Anything wrong with PS Audio DirectStream DACs?

so much heat here on this thread, so little light

as pointed out below, 6k list, units selling at 3-3.5k...what’s the problem

for an expensive dac that is a reasonable depreciated value

ted smith updates these, extends their lifespan - they sound very nice, very smooth and rich

yes there is limit to software updates given a hardware platform, eventually all units get superceded with newer ones

problems, if you want to call them that, is:

1. ps audio directstreams have been out there quite a few years now, good company good customer service, good marketing, so they have sold quite a few of these, so there are many out there to be traded (can’t say this for more ’niche-y’ gear)

2. there are some very good sounding dacs, close to or equal to a DS Dac, for quite a bit less money now... even the used price

3. there is scuttlebutt out there that ps audio is superceding the DS at some point in the near future

4. half the people who play with this stuff never sit still and enjoy what they have, they swap they trade they ’upgrade’ their stuff all the time, this is especially true for dacs as streaming becomes more popular each day

5. some other folks must simply have the newest hottest thing out there to be happy... fills that inner need, to feel bleeding edge or successful or hip, or whatever they call it...

on the porsche forums there comes a slew of 981 cayman gt4's for sale when the 781 ’newer better’ version starts customer deliveries... does that make the 981 2016 model a lousy car all of a sudden? c’mon boys and girls... that 981 was the one that everyone wanted 4 years ago and we were cursing dealers for marking them up to customers and cursing porsche a.g. for making just a single model year run????

Jjss49 Sure there’s truth in what you say I personally know a component flipper forever chasing down that feel and flavour of the month .

For me I would of happily kept the PS Audio pair if it operated as it should have .
Purchasing the Denafrips Terminator dac was partly out of frustration with the Direct Stream senior , being a early adopter prior to the online Denafrips fan clubs erupted on the seen my interest was mainly with r2r dac technology and moving away from chip based dacs , the Terminator on paper looked great.

Today with some of the prices of digital front ends and wanting longevity of ownership I would prefer a server with separate dac that are both hardware updatable like better ⏰ and what have you including firmware updates thrown in for good measure ,...

With regard to the PS Audio break-in period:
If a unit takes 200 to 300 hours to sound good, then I don’t want it. For me, that’s 6 months or more of listening to sub-optimum sound. Units that take that long to break in should be burned in by the manufacturer or dealer, IMO.A week or so of listening would be acceptable.

inshore

point taken... sh*t has got to work properly from day 1 - updates or no updates

I’m my own case the break in happened about 12 hours when a Seismic shift in the sound.  Beyond that is diminishing rates of return. 

No one needs to listen for 3-6 months to get the broken in sounds.  The DAC just needs to be running. Cycle some dynamic range music of shuffle for a week. That’s approaching 200 hours. 

The SDS DAC sounds terrific in 10+ hours.