PS Audio 2011 Product Sales Training, The 20 Minute Trainer Series PerfectWave DAC & PerfectWave Bridge Reference High Resolution DAC & Music Server 20 Minute Trainer This training module is intended for sales training on high performance digital music, with both existing digital components, and streaming digital files. This includes a general category overview, market overview, and key selling and application points to understand. Actual installation and set up please refer to the owners manuals that come with each of the units. Let’s understand exactly what we have in the PerfectWave DAC and PerfectWave Bridge! Audiophile grade D/A Converter with multiple inputs 1. The PerfectWave DAC is a state of the art digital to analog converter. Dealers are comparing it to DAC/s that cost 10X the price, this is clear, and more times than not saying the PS Audio PWD is the finest sounding digital device they have ever heard. Any component you connect the digital out to the PS Audio DAC will immediately enjoy a big step up in musicality, naturalness, and detail. 2. PS Audio’s unique “Native” listening mode delivers the most natural, spacious, and detailed sound possible. Upsampling lower sampling rates is a technology that most CD players and DAC’s employ as one of their “best” selling features. Truth of the matter is upsampling processing has some positives, but also has negatives to it as well. Anytime a signal, be it analog or digital goes thru a myriad of processing, there are facets of the original sound, that just don’t sound original anymore. The PS Audio PerfectWave DAC has the unique capability to decode any resolution from 192khz/24bit and down, to it’s full integrity with no processing needed. The “Native” mode bypasses the upsampling processor completely, and the resulting sound sets new levels of quality. “Native” mode converts bit for bit information coming into the DAC to it’s fullest, most accurate and natural reproduction possible. 3. The PWD has inputs for digital coaxial, digital optical, and digital AES. And unique to PS Audio are i2s inputs that allow the input of the native data stream of the raw data off a CD, when connected to our PerfectWave Transport with our proprietary i2s outputs. World Class Preamplifier 1. For the most discriminating music systems, the PWD can be connected directly to your power amp using the RCA analog outputs, or the Differential Balanced Outputs. By utilizing the finest audiophile grade components in the analog section the PWD doubles as a world class preamp. Less is clearly more in this case. Volume is controlled via the IR remote, the front panel touch screen, or with the PerfectWave Bridge and PS Audio tagNplay software on your iPhone, iTouch, or iPad. High Resolution Network Streaming, aka, music server 1. Ok, meet the Jetsons. With the PerfectWave Bridge installed the PWD becomes a world class music server streaming locally or from the internet. This is where we really separate the men from the boys. Whether streaming high resolution files or internet radio, there is no equal to this system in performance, ease of use, and dependability each and every time you ask for music. We will go into deep detail about this on the next page as we break down the challenges, the rewards, and the benefit of streaming digital data. It’s not just about convenience, now with the PS Audio PerfectWave system it’s about new levels of performance. The search for the Holy Grail, streaming audio that sounds fantastic and is fun to use! Okay, we need to understand some realities of the world we live in today. Why do dealers all want to sell streaming audio devices and the majority of customers are unhappy with their purchases. There are 3 major area’s we need to understand what has gone on, to enable us to move forward and into the future of providing technology, performance, and true ease of use for the end users. Ease of use has been far and away the #1 major obstacle the industry has thrown in our path. Virtually all streaming devices over the last 6 years have followed a very “windows” like operating system for selecting music. This is not a windows versus mac thing, this is just the reality. With these type of interfaces the more music added to a system the harder it becomes to find the music you are looking for. But this is the interface that 99% of the devices available employ. It is very tedious and laborious searching for songs and albums. Consequently, the great majority of customers don’t search for music. This has led us into a world of 1 button streaming and never selecting actual music as it naturally flows into our brains full of memories and experiences. Playlists, Pandora, Rhapsody and services like this have become the norm for end users, it’s for the most part what is now considered “streaming music”. What people want is streaming services, but also devices that they can easily, socially, and have a fun experience picking music too. Over the last several years, 2 brands have emerged with interfaces that people have embraced and enjoyed using daily to pick music, those brands are Sonos and Sooloos. Their unique take on their interfaces have resonated with customers around the world, finally, devices that people love playing with, love picking music, and love sharing with their friends. This was not lost on us at PS Audio and we embarked on creating “tagNplay” following in a similar social, non “windows” interface that invites more interaction and rewards users with an incredibly fun experience, enriching not frustrating, and one they love sharing with friends and family. So the good news for everyone, is now there are 3 manufacturers delivering streaming audio in a form and fashion that people love to use. Just the beginning of turning the world around back to playing music they want, where they want, and when they want. There are a couple of major fundamental differences between Sonos, Sooloos, and PS Audio, let’s take a look at them one point at a time. Performance, Resolution, and the Joy of it All Ok, we have established the leaders of ease and fun of use in the streaming audio category, Sonos, Sooloos, and PS Audio. Let’s take a look at the performance levels of these 3 separate platforms. 1. Sonos (medium sound quality) From a performance level, the Sonos product is pretty much mid-fi. No one raves about sound quality with a Sonos. And it’s very common for dealers to add an outboard DAC to a Sonos to improve sound quality. We have sold many DLIII DAC’s that ended up on the back end of Sonos products to improve the sound quality. Sonos clearly showed that given ease of use versus sound quality, ease of use is always the most important factor. A device people can use and enjoy sharing with others. Great product for what it is intended to be. $500 boxes that are fun to use, work, and sound average at best. 2. Sooloos (medium to excellent sound quality) Sooloos is a bit of a mixed bag. As a stand alone system it sounds pretty good, not spectacular. To get into the upper echelon of performance Meridian states you need to hook it up to their 808.3 CD player which retails for $20,000 making the combined system range from $25,000 and up. 3. PS Audio PerfectWave DAC & PerfectWave Bridge (High resolution sound quality) Clearly the most revolutionary high performance music streaming on the market today. Bit for bit accurate, jitter free, and all resolutions played in their full glory from 192khz/24bit and down. At $3,800 the PerfectWave system outperforms any streaming devices on the market and only faces sonic competition from Sooloos at 6X the price, and some of the most expensive Linn streaming systems at a much higher cost and without the social, fun, cool interface to operate. At the heart of this system is the proprietary PS Audio “digital lens” technology. All references to timing, such a master clocks, bit clocks, word clocks, etc. are discarded. The digital audio data is then stored in a large intelligent buffer and asynchronously re-clocked with our jitter free fixed master clocking technology. From 192kHz/24bit high-resolution files off your computer, all your digital music files stored on your network, to Internet radio, PS Audio delivers the highest performance audio quality possible for all your streaming digital media. You must play well with others! Streaming audio devices by and large began by using proprietary playgrounds. Manufacturers typically locked in their own hard drive systems to ensure products worked. And most manufacturers also designed their network interface to operate in a closed eco-system to isolate the components from influences of other devices on the home network. 2 major disadvantages arose from this type of design once streaming components actually got installed in systems in the home. 1. Hard drive expansion was very expensive and often created a rift between the dealer and the end user over the cost of brand X hard drives, versus market price of generic hard drives which continues to fall daily. So the end result was as a customers library grew, adding hard drives became inordinately expensive and often hard to install or add on to the existing system. 2. Playing well with other devices also became a big problem. As the customer began to add other devices for streaming audio to the system, accessing the music and control became a real issue.