MicroSD (x2 500GB cards). Where possible, I make sure I have the Remastered (i.e. latest versions) of music albums also as they are sonically superior to the original releases and have greater dynamic range and less noise. A good example is Pink Floyds' 50th Anniversary Remaster of Dark Side of the Moon. I have Remasters of most of the best-selling Albums such as Michael Jackson's "Thriller"...all in High Res 192Khz/24Bit or in DSD format (PirateBay is your friend here). My MicroSD (x2 500GB) cards live in my Fiio X5 (2nd Gen) Portable Digital Audio Player. The Fiio gets connected via a Coax-out to a dedicated external DAC (JDS Labs) and hence the internal DAC-chips of the Fiio are bypassed so that the JDS Labs DAC chips do the audio signal processing...this LDS Labs DAC costs less than $300 AUD. The JDS Labs DAC is connected to my NAD 1020 Pre-Amp (which is hooked up with my NAD 2150 Power Amp). Speakers are vintage B&W DM2A Transmission Line. To summarise my simple system: High-Res FLAC files on x2 500GB MicroSD located in a Fiio X5 DAP >> NAD Amp >> B&W Speakers. One minor and very easy hack I did was to remove the old standard plastic red & black speaker terminals on the back of the NAD Amp and connect the 12 gauge (12 AWG) pure-copper strand speaker wire directly into the Amp with a good 1cm of exposed speaker wire on the main contact plate inside the Amp and shielded it - this made a big and noticeable improvement in sound...bigger, meaty and deeper bass - just a bigger sound overall with no ill-effects. The logic of this hack is that by removing cheaply-made Speaker terminals in the NAD Amp and also removing connector plugs such as Bannana plugs from the speaker wire, this will only benefit the audio-signal as the audio-signal has less obstacles to go through when travelling to the speakers and hence the signal-path is easier for the audio-signal to travel through - less obstacles in a Hi-Fi setup equals less noise and less signal-degradation. I still have pure-copper banana plugs at the other end of the speaker wire going into the back of the B&W speakers (the B&Ws have their original banana plug terminals) however I will look at hacking them in future also to remove the need for banana plugs and wire them directly into the speakers cross-over...one less obstacle for the audio signal to jump through...hence, better sound output. I don't use streaming services as I've done plenty of A/B testing of them compared to my playing of physical FLAC files on a MicroSD card through my Fiio X5, and playing them locally on my set-up always sounds better to my ears when comparing to streaming services over WiFi & Laptop. The most important thing in any Hi-Fi set up is to have the best quality input source to begin with. There's no point getting 'Class A' amps and expensive DACs and Raspberry Pi's & Linux set-ups if all you're playing is iTunes, Vinyl, CDs, BlueTooth, WiFi streaming or Compressed MP3's or Compressed streaming files from Spotify/Tidal etc. Also, the more cables, connectors and 'magic black boxes' you have, the more "work" the audio-signal has to do and hence it gets degraded or corrupted with noise and colouration-artifacts. Other simple but effective improvements come from how your music speakers are placed in the room. Do they have sound-deadening platforms to prevent unwanted vibrations? Is the room-size correct?...does it have enough soft-furnishings to prevent 'hard/ bright sounds' bouncing around everywhere? Is the elevation of the speakers correct on dedicated stands? I enjoy your videos and hence thank you for making them and posting them. I'd encourage you to try as a simple experiment to borrow a dedicated portable DAP (such as a Fiio or equivalent), hook it up directly to your PS Audio DAC and play some locally-stored physical FLAC files (192Khz/24Bit) from a MicroSd card in the DAP and ignore all your Raspberry Pi-Macbook stuff. I can provide the High-Res FLAC files free of charge if you have an email address 🙂

[@iansyme3535]

I too use Tidal on a very high end Linn streamer and the biggest problem is that not all tracks are properly transposed from vinyl to digital. I can think of the same track on two different albums (one a compilation) and one is musically much superior to the other. Unfortunately, older tracks from years back generally do not do well. Newer stuff is O.K. No digital format can compare to a high end record deck setup in terms of musical quality. When I say high end I am speaking of £30,000 and upward. This has been demonstrated to me numerous times by my dealer. You just have to realise that you are sacrificing the ultimate in sound quality for convenience. Without doubt you should spend the most on the system on the front end, followed by amplifier then speakers. The amp can only deal with what it is sent, and speakers reproduce what the amp sends it. You have followed this mantra and can hear the difference. I warrant that you would not have had such results changing amplifiers or speakers! Just my tuppenceworth!

[@audionautica6843]

@Shaneonpole. Thanks for your detailed comment, and I there is a lot of truth in what you are saying. The problem is that in the world of pursuit for better audio, it is too easy to devolve into a self-enclosed world of self doubt and chasing your tail. That's why I began my video in terms of the weakest link of my system. I do not have a Macbook connected to my system anymore. That's why I got the streamer, and I did a tremendous amount of research into options for that streamer before I bit the bullet and got it. The single biggest difference I have *EVER* noticed in my system was throwing away my iTunes library (which took me 20 years to build) and going Lossless. And my Lossless source is Tidal. I also dug out my CDs which I hadn't touched since ripping them into iTunes and started using them again. People seem to forget that CDs are by definition lossless. Albums I really like I have purchased on Vinyl. I like both digital and vinyl - I'm not one of those one or the other guys. I also have my absolute most favourite albums on FLAC on local storage. So my system now is: Streamer -> DAC -> Preamp -> Amp -> Speakers That is not overly complicated, and there aren't any magic boxes. I agree that the weakest link in my system is now the room. There's absolutely nothing I can do about that. Given the weakness of the room, I'm astounded how good things sound. And when I look at the "Viewer System of the Day" over the Audiophiliac, it is clear that most people, like me, just do not have the option of a dedicated room or treatments, they have to work with what they have got. Thanks again for your detailed comment. :-)

[@mikeg2491]

@@iansyme3535I actually went back to buying CDs because I’ve found even the same supposed digital masters on streaming just don’t sound the same fed through the same exact dac, the soundstage isn’t as wide or the bass not as low reaching. I don’t know what the explanation is for what’s lost in translation but it is. I use streaming mostly as a music discovery tool or just playing that one or two singles off an album I’m not interested in purchasing.