Wider soundstage, tighter bass, fuller middle...you name it. All around better resolution...even without using P3A.

My unit has faulty connectors on the back. I don't know if that's representative of the build quality of the unit though.

I've had P1A for about four days now. Sound-wise, it does everything that's been said, so I feel little need to add to it. One feature I've noticed is that (also been said many a times though) my CD now sounds more natural...lost some of harsh digital edge and has become more welll-rounded. Since my DAC is not a 24/96 model (it's a Parasound DA/C 1000...20/48 at best by sepc), I guess I'm not taking full advantage of P1A, but it still sounds very good. Compared to my Monarchy DIP 24/96, P1A acting as a jitter remover does a better job than DIP, but only slightly better. I guess Monarchy DIP is another outdtanding product (and a pretty good bargain at $199).
My problem with P1A, however, is that my unit is of questionable build quality and came with faulty connectors. They are quite loose and won't make good connection, and especially the power cord falls off/disconnects at the slightest jolt. Coax output also won't support my heavier cables. I called both the vendor and Perpetual Technologies, and they would both take it back but I'd have to pay the shipping in either case. I'm not sure whether I should send it to PT for warranty repair or send it back to the vendor for a refund. It kinda puts me off from buying another P1A or P3A. I've read reviews speaking of both bad build quality and excellent quality control, so my unit could be an isolated case. Or could be from an earlier run which didn't have gooe enough QC. The tech support at PT was very kind and helpful though. Maybe I should wait little more and see how it all turn out...put my money into some tube gear perhaps.

Similar Products Used:

Monarchy Audio DIP 24/96

Does it all. Huge soundstage with excellent imaging and depth. Great detail, and a midrange that just blossoms.
Excellent build quality and components used throughout except for one incident with the switch (see below).

After a few months, sound became compressed unless I played around with the switch on the P3A. I went into the unit and sprayed the switch from the inside with some contact cleaner and then blew it out with canned air. Haven't had a problem since then.

It had been a long time since I had introduced anything new into my system that I just "had to have".

I happened to be experimenting with some Maestro and Harmonic Technology speaker cables (nice stuff!)when I decided to slip in my kids fairly new Yamaha CD player for yuks. What gives here? It sounded better than my old Sony ES. Now note, I'm a huge vinyl fan, but could this sound from the yammy represent an advancement in digital sound?
I hooked up the kids Sony Discman and it sounded better too! The kids laughed at me!

Packed up the cables and off to my one and only audio guru with my dilemma.

He sent me back with a Rega Planet and the P3A. The combination blew me away! Better yet, I was able to just use my old ES as a transport, using the optical hookup to the P3A, and the sound was just slightly inferior in the midrange to the Rega combination. (By the way, the Rega on its own came in 3rd.)

Took the Rega back for now. The little P3A has found a solid home in my system. I find myself running out and buying digitally remastered CDs of some of my favorite vinyl recordings and I am a happy man.

Balance of system: I use Quad, Counterpoint, Robertson, Sota, Alphason, Sumiko, Cardas, Monster/Straightwire Cable (and Zildjian Cymbals!)

Similar Products Used:

Meridian

-Significant upgrade compared to the effects of the DTI Pro 32
-Also works with DACs other than Perpetual Technologies'
-Flexibility

-Doesn't come standard with improved power supply
-Best performance obtained using I2S input, of which there's short supply

I won't waste your time re-iterating previous comments regarding improvement in transparency, smoothness, etc. They're all true. I've achieved an even higher level of performance by feeding the P-1A with the I2S output from Camelot's Dragon 5.1 jitter reducer. You can imagine how a de-jittered I2S datastream serving as the P-1A's input just makes its job a lot easier.
I'm feeding the P-1A's output to a Byrdland Odeon-lite DAC, which allows me to bypass a pre-amp (Odeon-lite has a variable output that can be fed directly to my pair of vertically bi-amped McCormack DNA-.5s), as well as accept the P-1A's 24/96 upsampled and resolution enhanced signal. Transparency city.
This combination makes CD spinning more like listening to a performance, rather than just listening to music (given the quality of the recording, of course). The clarity of Tom Wait's Mule Variations becomes scarier- his vocalizations on "What's He Building in There?" are even breathier and more in your ear. Bass now goes subterranean when needed, but you can hear even more of the skin of the bass drum as it's whacked- depth AND clarity. Heck, I DID just waste your time re-iterating its improvements in clarity, etc. One thousand apologies.
I've been tweaking with the DTI-Pros for quite awhile (wrote one of the first reviews about it on this website), and can honestly say that this is a whole new level of performance.

System (in order of connections):
pair of Cinepro PowerPro 10s (providing balanced AC power to
all components)
Sony carousel CD player (hate to give up the convenience of its Favorite Track Selection feature)
Kimber Toslink
Monarchy DIP 24/96
short home-brew cable
Camelot Dragon 5.1
Mystic Reference I2S cable
P-1A
short home-brew AES/EBU cable
Byrdland Odeon-lite DAC
Kimber PBJ
pair of ACI Titan IIs (one for each channel)
high-pass out from each Titan feeding vertically bi-amped
McCormack DNA-.5
short home brew speaker cable
one channel feeding tweeter, other channel feeding midrange-
woofer of B&W Nautilus 805

My two scores of "4" reflect the fact that I'm not getting this level of performance from the P-1A alone. Overall front-end performance probably ranks a "5", with the P-1A being a major contributor to that score. I've yet to try the power supply upgrade for the P-1A...

Similar Products Used:

DTI Pro 32

Detailed natural sound, and will make older CDs sound great.

Un-modified, a little on the bright side.

I have owned the P1/P3 with the optional power supply for 7 months, and I have been very pleased with the improvements this DAC has made to all type of music. I listen to Jazz and Classical music, and I have been particularly impressed with how it can make older Jazz recording sound great.

Recently I had the P3 modified by Dan Wright (www.modwright.com), and this upgrade makes a substantial difference.

The high frequencies are smoother, and sibilance is greatly reduced. The already incredible detail offered by the p1/p3 is also improved. Musicality, and the 'you are there' effect is enhanced as well.

4 stars without the mod, 5+ stars with it!

Similar Products Used:

MSB, Musical Fidelity, Bel Canto

silky and high resolution sound

No balanced output

Owner of excelent products, like Classe DAC-1, Meridian 518, and believing that the most important thing in the audio chain is the source, I highly recommend this jewel of the digital world.
Using with his brother, the digital to analogue converter, P-3, with the Audio Magic I2S cable, go equal or better than Wadias, Levinson,and all the very expensive without a reason stuff.
Using with my Sony SCD-777ES as a trasport, is a winner combination.
Even the poors guys who think that: "always more expensive is better" will be amazed.
Asociated Equipment:
Aerial 10T speakers
VTL MB-250 Signature Monoblocks
Adcon GFP-750 Pre-amplifier
Sony SACD, SCD-777ES
Panasonic DAT Sv-3900
Harmonic Technologies and XLO cables

Similar Products Used:

Meridian 518

Noise reduction.
Dynamic expansion

Artificial process

Careful listening tests and comparisons of P1 processed
music, vs the original demonstrated to me that the P1 is not desireable.

The problem with the P1 is that it trys to apply the same signal processing rules to all music. This is bad, especially on rock and roll.

While the P1 seems to try to emphasize mid-range dynamics, the low bass is suppressed and noise (even if intentional)
is suppressed. So, for example, grunge music is less
grungy.

In classical cello music, the detail in strings in emphasized, but the sound of the body of the instrument is reduced.

As explained in Jeff C's posting, tests were conducted
on a very high resolution system.

granted the P1 was not tested with the P3, but another
high (higher) quality DAC.

Similar Products Used:

DBX, various dolby NR systems

Turns 16 bit 44.1 kHz CDs into 24 bit 96KHz CDs and makes them sound like LPs.

Some of the connectors could be heavier duty.

I don't understand the two reviews which panned these amazing devices. I bought the P3A DAC first, liked it so much that I bought the P1A Correction Engine (an amazing device that can also be programed for speaker correction and room correction). The combination with the Monolithic Power Supply works magic transforming CDs into super CDs that sound like LPs. All the advantages of CDs and LPs with none of the disadvantages of either! I have enjoyed these so much I even sprung for another $400 to have Dan Wright upgrade my P3A (plus $35 to add a top quality coax input to the P1A since the stock one was loose and sometimes "cut-out". This modification perfected the high end which my Klipschorns are very sensitive to. I beleive that devices such as these represent the wave of the future.

My original review or the Perpetual Combo was dated 03/2001. This review is to add some information regarding power supply to the P-1a and P-3A combo.

I have to agree with Bison Osugi review: "I tried out the Bel Canto from dealer loan, which was were good. Then my friend and I compared it to his PT set-up with the Monolithic P3 power supply (don't even bother with the crappy wallwarts that comes with the PTs as they sound awful) and the Audio Magic Mystic Reference I2S cable. Wow! What a difference. The bass is there with more authority and so are the highs. This is music!"

My experience after adding the Monolithic P3 Power supply is to have a much better sound in general, but after adding a voltage regulator/conditioner, to supply high quality current to the monolithic, the Perpetual combo and power amplifiers, the sound is in one word "astonishing".

I would advice anyone to add a voltage regulator/conditioner to their hi-fi equipment, for the price it could be anyone´s "best but" in terms of their system sound quality.





I got the best price from Bill at Crane Home Theater.

Review is for P-1Aa, P-3A with Monolithic P3 power supply and Audio Magic I2S cable. Great detail.

None.

I tried out the Bel Canto from dealer loan, which was were good. Then my friend and I compared it to his PT set-up with the Monolithic P3 power supply (don't even bother with the crappy wallwarts that comes with the PTs as they sound awful) and the Audio Magic Mystic Reference I2S cable. Wow! What a difference. The bass is there with more authority and so are the highs. This is music!

I got the best price from Bill at Crane Home Theater.

Similar Products Used:

Bel Canto

Compact, performs as promised..

See Below

I bought their P-1A Digital Correction Engine along with their room and speaker correction software for my B&W N802's..


The piece is quite compact - only about 2" x 6" x 9" so fits in easily with the other gear. It's very simple to install and easy to navigate through the options.

I have 2 criticisms:

1- It will not accept the DD or DTS signals and pass them through. Not that big of a deal, but since I'm using my Pioneer DV-38A for CD's also, it means I had to install a 2nd digital cable from the player to the processor and then set up a new input.


I spoke with Steve at AVI and he said the pass through will be added to the next model. Steve also mentioned the P-1A the requires a 200 hour burn in.

2- When I power off my system, the P-1A is supposed to retain my preferences - it keeps em all except for my speaker correction preference and always defaults to option #1 instead.

[b]The P-1A by itself without Speaker Correction[/b]

I did lots of comparisons between 16/44 and 24/96 in 2 channel mode. I really didn't bother with any intermediate steps such as 20 bit or 48 Khz permutations as I don't see the point. I imagine there may be a reason to offer the various bit and sampling combinations but I have no idea why.

I chose a wide range of CD's that I listen too - some older
dull sounding AAD cd's to excellent sounding DDD recordings.

Most of my music taste ranges from pop to rock with some hard rock - no jazz or classical.

There were a very few instances where I thought the 24/96 actually sounded harsher. For the vast majority though, the improvements in detail, clarity, tighter bass and overall sound fidelity was clearly audible. I also did similar comparisons using Logic 7 music mode and the sonic benefits certainly carry over to multichannel.

In short, I am very pleased with the piece…

I would love to compare the P-1A against a high end CD transport - My guess here is that the P-1A would offer more noticeable improvements.

[b]The P-1A With Both Speaker & Room Correction[/b]

My current room is 10'W x 16'L x 8' H. As a new room is in the planning stages, I have only bothered with modest treatments consisting of a few sound panels with nothing to deal will bass issues. I would characterize the room as being moderately hard and bright.

The P-1A comes with following choices:

Perpetual Technologies SOCS 9 Curve Descriptions:

# 1 full correction to flat frequency and phase

# 2 movie mode (smoothed amplitude with low delay phase) #1 w/o phase correction

# 3 phase correction only #1 w/o amplitude correction

# 4 full correction + bass boost

# 5 low level (add loudness curve) #4 + #7

# 6 bright room (reduced highs) #1 - highs (-3dB @ 20K)

# 7 dull room (increased highs) #1 + highs (+3dB @ 20K)

# 8 bass only correction (up to approx. 200Hz) #1 to 200Hz

# 9 Bypassed

My initial expectation was that I would want and prefer #1…with #6 as the 2nd choice.

I spent a long time comparing the various settings in 2 channel only. All music in 24/96.

I didn't like the sound from #1 at all especially the top end..Ozzy Osbourne would have fatigued my ears in no time flat..

#2 was slightly better for the fatigue factor but I didn't like the sound.Like #1. it's way too bright and harsh..

#6 seemed to chop off the highs too much and dull even mid range vocals..

#7 had the opposite effect..

I don't know what #8 is trying to do but it killed all the punchiness from the bass…

#4 takes away some of the tightness of the bass..

For me, the clear winner was #3… I then compared #3 against the Bypass mode and found the sound to be overall smoother and warmer and the bass more consistantly appealing.


I'll go through this process again when the new HT is done..without proper room treatments I'd say the SOCS option was worth the $700, but this may not be the case with a properly treated room.