Good to see owners of the DirectStream DAC providing positive feedback. My impressions after reading a lot about this DAC online was that it was not such an exceptional product when originally released but it got better and better with every FPGA software upgrade. Those free upgrades make it a good long term investment. Good model.
@mahler123 The Mytek Manhattan looks interesting, but their return policy does not seem very generous. I will audition it if I can. Need to do some more reading on the Bryston.
@sbank Interesting feedback about the Yggdrasil. I would really like to have the Yggdrasil and DirectStream in my system at the same time, and have them for a couple of weeks, so the burn-in process can take place before I compare them. That might be difficult with backlogs and different return policies, but I might be able to manage it. Those Aqua dacs look really nice but out of my budget.
I wonder if anyone here can provide some feedback about the Audio Note Kits DAC 5.1. Everything in this DAC looks really good and fits my taste - excellent power section, AD1865NK chips, tube analog section, good components, etc. But none of that tells me how it sounds :).