PS Audio Direct Stream

Grandiose claims made by manufacturers are nothing new. It is called "marketing".

Terms, jargon, made up names and theories abound. They do not need to be proven and 99% cannot be measured anyway, it is mostly a subjective hobby. The main thing is to capture your attention and get you to accept their premise as to why their idea/product/implementation is superior to the competition, and then spend your money on it. Right now up converted digital playback and Hi-Resolution are a fast moving target in constant flux. The standards are not even agreed upon by the major players or the record labels who provide the music. Kind of the "Wild West" in some respects. Many theories on the proper implementation. For me, I will let it settle out for a while, no need to be a Ginny pig.

Before a single review is out, I submit that some will fall in love with it and others will find it to be no better than what they have now and even prefer their vinyl rig to anything digital. Been down this road many times in the past and this is no different. Opinions are free and all reviews are just that. Many today are a huge conflict of interest in my opinion. Look at the ads vs positive review correlation. It's a Business folks.

Everyone is entitled to their own truth!

I am not endorsing the PS Audio DAC, but the music we listen to has gone through many conversions no matter which format you listen to. Sound quality is not a matter of how few conversions are done but more a matter of how well they are done.

Paul McGowan himself brought this new DSD DAC to the Arizona Audio Clubs last meeting and we kept Paul for around 3 hours asking questions about the design of this unit and its uniqueness. This could be a game changer; the sound was very, very good. From what I remember of Paul's presentation this unit does not deal with jitter on the signal's entry from the computer or transport into the DAC and Paul says the unit isn't sensitive to the transfer of the signal. Once the digital information is in the DAC it is up-sampled 10x's then leaves the DAC in 2x DSD to the preamp. There is no analog out section in this DAC. This is taking a totally new and fresh look at digital/analog conversion and may force other manufacturers to rethink how they design. As mentioned, it sounded amazing. Standard 16 bit CD's were up-sampled to double DSD and the information and musicality was like I have never heard. A member of our club is in the first 100 to be built and I look forward to hearing this in his computer based system.

Well..if the PDSD sounds much better playing PCM than does the PWD2, then it will be a considerable achievement. Yes I owm a PWD2 and it's about as good as it gets at its price point.

I talked a friend into ordering one. Can't wait as I didn't want to give up my transport.