Home
AudioAsylum Trader
Digital Drive: Run, don't walk by JimF

Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

For Sale Ads

FAQ / News / Events

 

Run, don't walk

68.39.224.7


[ Follow Ups ] Thread:  [ Display   All   Email ] [ Digital Drive ]
[ Alert Moderator ] [ Edit ] [ Delete ]

I can't resist stirring the pot just a little more, because
I am absolutely **enjoying the hell** out of my new
Perpetual P-1A (just used as a "resolution enhancer",
not an upsampler or a speaker/room corrector).

This device makes CD playback utterly fatigue-free and
delightful. I've been waiting 20 years for sound like
this from compact disks, and I'm finally getting it.
I no longer have to wonder, looking at shelves and shelves
of CDs, whether I was a total idiot to fall for the
techno-blather of digital and abandon the LP back
in '83. Yeah, I already knew back then that the sound
wasn't all I'd been led to hope for, but surely better
sound from CDs had to be right around the corner -- this
was the **digital age**, right? Right around the corner:
Meridian MCD, MCD-Pro; CAL Tempest and Tempest II;
custom DSP from Theta, Wadia, Krell; bitstream DACs;
20-bit DACs; jitter reduction; 24-bit DACs; upsampling.
A long uphill climb (I've owned some of the devices in this
list).

And something that began in 1994 but somehow passed me
by -- Audio Alchemy's "resolution enhancement" processing
that came out that year in the DTI Pro. I've owned
the DTI and DTI v.2, but not the DTIs with DSP. Later,
I went with the Genesis Digital Lens. So it wasn't until
the end of 2002 that I finally got around to trying out
the Perpetual P-1A, and only because they can be had on
Audiogon for $500 - $600.

Whatever objections the engineering types might have
with Mark Schifter, Peter Madnick, and Keith Allsop's
lack of specificity about how this thing works, sound-wise,
this is the **real deal**. Robert Harley's original
review of the DTI-Pro says it all (_Stereophile_,
Vol. 17 No. 11, November '94, pp. 114 - 115):

"The DTI Pro's effects must be heard to be believed.
The first thing that struck me about it was the huge
amount of space, air, depth, and soundstage layering
it resolved -- the presentation became bigger, deeper,
wider, more focused. The sense of hall reverberation
surrounding instruments was greatly enhanced, and
instruments toward the rear of the soundstage were
enveloped in air, more vivid and alive, and set
further back.

Further enhancing the DTI Pro's spectacular effect on
the sense of air and space was the way it stripped away
an opacity in the soundstage -- the feeling of transparency,
immediacy, and ability to hear deep into the soundstage
was astounding. The DTI Pro's startling, crystal-clear
transparency gave music a greater immediacy and vitality,
yet the presentation was never forward or pushy.
I'm not talking about a marginal increase in these
factors, but a wholesale improvement in the music's
spatial presentation. In fact, the DTI Pro made
the $750 Adcom GDA-600 sound like a $4000 processor.

The next biggest area of improvement was the DTI Pro's
huge increase in resolution of musical detail. Removing
the DTI Pro for a few weeks, then returning it to the
system, revealed just how much more information the
unit allowed the digital processors to resolve. The
music was infused with fine structure and inner
detail, making the presentation without the DTI Pro
seem coarse and blunt. When combined with the
heightened soundstage transparency, the DTI Pro's
increased ability to portray detail was a revelation. . .

I'm always suspicious when I hear more detail; it's
easy to mistake an etched and analytical character
for increased resolution. I have no such reservations
about the DTI Pro; not only was it more resolving
of detail, but the presentation was actually smoother
and more liquid. In particular, the treble was
softer and gentler, with a greater liquidity and
freedom from hash. Similarly, the mids were less hard
and strident, giving the presentation a greater
sense of ease. I also heard more air and bloom around
the treble; cymbals seemed to hang in space, surrounded
by air.

That's not all. The DTI Pro's effect on the bass was
profound. Low frequencies became tauter, quicker,
punchier, more extended, and had better pitch
definition -- the entire bottom end was more dynamic,
alive, and exciting. Bass guitar had greater
dynamics, better-defined pitch, and more of the inner
detail that tells you you're hearing a bass guitar
and not just low-frequency sound. These improvement
greatly added to the music's pace and drive. . .

In short, the DTI Pro was a musical revelation. These
differences were dramatic -- an across-the-board
elevation of the musical presentation, **not** the kind
you hear only after extensive comparisons."

That sums up my reactions to the Perpetual P-1A. Also,
Harley was writing about the DTI Pro at a time when
not too many DACs could take advantage of the extra
four bits provided by the DTI Pro, and even a "20-bit"
DAC might have a digital filter that only accepted
18-bit data, even if it output 20-bit data to the DAC.
These days, DACs with DVD-Audio-spec chips in them,
from 1998's original MSB Link DAC through to the
present, are both common and relatively inexpensive,
so you don't have to worry about choosing a shorter-than-
24-bit output word length to avoid truncation in your
DAC. I've been using the P-1A in a system in which it
drives the Bel Canto DAC-2 (with built-in 24/192 upsampling),
and in another system driving a Camelot Uther V.2 Mk 4
(also 24/192).

Given the low price of the P-1A on Audiogon, I'd say if
you have a 24-bit DAC, then run, don't walk, to the
nearest computer and place your bid! I can't imagine
a more cost-effective system enhancement.

Jim F.

Associated equipment:

System 1: SCD-777ES as transport feeding Genesis Digital Lens
via coax, 16-bit output via balanced to Audio Alchemy DTI v.2,
I2S output to Perpetual P-1A set to 24/44.1, coax to
Bel Canto DAC-2, analog output through Creek OBH-10 volume control
to Bryston 10B-SUB crossover, 90 Hz low-pass to Velodyne HGS-12,
100 Hz 18dB/octave high-pass to AtmaSphere M60 Mk. 2's driving
Quad ESL-63s. All digital components plugged into a
pair of PS Audio P300s (transport, Genesis, DTI, and
Perpetual into one; Quads and Bel Canto into the second).

System 2: SCD-777ES as transport feeding Genesis Digital Lens
via coax, 16-bit output via coax to Audio Alchemy DTI,
I2S output to Perpetual P-1A set to 24/44.1, coax to
Camelot Uther V.2 Mk. 4 (with integral volume control),
analog output to a pair of battery-powered "gainclone"
amps based on National Semiconductor LM-1874 power op amps
driving Infinity Composition Prelude speakers (with
self-powered woofers). All digital components plugged into
a pair of PS Audio P300s (transport, Digital Lens, DTI,
and P-1A into one; Camelot Uther into its own P300).


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Amplified Parts  



Topic - Run, don't walk - JimF 10:16:56 12/29/02 ( 16)