PS Audio vs NAD M12

The NAD does upsample to a very high sample rate and I believe the rate is to coincide with the PWM encoding scheme used.

I couldn't say what the NAD M12 uses as an output stage, but I don't believe its discrete implementation. Don't take this as negative as I have seen both good and bad implementations from the very same company on differing product lines. I would expect the M12 to have been held up to the efforts of their Master Series. 

PS Audio in the past has offered a variety of filtering options, upsampling, and the ability to defeat oversampling, or NOS mode. Download the manual for the DSD and you can read the options provided as they are some of the more extensive offered. Even though some will measure poorly, people have hoot experimenting with it and figuring if they like the distortions. Always keep in mind that not all preferences are for dead on accuracy and its why certain products exist. PS Audio tends to cater to this affection as well as the camp that prefers accuracy.

PS Audio uses a mosfet based Gain Cell in their Stellar DAC and use it to adjust the gain to avoid the use of the in built ESS digital volume control. The reason for this is to avoid truncation when attenuating 24 bit digital signals. With 16 bit, there is plenty of headroom to digitally attenuate without any real significant loss information. When I've seen this implemented in other products with measurements, it appeared to be of sound design.

mmeysarosh thanks again for your response!.... I hadn’t thought of downloading the user manual... next item on my research list.

mbolek... very much looking forward to your direct comparison.  I’m looking at the Ps Audio DSD senior but the DSJ comparison is still an outstanding opportunity.

Out of the box the DSJ sounds amazing. Interesting that I'm praising an end of life product. It is so much better than the M12.

Sorry for the NAD quasi-bashing, but here is my feedback.

That unit will be going back. I hate to say it, the older technology NAD products (M12, C658, T758) are not that impressive. On the other hand, I think the M10 is a keeper. I love it and the sound w/ the nCore is very nice.

Back to the DSJ, with my active speakers it sounds really good. Time to let it break in and see how it sounds. I don't know how much better it can get.

It does emit hiss to my speakers, wondering if that is because of the lack of a pre-amp. When I ran the M10 (passive), it was dead quiet. I don't know what NAD did with the M10, but it is very impressive. DSJ has better bass, almost over powering with my Stealths.

I went out an ordered the Elac 61 monitors.....my buddy is going to send me his Lyngdorf 3400 and see how good that will sound with passives speakers.  

I think I need an intervention...

Back in the day I owned lots of NAD products, a full "Masters Series" stack being the last NAD setup.  Though I loved the sound and simplicity of the features, most of my components needed service.  My M3's display screen went crazy and display hieroglyphics, the M5 transport got "stuck" and wouldn't open.  My prior setup had a receiver which would drop the right channel (three weeks after the warranty expired).

I now own a PS Audio P15, DirectStream transport and DAC.  I can tell you that since I bought the DAC, every time Ted Smith creates a new version of the firmware, I've applied it, with excellent results!  And the few times I've contacted PS Audio for support, they are consistently excellent!