Ps audio direct stream dac is a winner winner chicken dinner :)
 

Lars bought my Elipsa speakers (courtesy introductions through Ivan) speakers today and as part of our deal he brought with him a brand new sealed in the box direct stream dac (black which matches the Mcintosh) ,latest snow mass firmware installed. I’ve read a lot about this dac everyone who hears it has nothing but positive things to say . Let me say I was not expecting such a improvement in detail , sound stage, yet while still maintaining musicality. Sometimes with a lot of detail there is sacrifice in warmth and vice versa but I’m loving what I hear and what I am hearing is bringing nuances I never noticed before , this is a excellent dac. What is also amazing is that the performance of this dac is shocking. Instead of having a fixed dac on a chip , this dac uses fpga -field programable gate array hardware which allows the dac to be customized with software which ps audio does for free atleast once a year. How great is that a dac that stays up on the latest technology! You can install a network card which gives you full MQA , something not available 5 years ago when the dac first was introduced. Snow mass just came out a few months ago. Another cool thing about this dac is it is native DSD , hence the direct stream used in the name. You can read more about it , I highly recommend this DAC. Listening to vocals of Nora Jones, Stevie Nicks for example playing Redbook sounds like a SACD. I am just amazed at the sound stage, I finally get what Dan’s means in his reviews when he say more air between the instruments as I never experienced it in my system. My source took a step backward but I’m not noticing it, it’s a 2012 Mac mini running Roon as a core streaming tidal and playing music from the hd I have to say tidal sounds better. I will report back after I listen to qobuz. I played some Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, just fabulous. Like I said this dac is winner. Thanks Lars!

Oh I also want to mention the build quality of this dac is very solid and above what you would expect. Fit and finish is a 9 out of 10 , deduct 1 for the display which is pretty small but still nice. It even comes with cloth white gloves so you don’t get finger prints on your new toy while you place it in your rack and a sd card to be used to download and install future firmware upgrades

I can’t believe this DAC isn’t more popular on this forum , I’ve been listening for a few hours . This is a night and day upgrade :banana:

Time to upgrade your signature. :)

Congrats and enjoy.

Had it since it was brand new one of the first hand built first run units. I think it’s had well over 10 firmware upgrades and is definitely top drawer. If lived it since the beginning. Give it several hundred hours run in and it gets better and better.
PS Audio in conjunction with T.S. Is working on a two chassis signature version to be released maybe late this year or early next. However, that baby will be 3-4 times the DS price. Way too rich for my blood. But the good thing is Ted has stayed that updates for that unit as long as the FPGA that is used in the DS can handle them will be upgraded as well.
It’s been the best ride in digital I’ve experienced and as you said for the price its playing way above its price class.

Enjoy

I’ve never experienced digital this good , it’s 3 dimensional.

It can be a dealer’s nightmare since it is competitive with much higher priced DACs.

I love mine!

I love mine. I pair it with accuphase components and, to my ear and in my system (which is nearly all accuphase), it beats the heck out of the 900/901 series from Accuphase (which retails at several multiples of the price for the DSD). And, the free updates are just incredible. All have resulted in material improvement and a couple were really large jumps.

Fear not though, the Ted Smith Signature DAC is coming out in the next year or so. They've shown it at a show, so it won't be long now. Most predicted price I've read is in the $20K range .....

Congratulations and many people report further sonic improvements after 200+ hours. :thumbsup:

Enjoy........and it only gets better. :music:

Ron

Perhaps a bit more. :whistle:

There is a version 3.06 snow mass I just upgraded to I’m not sure what it does, my unit came wit 3.05 so I did the update. One issue I do have is the art work is not displaying on the front panel . I have the sd erased , in place and did a reboot ?

As long as you have the blank SD card inserted in the slot "teeth" up it should display the artwork.

Artwork is only available with the Bridge II installed.

Do you have the Bridge?

Ron

No I am using usb.

Ivan may help you with a Bridge II should you choose that route with an ethernet connection.

And if you go the Roon Nucleus+ option you can get rid of the computer and use either USB or Ethernet.

Ron

Congrats on your new DAC. I bought the PS Audio DSD DAC after several positive reviews and Ivan's recommendation. It has exceeded my expectations.
I compared it to a few other DACs at various price points in my system and it won the job. This was my first piece of PS Audio equipment, I was impressed enough to start looking at other equipment by PS Audio. I now own a BHK preamp, BHK mono blocks and a P20. It all sounds wonderful.

“ It has exceeded my expectations. “. Mine too , I never realized how much digital information was being held back by my D1100 and Oppo. I still have a PS Audio PPP AC regenerator surge protector in this system . :thumbsup:

Here is something interesting taken from my Oppo manual . HDMI output 2 on my Oppo 95 will pass SACD ie DSD directly without conversion to PCM . Which means it can be used as a SACD transport to my DirectStream DAC which has a HDMI digital audio input. Here is the quote from the manual
“ DSD – SACD DSD data is output over HDMI without any conversion. For the analog audio outputs, DSD data is converted into analog signal directly by the internal DAC. If you use a receiver that supports HDMI v1.2a with DSD over HDMI, or you prefer the sound quality of straight DSD to analog, please select this option”

David, I do this from my Oppo to my Marantz processor for multichannel.

Uh won’t work on the DS DAC. PS Audio uses a proprietary HDMI setup and TMK only the DMP drive will handshake with it unless there is a third party product I’m not aware of. The pin structure is different than standard HDMI. If any question I would contact PS Audio Customer Service Dept.

People are reporting that it works with a special hdmi cable purchased through PS Audio

PS Audio has their own cable, yes. But there are better. Many, including me, use the WW Platimum 7 HDMI and love it.

My point being there cable allows you use the Oppo as a SACD transport to the DirectStream dac

The HDMI connector on the DS DAC and DS Mem Transport is merely using HDMI as a connector. The protocol is I2S and there is an encryption protocol between the transport and player which allows them to send DSD using the DOP format over the I2S protocol.

The Oppo HDMI output conforms to the standard HDMI protocol.

I know. Quite a mouthful.

But years before PS Audio even conceived of the DS memory transport, I recall Ted experimented with a third party board - VanityPraise? Or something which was installed in an Oppo player (103 if I recall correctly)

It MODIFIED the Oppo’s HDMI output to split audio and video. Then if it encountered DSD it would package the DSD IN DOP Format and sent it out via a coax output (not the coax normally found on the Oppo). In fact it had 3 coax output to support multichannel 5.1 PCM or DSD.

THIS was the basis of the memory transport with some modified digital lens circuit added.

http://audiopraise.com/vanityhd/overview.php

Sorry it was called AudioPraise Vanity [emoji51]

Ps audio direct stream dac is a winner winner chicken dinner :)
 

I guess this ends my Mcintosh D1100 vs PS Audio direct stream to replace my Mcintosh MDA 1k. LMAO.

Having owned the D1100 and now the DirectStream with Snowmass I can tell you get the DirectStream :yes: absolutely amazing :music: Talk to Ivan I’m sure he will make you a good deal . Mine was part of a trade I made with Lars on my Elipsa speakers. One thing I’m probably going to get is the network card. If I was ordering one now I would get the network card which negates the need for one cable and displays album art work on the front screen, this way your Roon Server can be anywhere.

How does the PS Audio Directstream compared to the Schiit Yggy?

I don’t know the answer as I have never heard the schiit yggy. I have heard good things about both . What I can say is the DirectStream sounds great, is completely upgradable because it has a field programable gate array hardware-DAC chip which is programable (Read about it) and PS audio gives these improvements as a download for free like every 6-9 months, the dac is native DSD and converts PCM to DSD. They also offer hardware upgrades so the longevity of your investment in a DAC isn’t made obsolete every 3-4 years which is what companies like esoteric do.

I purchased a new PerfectWave MKII in 2012 and a short time after that PS Audio came out with the DirectStream, and later offered a upgrade path which made the PerfectWave MKII into a DirectStream. I bought that kit and since then upgraded the DAC with each FREE firmware update and saw a noticeable improvement. The recent Snowmass update brought this DAC to a different level though. :thumbsup: In 2018 I added the Bridge II.

I'm a happy camper with this 2012 DAC investment. :music:

Ron

The offer of free updates/upgrades is the main reason I sold my Yggdrasil and bought a DSD. I originally bought an Yggy analog version 1 and Schiit soon put out the version 2. I saw the resale value of my Yggy take a big hit and would have had to fork out another $500 to upgrade to the new version plus pay for shipping. The FPGA in the DSD ensures that the DSD will be current for as long as it has the processing power to run future updates.

+1
The DSD is an amazing DAC. Mine is actually a first gen PS DAc that has been upgraded to DSD.

It's simply amazing that I've owned the same DAC for over 5 years and it's still current. That's very rare in our hobby.

:thumbsup:

:thumbsup::thumbsup: great experiences

How would you compare the sound between the two Dac’s?

Excellent podcast with the genius — thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:

Ron

Ordered a PS Audio Direct Stream DAC last week. :yes::yes::yes: