P1A - First Impressions - Ed F

Digital Drive

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

P1A - First Impressions

24.191.25.194

After owning a P3A for six months I just purchased a P1A and installed it this past Friday evening.
I had a lot of anxiety about the setup process from previous reviews and posts, so in preparation for it's arrival, I downloaded the owners manual and printed off PT's Director, Technical Services "Recommedned configurations for P-1A and P-3A equipped systems" from the January 11th post. After reviewing the options, I selected Setup option two: (I2S interconnection between the P1A and 3A with Coaxial input to P1A)as my first choice. I then reviewed and rereviewed pages 5 and 6 of the P1A owner's manual: P1A Mode Selection Routines, until I had the selection sequence figured out. I read about the P3A I2S direct mode procedure from the P3 manual.
Within 15 minutes of unpacking the P1A I had it fully connected and set-up without a hitch on the first try! Making it through the setup process, I now could relax and listen to the P1A's 24 word bit interpolation effect.
With the P1A still less than a half hour out of the box and cold and my favorite Dianna Krall "Love Scenes" CD loaded, I could begin to hear immediately all the positive accolades from previous professional and consumer reviews. I knew this was one of those very special and worthwhile upgrades. Yes, everything was more fleshed out and there was a definite added sense of realism. I swithched to other CDs in my jazz collection and with each I experienced added levels of refinement. Cymbals sounded more metallic. Instruments sounded more dimensional. I could now hear front to back differences in positions of cymbals across the drum kit rather than just flat across the front plane of the drum kit. Piano sounds more natural. Tone and timbre were that much more accurate. Mind you, this is with no burn-in at all. I can only wonder what the effect will be after 100 hours of burn-in.
Another benefit I found, probably due to jitter reduction, is that I didn't experience any more clips (slight interruptions in sound) that popped up sporadically before.
My System:
Adcom GCD700 CD Changer (as transport only)
HT Platinum digital cable
P1A, I2S supplied,
P3A (with Dan Wright Mods)
HT Truthlink interconnect
Sim Audio Moon I5 Integrated Amp with Perfect Cable Power Cord
Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cables
Martin Logan Aerius i speakers
Quantum Symphony Line conditioner

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Topic - P1A - First Impressions - Ed F 10:53:51 03/11/01 (7)

Re: P1A - First Impressions - chipn 23:56:14 03/11/01 (5)

Re: P1A - First Impressions - dkerr 22:23:12 03/12/01 (3)

Re: P1A - First Impressions - chipn 22:50:57 03/12/01 (2)

Re: P1A - First Impressions - DSK 21:55:00 03/13/01 (1)

Re: P1A - First Impressions - chipn 22:42:43 03/13/01 (0)

Re: P1A - First Impressions - TGT 09:32:49 03/12/01 (0)

Re: P1A - First Impressions - TGT 19:47:35 03/11/01 (0)

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