Opinions on PS Audio Direct Stream DAC (Mk 1)

My primary audio dealer has been encouraging me to purchase an all PS Audio setup: DS MkII: Air Lens; and SACD transport. What gives me serious pause is the really mediocre measurement results published in its Stereophile review. How canthey be reconciled with the overall positive and experiences of users expressed here?

@magon, I want to thank you for starting this thread. I wouldn't have been aware of the sale otherwise. I've got a Directstream on the way and am going to trade in my Perfectwave mkII in on it. I don't make changes that often but this was an offer I couldn't refuse. I'm excited to move up the ladder. Thank you!  

@jmeyers When I was in college, I took a course in audio engineering from James Boyk, a pianist/recording engineer. He used to say that no measurement has ever been found that correlates with sound quality. He typically judged tubes and analog as performing better than solid state and digital, and when he said the sound quality was "good", he meant it faithfully reproduced the live sound. He had a lot of experience in recording sessions hearing both the live sound, and then hearing the reproduced sound in the control room, back-to-back. He did consulting for Sheffield Lab, and if you are familiar with their recordings, you will know they are very high resolution, very dynamic (micro- and macro-). 

Specifically about the PS Audio, the fact the it has an output transformer might be related to the measured harmonic distortion. It doesn't prevent the PS Audio from having high resolution, but I don't have a more technical explanation than that.

Feel free to enjoy any audio gear despite measurements telling you otherwise. There are interesting arguments to be made as to what exactly those measurements tell us, and why they might be the way they are... but the bottom line is that we like what we like. And there's nothing wrong with that. Don't let a chart or a number on a spec sheet tell you how to listen. 

As for the original PS Audio DirectStream DAC, this is in fact a great deal. Despite being "older" by now, it's still a great sounding device. 

Op,

I have found that with the exception of the very grossest measures like wpc (that is also doubling into lower impedance) measurements are largely meaningless. I mean seriously. I do not look at them. Waste of time.
 

Early on in my pursuit of the high end I was fooled repeatedly by looking at them. Honestly, in main stream high end the best correlation with sound quality is price and weight (taking into account the intended sound quality type… like detailed with lots of slam, musical / natural… etc).