PS AUDIO DirectStream DAC

I like their DLIII, it's musical. Not buying into any of the hype of newer is better....

 

We took a look at the no oversampling/SRC claims of a number of converters in this thread: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/dacs-without-sample-rate-conversion.279130/

 

I feel a bit like the chimp looking at the obelisk at the beginning of 2001 A Space Odyssey while watching this, but here goes...

 

^Lovely shirt there.

BTW, the (whole-world's-against-Ted_Smith's- decoding) diagram that Mr Smith describes in one of his videos can be seen in more detail here:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/nagra7/3.html

 

Well, I came away from the taxman a bit more flush than I anticipated. I shouldn't have, but I decided to buy the upgrade kit for one of my two PS Audio PerfectWave DAC Mk IIs. I'm going to have the factory install it. Not scheduled yet, but I can be patient as I'm thoroughly enjoying the sound I have now. Still, I think this will be the upgrade for me for the rest of the decade, seems like a great product.

 

I hope it's great - it's very elegant

 

I've been so happy with every PS Audio product that I've gotten, and the PWD Mk II most of all of them, I really have no doubt this will be an awesome unit.

 

I also found the PWDII upgrade to be an obvious step forward after fitting it (though the process and instructions for doing so put me off ever doing another PS Audio upgrade myself!). I really look forward to hearing what others hear when they try this new DAC. Am fairly sure that if I wait, the price will be more attractive (like most things PS Audio, there seems to be a lot of elasticity in pricing as time goes on and some dealer will eventually have a special running).

 

Would be interesting to here FPGA-based Chord Hugo (at $2500) compared to this...

 

I met Paul McGowan and attended the PS Audio DSD DAC discussion/demonstration at the San Diego Audio Guild meeting at Stereo Unlimited last night. Paul is very down to earth and also pretty funny. His talk was interesting and there were some math/engineering guys posing some tough questions in which he did some fairly good explaining ... although I feel like some were there to just give him a hard time and seemed that they were not too keen with Paul's new found interest in USB cables making a difference (or his power cable/regeneration philosophy either), but he kept his wits about.

Stereo Unlimited is a sort of no-nonsense store, with a cool sales staff, that sells audio gear at all price points. It also has a great little vinly section in the back of the store and is one of the only places I know that you can buy a record and (if they aren't too busy) they will play it for you on one of their $100,000 rigs which is always fun!

We had a beer while Paul talked about the new DAC and did Q&A for about an hour, then moved next door to a well treated and dedicated audio room for a listen. I'm glad it took place there as I am familiar with the room and all the high end pieces in there as I visit them often.

So we heard the PS Audio DSD DAC with a Mac Mini server (he has been talking about the Mac lately in a few of his posts) on behemoth Rogue Audio 250 watt Apollo Mono Block amps, behemoth Vandersteen Model 5a Carbon speakers and an Electrocompaniet EC 4.8 preamp (I think that was the preamp model but not absolutely sure).

and on a little twist of irony ...

the Stereo Unlimited guys are Shunyata fans so all power and cabling was top of the line Shunyata Hydra Triton/Typhon, fire hose sized ΞTRON Anaconda Power, Interconnects and I think possibly even speaker cables (but again not 100% sure of the speaker cables).

I only got to spend 30 minutes or so listening because there were so many people there, but here's my impression for what it's worth ...

First of all we were packed in there like sardines, but me and my girl are fairly short people and were capable of squeezing pretty much into the sweet spot ...

Of course they were playing audiophile music ... female vocals such as Allison Krauss & Union Station, Patricia Barber (her version of The Doors' Light My Fire), etc. which although I liked some of it, it wasn't my usual fare of Porcupine Tree and we spent about 30 minutes or so listening and asking a few more questions along the way.

Ok, I'm coming from the viewpoint of using a Rega DAC which makes stuff sound warm and cuddly, it's a decent enough DAC, but there are much better out there. I'm not really good at describing audiophile terms, etc., but there are a few things that stood out to me.

The first thing I noticed was that it sounded very dynamic and lively, but in a polite way ~ not in your face annoying. I felt there were details that this thing was flushing out that my Rega DAC just couldn't even begin to cope with. There was just a little hint of fatiquing on the upper ends of some of the stuff he played which may be contributed to the actual recording (or not .. I can't say for sure as there wasn't enough time to really investigate).

Cymbals sounded very realistic which was one of my favorite aspects of this thing, as mentioned the Rega DAC seems to make everything warm at the expense of rolling off the upper ends and the DSD DAC is almost the opposite in that regard. I remember hearing Nat King Cole and in the beginning of the song the cymbal sounded spooky real and even though I'm not a musician I felt like I knew which cymbal was being tapped.

When listening to Patricia Barber's version of Light My Fire, the guy next to us mentioned that he was very familiar with this song and there were shades of tones being expressed that he had never heard before (whatever that means I'm not sure, but I wish I had some of what he was smoking ... JK ).

So over all it sounded pretty good like a $6000 DAC should be expected to.

There was something that stood out to both me and my girl during this demonstration and that is ... even though this DAC is supposed to convert everything to DSD ~ Hi-Res Native DSD files still sounded much better in comparsion to standard Redbook and I guess I was somewhat let down by this ~ don't get me wrong as it still sounded great (for Redbook that is), but I think my expectations were set too high. Paul had copies of files in both Redbook and DSD and we were able to A/B compare them. Even Paul had to admit that the Redbook sounded flatter in comparison to the DSD files of the same songs.

To me this brings a little controversy into the mix as it was my impression that the DSD DAC is supposed to make Redbook sound like DSD, but to me and my girl's ears they still did not compare to DSD native files. I realize that it could be the recordings themselves and the fact that these are low res files to begin with that are upsampled to DSD, but in our experience we heard the differences and the DSD files were clearly better and by a fair margin.

But all you guys out there contemplating DSD ... this particular DAC was playing these files better than any other DAC I've heard ... not that I've heard a lot, but if you're on the fence ... listening to DSD files on this DAC will change your mind. Redbook was also good, but IMO not up to snuff in comparison to native DSD.

There are a lot of ways to skin a cat and I believe that with JRiver's capabilities of on the fly conversion of PCM to DSD and a DAC capable of playing Native DSD X2 files can get you into the realm of what the PS Audio DSD DAC can do for a whole lot less. However this is a no brainer and clearly better than what my Rega can do and if I had the coin this would be one of my top picks.

 

Hans, to their credit your assumption that the DAC would make Redbook sound like DSD is not anywhere that I remember reading in their literature. They say you'll hear all that is on your discs (okay, that's a rather bold, wide statement) but not anywhere that I read do they make a claim that Redbook would sound like DSD files.

Thanks for the report! An interesting event!

 

Yes, thanks @beowulf for that report. I agree that PS Audio is not claiming the Directstream will make Redbook sound like DSD. And the fact that you could easily hear the difference means the DAC is working correctly.

I'm looking forward to auditioning a Directstream. For me, the potential value is what it does for Redbook. No doubt there is some light between PS Audio's marketing claims:

...and reality.

And again, I think their core pitch is what the unit does for Redbook. DSD just comes along for the ride.

Thanks again!

 

@gloomrider

I agree guys and I went in there with unrealistic expectations on what it probably not even possible. I'm not a Redbook guy either as I own less that 50 CDs and they are ripped to my NAS and use JRiver for playback (most of them I don't even listen to as it is as I'm more of a vinyl and hi-res only guy). JRiver can also upsample to DSDx2 through a different method, but since most of my files are hi-res 24 bit anyways I don't have a lot of experience to offer to those with a big Redbook catalog.

At any rate, it didn't change my opinion that this is one of the best DAC's that I have heard and I only got to listen to it for 30 minutes. And on that note ... with the speed at which music playback/files/tech has progressed in these recent years I think it's pretty cool that PS Audio still takes in interest for those with extensive Redbook catalogs.

Lonson has purchased the upgrade for one of his PWD's and has a pretty big Redbook catalog himself so everybody is looking forward to hearing his observations for sure.

There's only a couple other DACs (that I've personally heard) that I can say for sure are in the realm of the PS Audio DSD DAC and that is the Auralic Vega and Resonessence Labs Invicta. I would be happy to live with any of these three for sure.

 

When it comes to digital audio, Redbook is king by sheer numbers. While hirez DAC performance specs drive the marketing pitch for new product, 44.1kHz performance is still the most important spec IMHO.

You've given the Directstream some pretty high praise. Now I'm even more interested in hearing one. Thanks!

 

Excellent and very detailed report, beowulf. Thank you very much. I don't know why I am so fascinated with the product, probably because I have a lot of respect for Ted Smith and his design is so elegant. I have a thousand or so SACDs so I don't really need a DSD capable DAC. And I'd rather put a CD in the player than play from files. And yet this product is very interesting. I hope to hear it soon.

 

Designing a good sounding sacd player is one thing, making it sound good with RB is another. Frankly, higher sampling rate from an off-the-shelf IC is not enough. It takes more than that. It would be interesting to see how this dac would work with an already upsampled signal by a dCS unit. This workes for me. But, you will not find such a review, not even by Tonepub who owns such upsampler.

 

Thanks to Beowulf for this report. As a fellow Rega DAC owner, it was interesting to hear your impressions.

Paul's daily blog posts are pretty interesting and worth subscribing to.

 

For those folks here who we're asking for some comparison of the Chord Hugo. I'm pasting this thread response from over at Head-Fi.


{ { My Hugo arrived yesterday, and I can only contribute to the multitude of positive reviews before me.
I first heard the Hugo at the SoCal meet, and was taken aback at how different and _right_ the Hugo sounded. This was straight TRS out to my LCD-X. My memory of that sound, weeks ago, synced with present day impressions. phew. and yessss.....

I liken Hugo's sound to the strum of a live acoustic guitar. When it's played on a quality instrument, there's an attack, hyper clarity, a richness, an unmistakable distinctive realness to the music. The note lingers in the air for just as long as it needs to, with the reverb you've become accustomed to, and then it's gone.

To extend this metaphor, my previous equipment makes the guitar strum sounds as if it's taking place deeper in the instrument. In comparison to the Hugo, the sound is head-tiltingly, distractingly, off. Slightly more cloudy, the notes aren't as distinct or rich, the reverb sounds weird and then gets long as it trails off.

I'm coming from the Transporter, PS Audio DLIII, and many other mid-fi DACs. I've spent considerably more on headphone amps throughout the past 8 years.

Other details...

The sound from the Hugo straight to the LCD-X is pure pleasure. I recently just heard the Auralic Taurus MkII, Headamp GSX-MkII, and Questyle CMA800R -- all top flight, very powerful, full sounding amps.

I currently have the Questyle here at home, and note how this amp slightly alters the Hugo's sound. It projects more power, yes, but changes Hugo's core liquid sound. I greatly prefer the LCD-X straight from the Hugo.

So, for right now, I'm very happy. I've yet to spend significant time with the HD800, which I've heard is powered very well by the Questyle. But again, I can't have it or any amp tweak Hugo's core sound, so this is an interesting, first time quandary.

Bluetooth to Hugo is currently rubbish using my LG G2, iTouch 7G, iPad 3, and Dell Venue Pro 8. Static, buzzing -- I need to find an AptX source.

Otherwise, my primary usage models are:

- iTouch / iPad camera connector USB to Hugo
- Dell Win8 Tablet JRiver18 OTG to Hugo HD input
- Desktop Toslink JRiver to Hugo

All sound stellar.

Lastly, I own the Centrance M8, and have been very happy with it, playing from iTouch 7G > Lightning USB > M8 > dual 3-pin XLR balanced UERM. Hugo is considerably better, there's just more realism and less congestion / cloud to the music. }}

 

Some initial impressions after listening to the Directstream today...

Regular redbook Cds with average mastering sound much, much better. Everything sounded so much smoother with less digital edge. The music was more engaging and drew you back in when your mind began to wander. While warming up my system earlier in the evening, eating supper in the adjacent room (even though I was focused on reading stuff on the internet), I kept noticing how interesting the music in the other room was sounding... and before too long, my head was bobbin' along to beat.

Some highlights from today's listening include the snare sound on Paul Desmond's Music For A Little While. The way the snare sounded at the beginning, and the way it decayed at the end was incredibly realistic. With Devo's Greatest Hits cd, I was really surprised by how cool and different the keyboard's tone was sounding on familiar songs. I repeatedly found my head bobbin' and foot tappin' to the beat. Lastly on the Jerry Garcia Band double cd, during John Kahn's bass solo on Simple Twist of Fate, the drum in the background sounded exactly like it would sound in a small jazz club... with reflections reverberating off the back wall coming back and causing the drum heads to resonate a little bit while they were resting between the beats. Hard to describe, but incredible cool to hear.

Redbook Cds with not so great mastering, unfortunately are not magically transformed into something great. They do sound a bit less harsh however, and possibly even somewhat more tolerable... but like the old saying, 'you can't polish a turd'. I'll have to listen to more of these 'turds' so to speak to get a better idea though, as I wanted to focus only on the good sounding stuff today.

I did listened to a few pristine Hi-Res needle drops I collected over the years, off my Macbook Pro, and everything sounded absolutely STUNNING! Every track was the absolute best I've ever heard those particular tracks sound. I keep thinking back to Mike Myers SNL character (on Coffee Talk)... "Its like butt-arr!!' To balance things out though, I also listened to a few needle drops that were less then pristine, and the problems were all there to be heard, loud and clear. So once again, it's not gonna magically transform bad sounding sources into something great.

Lastly, I should point out... that almost everything I played today, I kept on wanting to turn the volume up higher and higher. Maybe subconsciously I wanted to hear even more of those hidden details, that I never noticed before, more clearly.

 

Nice shirt!
Snake Oil Salesman ship of the first order
All DACs, when implemented correctly, now sound v good
This includes phones and Pads......

 

shucky, thanks for sharing your impressions. Looking forward to mine.

ROLO all DACs may sound "v good"--but I hear plain differences, some sounding much better than others.

 

How so?

 

I believe these were posted in the other thread, but I think they explain in better detail why this DAC sounds so good to the people who have heard it, definitely worth a view if you haven't seen them...