PS auido Direct stream Dac

You are in luck!  I just made the switch the Holo May KTE from the Direct Stream.  I had both in my system for 3 months and in my particular system (Innuos MK3-->DAC-->Don Sachs Custom Pre-->Coincident Frankenstein 300B monos--> BD Design Horn speakers) the May crushed the Direct Stream of which I had used for 3 years.  Note that I did load the new "sunshine" firmware on the Direct Stream and A/B ed for a week before finally letting go of the DS.  Make no mistake the DS is very good and with the multiple firmwares available it's quite flexible.  The downside is the Bridge-II is marginal at best and to get the best from the DS you must use the I2s input which has minimal upstream support.  Your mileage may vary. 

The Directstream is wonderful. However, PS Audio shall soon release the next version dac. Very good deals may be reached soon for this unit. 

Cambridge Audio 851N is a nice streamer with good DACs. Hindered by a so-so app (StreamMagic) it’s not magic 😏

Yeah, PS Audio is intriguing, but as the state of the art is in flux, the price is a little steep. 

The Ds dac competes with the best out there. Most reviewers use the DS dac and compares their reviewed dac with the DS. The best inputs to us in any dac are Ethernet and i2s but most of the cheaper dacs don’t include them. The other benefit of the DS is that’s it fpga based so it can be upgraded for free to include for example MQA or better sampling of dsd material for free. Most dacs don’t provide this. As stated above, their have been many releases of the firmware that increased the sq once or 2x a year at no charge, again not many others do this.
did I say the DS sounds fantastic too!

tinear123,

Your observation that the Holo May crushed the DS would be beneficial to those thinking of purchasing the DS.

Certainly,  I2S is the way to go for optimal SQ but for many, this is not a viable option without as you say, widespread industry support. To those thinking of getting the DS, go I2S all the way or not at all.