PS audio new 25K dac and the psychological effect of owning a company's best.

Relevant to the OP: No, doesn't matter one bit.

I was all set and ready to place an order for Tekton's best Ulfberht when just before ordering talked to the one with the most experience, having had both Ulf and Moab in his own system. He said save your money, so I did and ordered Moab. 

Then couple months ago I was all set to buy a Raven Reflection. On the hunt for a year, real excited. Talked to Dave and James, Blackhawk is very good. So now I have the Blackhawk.

Then just a few weeks ago ordered Origin Live Sovereign MkIV and Enterprise MkIV. Mark Baker asked about going 12". Which by all accounts is better. But only marginally, while the cost increase is not marginal at all.

So I don't just talk the talk, I walk the walk. Here's why.

The price bump from Moab to barely better Ulf is more than $5k. For less than $5k I got Townshend Podiums and a full blown major league crossover upgrade. These together transformed this already excellent speaker to freaking world class level have to hear em to believe it.

The more than $10k price bump from Blackhawk to Reflection got me a world class turntable and arm.  

These are just my examples. For sure there are others. My opinion, I love that there are guys so obsessed with their BSD bragging rights they flip these things. They drive the market and keep stuff available for those of us clever enough to know it is called a sound SYSTEM for a reason.

I enjoyed my Direct Steam Dac with all the latest updates for quite a few years.
However, I sold it to help pay for a Lumin X1. The Lumin X1 is multiples better in sound quality!
So, there is lots of room for sound quality improvement over the Direct Stream Dac.

ozzy

If you  wanna splurge....Get a Rockna  wavedream   with an accompanying server, about as good as it gets. Change the crossovers in your speakers for some Duelunds, replace capacitors in your amps( Again Duelunds tin plated copper foil), change fuses for  wax filled ones etc. 
DACs are 1 part of the chain, but everything needs to be sorted out to get the best sound in your setup.  

Make sure when you book appointment to audition have both dacs ( Flagship vs Direct stream) on hopefully they are same voltage out bring your goto music test tracks. Find a comfortable volume level on preamp. Tell salesman to queue up first dac and then second. Try a few times back and forth if you want not knowing which dac is playing. You may need a cloth to cover the front displays. Go with the one that you like best. But if you choose the $25k one get your credit card ready! 😆

25K
any audio piece over 2K is inflated pricing. 
  Parts, time to machine the cases, etc, is all relavent, but to add 10K to any piece is just robbery.