PerfectWave SACD Transport

Unleash all that's been missing in your CD collection and, for the first time, hear what has been locked away on your SACD layer.

“It took my digital front end to a level I did not know it was capable of.”

Locked inside your CD and SACD collection is a wealth of music you’ve not yet heard. How do we know that? Because we, like you, know what to expect from our reference discs. Imagine our surprise and delight as the first notes played on our new, galvanically isolated, PerfectWave SACD Transport. It was love at first listen. The PerfectWave SACD player is an engineering triumph—our finest achievement in musical reproduction and information retrieval from optical media. Breathe new life into your CD collection played through any DAC. Send the raw DSD layer of SACD into your I2S input DAC so you can hear, for the first time, what’s long been unavailable to external DACs in these high-resolution discs.

Winner of the 2021 Golden Ear Award from The Absolute Sound

Design

38 years after the introduction of the CD, PS engineers have continued our quest for perfection in the art of data extraction and delivery so you can finally hear what's been locked away in your CD and SACD collection. The PerfectWave SACD Transport (PST) is our most advanced optical disc transport. New to this model—and for that matter, any disc player ever made—is our galvanically isolated output stage. By coupling the output of the drive mechanism to the PST's internal Digital Lens by nothing more than a pulse of energy across space, any hints of noise or ground contamination are eliminated. The results of this complete isolation are magical: a previously unheard level of image separation, openness, and effortless reproduction. Never have we experienced noise levels this low—a seemingly velvet blackness that must be experienced to understand.

Application

CD, data discs, and SACD reproduction is unequaled by any other player we know of. CDs played through PST come closer than ever to high-resolution PCM and DSD, uncovering new layers of dimensionality, soundstage, depth and musicality previously unobtainable in other optical readers or server based audio systems. Like its predecessor, DMP, PST opens the long restricted DSD layer of SACD to PS Audio DACs. PST will deliver the raw DSD layer of copyright protected SACD directly into your PS Audio DAC through I2S. This means that for the first time you'll uncover the wealth of audio's finest digital medium, DSD, and hear exactly what the mastering engineers who created these discs have enjoyed all along. Hear what you've been missing with the PerfectWave SACD Transport.

Technology

Overview

If you are like most of us, you still have a large library of physical discs. There's something about the tactile feel of opening a jewel case or pulling from a sleeve, the shiny silver disc, and enjoying what's captured on it. Despite today's trend towards streaming, CDs, SACDs, and data discs remain the best sounding media in many a library if a great disc reader is employed. None are finer or better sounding than PS Audio's PerfectWave SACD Transport. PST defines state-of-the-art performance. From the very first notes, you'll understand the sheer magnitude of performance increase brought to the system by PST. The secret to PST's ability to lower noise and jitter while extracting every nuance possible lies in its galvanically isolated output stage which separates both physically and electrically the pure digital audio data from its noisy environment. Hear more than you ever imagined possible on your discs with PST.

Galvanic Isolation

Unlike the relatively quiet environment enjoyed by analog electronics, digital audio equipment is inherently noisy. Digital timing clocks running at high enough speeds to mirror those of radio transmitters is a serious technological challenge when the goal is a quiet, jitter-free digital audio output stream. Engineers have worked for years with shielding and advanced grounding technologies in an effort to keep noise levels at legal levels (let alone quiet levels). The most effective means of removing noise is by physically distancing noisy components from quiet ones and most important, electrical isolation. The standard means by which digital audio subsystems are interconnected is by the use of wires in the signal and power paths. These interconnecting media radiate high frequencies throughout the circuit and make noisy environments worse. PS Audio's solution is to both physically and electrically isolate PST's output stage: no wires, no ground connections, no common power supply interactions. Inside PST there are two completely separated power supplies: one for the noisy electronics, a second for the quiet output stage. Signals are transferred by a form of focused beam short-wavelength radio signals between the two boards. The results are spectacular. With PST playing your discs, musical information once hidden by noise and jitter are free to come to life.

DSD Master Layer

The Sony/Philips introduction of the SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) in 1999 heralded a new format of high-performance audio. Not since the original introduction of the Compact Disc in 1982 had there been a major improvement in the performance of digital audio. With the SACD, digital audio took a major leap forward, surpassing not only the Compact Disc but, to many, the performance of analog. The technology behind the SACD is DSD, a high-sample rate (2.8mHz or 64 times that of a CD) 1-bit recording system that achieves 120dB of signal to noise ratio and dynamic performance without any hint of digital glare. Unfortunately, the DSD layer on SACDs is locked and cannot be extracted from the disc for playback on an external DAC. That was until the introduction of the PS Audio PerfectWave SACD Transport. PST is able, through the use of our I²S output, to directly connect the DSD layer to a PS Audio enabled DAC. The results are breathtaking. Now, for the first time, SACD owners can connect directly to the master quality source locked onto the SACD's master layer. This is a major triumph for music lovers around the world. Hear for the first time what mastering engineers get to enjoy. The pure DSD Master layer.

Features

• SACD/CD/CD-R/CD-RW/DVD-R*/-RW*/+R*/+RW*(*Audio data file only)
• Plays MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV/FLAC/AIFF/DSD/2xDSD/ALAC from discs or USB input
• Memory Player Transport
• Galvanically isolated output stage
• SACD DSD layer available through I2S output
• Advanced Digital Lens Technology
• I2S output for PCM and DSD (raw)
• 2x XLR output for PCM and DoP. Use in tandem for Double-rate DoP
• 2X BNC (coax) output for PCM and DoP. Use in tandem for Double-rate DoP
• USB data input for stored digital media
• 1X RCA (coax) output for PCM and DoP
• Large analog power supply
• Separate power regulators
• FPGA signal processing
• Near-field latch placement
• Zero setup, just plug and play
• Remote control

 Specifications

Reviews

INDUSTRY

The sonic superiority of the PerfectWave was evident within moments of hitting Play and hearing Chet Baker’s floppy vocals from the soundtrack to Let’s Get Lost. All of his spit, wit, and loose-toothed wisdom entered the Barn’s space as if nothing stood in between the recording and me but air.

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Michael Lavorgna-Twittering Machines

The PerfectWave SACD Transport was consistently better than the other transports I threw against it in almost every category. It took my digital front end to a level I did not know it was capable of. Limitations that I previously thought were inherent in the Redbook format were significantly reduced, primarily in the areas of soundstage depth and the resolution of low-level detail. What it does for Redbook CDs may be worth the price of admission in itself. I spent many a ....

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Ken Redmond-The Audio Beatnik

Although audio streaming is good, there is nothing like listening to digital music with the PS Audio PerfectWave SACD Transport in the chain. SACD (DSD) is on another level for digital listening. So I squeezed every ounce of music from Redbook and SACD (DSD) by using the PST connected to the PS Audio DirectStream DAC.

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Moreno Mitchell-Stereo Times