[SoupRKnowva]

Oh man, listening to the ref 10 again as an all in one, just does not have the bass presence of the master 7. Tempted to unpack the thing...

 


Why're you ditching the Master 7? You find something you like more?

 

[blitzxgene]

Try the dac without the internal amp. And post results
Al

The only way to do a bypass (if I even can) would be to set the volume at 65 I believe, which is 0db gain. It's my volume control at the moment, so...

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Sorry dumb question and I owned one. I need some sleep.

 

[blitzxgene]

 

  Oh man, listening to the ref 10 again as an all in one, just does not have the bass presence of the master 7. Tempted to unpack the thing...

 


Why're you ditching the Master 7? You find something you like more?

I'm too tempted by the upgrade path of ps audio mk2 to the eventual direct stream. I've been researching potential ways to increase the quality of the master 7's optical input and short of a empirical audio product, not much can help. Steve also further bumped the off-ramp price for the hdmi reg/new audio-gd mute. The direct stream seems fairly agnostic to any source input, plus I read your impressions among many others over the last 36 hours. Finally, the audio-gd way may be glorious but holy **** do they take up space and pull watts.
 
edit: I've also read the M7 is best as a headphone dac, which i've pretty much abandoned at this point for speakers.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I own both dacs and the offramp. The M7 and offramp with the HDMI is pretty good. But not in the league of the direct stream. I neverl Liked the Pwd mkii. But I did the upgrade rather then sell it . And I can say it was worth every dime . It has a sound of my msb. Not saying it's that good but it does have magic .
Al

 

[blitzxgene]

I own both dacs and the offramp. The M7 and offramp with the HDMI is pretty good. But not in the league of the direct stream. I neverl Liked the Pwd mkii. But I did the upgrade rather then sell it . And I can say it was worth every dime . It has a sound of my msb. Not saying it's that good but it does have magic .
Al

Does the shortblock work with the direct stream? If it does, does it even effect it? I read you thought the offramp made the direct stream worse.

 

[mowglycdb]

I'm scared of turning my Master-7 on, it just acted up and I couldn't right clic while playing league of legends the screen would automaticly go right and I got loud beeps.  beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep and my cursor would blink. I turned the master-7 off and problem solved :O!
 
Maybe my computer is the culprit <.<!

 

[ALRAINBOW]

The short block works but I cannot hear a improvement. But I do have a PPA PC x card and linear PSU with the PPAred USB cable.
But yes it actually makes it sound worse. It looses it's mojo so to speak. And this is with HDMI output from the offramp.

Al

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Makes sense, the Direct Stream is definitely something I am interested in getting to compare directly to the M7 on my 800s or 009s rather than through a portable amp into my JH-13s. The fact that it doesn't need the Off Ramp is a big plus as well.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Yes I have every device you just listed hahaha. It's great with headphones and speakers. Where the Pwd mkii was not cool for headphones and good with speakers.
Al

 

[blitzxgene]

Aaaaand I now own a black ps audio mk2!
 
(only problem with the mk1 to mk2 upgraded mk2s is the screws might not line up for the direct stream kit, so i'll probably have to send it in. Not really bothered by this.)
 
(late edit: turns out the mk1 to mk2, then mk2 to direct stream does not have any problems when users do the upgrade themselves. A certain user on the ps audio forums didn't pay enough attention to the upgrade video and skipped a step. That is all.)

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I can say it is a totally different dac. In the end you will be very happy .
Al

 

[Benny-x]

I haven't popped into this thread in a while, but I've returned to find that it is still indeed the Devil. 
 
I opted for a PWD MkII when I was comparing it against the M7 a few months back, which I still don't know if I opted for the right one, but now I'm seeing that the PSA DS Dac is the one to move to. At least I've got an upgrade path, but still, I can't imagine parting with even more $$s right now for another upgrade. I hate this thread.
 
I hope more people can report in on the DS and their reactions with feeding it different ways. I'm happy to hear Al's reports that it seems the OR5 isn't benificial here; less money to blow~~. I also found it interesting to read that feeding the DS DSD via DoP on the regular inputs is one way, but even feeding it real DSD via the I2s-HDMI input ends up being converted to DoP internally. I had wanted to be able to feed it pure DSD to see if it made much a difference, but now it seems DoP is fine. Another thing taken away from my Worry List
 
In all honesty though, this is a great thread. There's a great group of people in here that are approaching computer or network based audio from a lot of different angles. It makes for a great read and is definitely helping me move my own system along. Now to get back to bringing all my pieces into one place and getting the system together~!

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Feeding the direct stream pure dsd or dop is a falicy there is no difference in sound . It just s afrimware /software design. In the direct stream with a bridge it is pure dsd
But only my mytek does dsd in native mode. Even my msb dac does dsd over dop. Inwas told that the direct stream might have native dsd in the future over USB as well.
And yes you buying the Pwd mkii was a good move hahaha. Now do not listen to a direct stream before you cN buy it. In this way you stay in the enjoyment mode . If you do listen then the wait to buy it will begin not fun .
Enjoy the Pwd mkii
Al

 

[kazsud]

Yes I have every device you just listed hahaha. It's great with headphones and speakers. Where the Pwd mkii was not cool for headphones and good with speakers.

Al

 



The Pwd mkii isn't good for headphones?????