I have owned the DirectStream DAC since 2014. It has had a much better run than my other DACs already. My XDS1 had one firmware update after I got it. The Playback Designs had 2 or 3 - one of which was a bug fix
and these cost way more than the PS Audio.
I think the last one was supposed to be 3 firmwares ago from memory. But Ted (while working on the next gen) found a lot of the improvements he made were also applicable on the new ones, so kudos to PS Audio