Hegel H590 vs. PS Audio DIRECTSTREAM DAC.

Curious to know what you ended with. I have a H590, it’s great and all, it just seems slightly too polite pairing with my Dynaudio Evoke 30 along with a pair of sub6s. Always been curious if a different Dac or streamer would “fix” its politeness signature. 

I tested also ps audio directstream 2 with latest update. From first second it gave a smile to my face. It is very controlled and still it didn't lose liveness and musicality than others. Everything is in balance. All instrument played with direct stream sounds like right and give a smile. Highs sounds pleasant and bass is very controlled and dynamic. Directstream has won many awards and thats for reason. I have listened others hyped machines and none of them sound like this good. It is worth to test this dac. For me it is on must to have list.

I bought the PS Audio DirectStream DAC shortly after it was introduced, and don't use the DAC built into my preamp, thought it is quite good.  One thing I really enjoy about the PS Audio is how they distribute firmware updates, usually 1 or 2 a year, that improve the sound quality.  It's like getting a new DAC, that's a tad better than the old one, at no additional cost.

One thing I've learned about digital audio is that, although "bits are bits", the timing of those "bits" is crucial to the quality of the playback.  When I got my first PS Audio regenerator (a P10), I was really impressed at how much it helped the DAC to not produce what I think some call "digital glare".  When I upgraded the P10 to a P15, the improvement in that regard, and in the quality of the bass, stereo image and soundstage was immediately noticeable.  I found these improvements to my PS Audio DAC and the Mytek Brooklyn DAC as well.

Agree. I also use only dac from directsream and prefer accuphase own preamp. Dac is best so far from that price range.