PS Sound Dacs

I just had a new PS Audio DirectStream Sr delivered. It is a real eye-opener when playing great sources. Huge, wide, and deep soundstage. The Snowmass software gives incredible in the room natural voice vocals. Very vinyl like presentation. It even makes a poor source listenable and sounding closer to Hi-Rez.

That was a nice sale price they just did, hope you caught that.
 
Thank You. Ted Smith the circuit designer and FPGA programmer has several talks when it first introduced. He has completely removed all jitter with his code. His new Snowmass software now prides a 156 SNR.

I am listening to an old club recording of my wife’ late rothers band in 90s in an Augusta GA club. It is like being in the crowd and it is throwing a huge deep soundstage.

Amazing technology execution in this DAC.

Nice! Enjoy, you have a great piece of equipment. I have a great vintage DAC but one day would like to do an A/B comparison with the PS Audio DAC.
 
Nice! Enjoy, you have a great piece of equipment. I have a great vintage DAC but one day would like to do an A/B comparison with the PS Audio DAC.
The difference in same room it much wider than I would have ever thought. Same happened when I compared Emotiva to the McIntosh. I was going to try Yggdrasil but Snowmass software made the DirectStream a better option. I like the no cost firmware to keep DAC current. I imagine when Ted rolls out the signature DAC the yearly firmware updates could slow. Regardless imagining something better in my system is hard to fathom. But he keeps tweaking.
 
Hi Everyone,

Does anyone use one of the PS Audio DACs? If "yes" how do you like it? What's life like with it? And do you still enjoy it?
I own a PS Audio Direct Stream DAC. It is far and away the best DAC I've ever owned, and it is one of the finest DAC's I've ever heard too. Furthermore, it just keeps getting better with each new firmware upgrade that Ted had made.
 
Yes, I have a Directstream DAC with Bridge II
I like it immensely, best DAC I have heard.

My life with it is pretty much the same as before I bought it. I'm still happy, still retired, still try to stay healthy, still enjoy listening to music and long walks in the woods, or beach.

Yes, have not even considered replacing it. We get along fine.

Thanks for asking.
Pretty much the same thing here, except for the retired bit.
 
Actually it upsamples everything to 20X DSD, and then it passively converts the DSD signal to analog.

Yes, everyone I read or heard about that has one loves it. I have a great vintage DAC but want to hear one. I think the "Jr" model would fit my system well.
 
Yes, everyone I read or heard about that has one loves it. I have a great vintage DAC but want to hear one. I think the "Jr" model would fit my system well.
I've not personally heard the Junior. But supposedly its very close. And frankly, had the Junior existed back when I was in the market for my DS, the price difference might well have convinced me to go with the Junior. Although, in hind sight, I'm glad that it wasn't, so that I had to purchased the senior. Because, despite it being the single most expensive audio component I have ever purchased, I believe that it was also one of the best values because my DAC has already received about 6 free upgrades which have made it sound better and better.
 
I've not personally heard the Junior. But supposedly its very close. And frankly, had the Junior existed back when I was in the market for my DS, the price difference might well have convinced me to go with the Junior. Although, in hind sight, I'm glad that it wasn't, so that I had to purchased the senior. Because, despite it being the single most expensive audio component I have ever purchased, I believe that it was also one of the best values because my DAC has already received about 6 free upgrades which have made it sound better and better.

That is a nice feature of their DACs. I have a very nice "smooth" sounding tube DAC but am curious about the upsampling of everything to DSD.
 
That is a nice feature of their DACs. I have a very nice "smooth" sounding tube DAC but am curious about the upsampling of everything to DSD.
I ran a tube output DAC for a number of years. This unit walks all over it, and I don't miss having tubes inside of my DAC at all.
 
That is a nice feature of their DACs. I have a very nice "smooth" sounding tube DAC but am curious about the upsampling of everything to DSD.
I have a Dac that does dsd and it does not come close to sounding as good as the MF Tri-Vista 21 Dac , however it all depends on the system you pair them with a Dac that does dsd might sound better to you woth your setup or worse, only way to know is to experiment.

Audiofreak71
 
I have a Dac that does dsd and it does not come close to sounding as good as the MF Tri-Vista 21 Dac , however it all depends on the system you pair them with a Dac that does dsd might sound better to you woth your setup or worse, only way to know is to experiment.

Audiofreak71
When you say that you have a DAC that "does DSD", do you must mean a DAC that is able to play DSD files, or a DAC which upsamples all of your PCM into DSD? Because these are two completely different things.
 
When you say that you have a DAC that "does DSD", do you must mean a DAC that is able to play DSD files, or a DAC which upsamples all of your PCM into DSD? Because these are two completely different things.
Yes that’s what I meant it will play/upsample dsd files .

Audiofreak71
 
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That is a nice feature of their DACs. I have a very nice "smooth" sounding tube DAC but am curious about the upsampling of everything to DSD.

It all depends on how you have your 3rd party SW set up. With normal setup, the DAC will output in native format passively. However, you can set it up through the SW (I use JRiver MC) to upsample the data to DSD output (if I'm saying this all correctly). I have the NuWave DSD and its a great sounding DAC.
 
I have a Dac that does dsd and it does not come close to sounding as good as the MF Tri-Vista 21 Dac , however it all depends on the system you pair them with a Dac that does dsd might sound better to you woth your setup or worse, only way to know is to experiment.

Audiofreak71

Very true. Those tubes in that MF TriVista are really nice.
 
I'm looking forward to purchasing a Stellar Gain Cell DAC and using it primarily as a pre-amp (to go with their Stellar S300 amplifier). As a DAC/Headphone Amp, it gives me some redundancy in my system, so with the pre-amp function, it becomes a good buy as far as I'm concerned. I'll have to wait until February, though. They are backordered.
 
I'm looking forward to purchasing a Stellar Gain Cell DAC and using it primarily as a pre-amp (to go with their Stellar S300 amplifier). As a DAC/Headphone Amp, it gives me some redundancy in my system, so with the pre-amp function, it becomes a good buy as far as I'm concerned. I'll have to wait until February, though. They are backordered.

There are many new units available as the Dealers have bought them all up from PS Audio. If you are serious, shoot me a PM and I will direct you to the guy I have bought my PS Audio DAC and M700 amps from.

When you see this in the various ads, "Our dealer agreement with PS Audio prohibits us from advertising any price less than retail. Please contact us for best pricing or to submit an offer." What it means is that this dealer can & will deal.
 
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