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