Brief Review of "Modded" PS Audio Digital Link III vs Mhdt Lab Paradisea+ (UPDATED)

[happybob]

alright guys, i finally got around to listen to my newly modded ps audio digital link iii, and as promised, here's a brief review. i compared it to my mhdt lab paradisea+ (with bendix 6385 tube). i was expecting to a very detailed 1-2 hour listening session comparing the two, but didn't have enough time and ended up listening to only 1 CD for about 30 minutes. regardless, 30 minutes turned out to be plenty sufficient as the difference was quite large and stunning.

first, my listening setup:
amp: simaudio I-3 integrated amp
speakers: totem sttaf
cd transport: yamaha cd changer
dac 1: ps audio digital link iii with full-level stage III mod by rick cullen, the builder of ps audio digital link iii (cost of dac: $995 + $695 for mod = $1690)
dac 2: mhdt lab paradisea+ with bendix 6395 tube (cost of dac: $599 + $85 for bendix = $684)
power cords: zu cable birth on both amp and dac
interconnect: zu cable oxyfuel rca interconnect
digital cable: monoprice premium optical cable
speaker cable: tara lab prism bi-wire
cd: diana krall "girl in the other room" sacd - cd layer

i listed the prices for both dacs upfront to show that in all fairness, this is not a fair comparison as one dac costs almost 3 times as much as the other one.

now on with the review, so what do you expect? by some miracle the paradisea+ would beat out the ps audio digital link III?

you know it's not going to happen. if you have seen my earlier posts comparing an unmodded ps audio digital link iii with the paradisea+, you would've already known that i had already considered the ps audio digital link iii to be at least one league up from the paradisea+. it had better bass, detail, and resolution that were unmatched by the paradisea+; however, as i also had repeated many times before, i really enjoyed the sweetness and smoothness of the sound from paradisea+. with a power cord upgrade, silver-based interconnects, and bendix 6385, i was able to improve paradisea+'s resolution, detail, and slam to make them a little closer to the unmodded ps audio digital link III's level, but now with the modded ps audio digital link III, it's not even close anymore.

right from the start, the improvement of the modded ps audio digital link iii over the unmodded version was quite dramatic. the soundstage is now about twice as wide and twice as deep, it basically fills up the entire wall in front of me, and the dynamics is also quite impressive, especially in the bass slam. i never realized my totem sttaf speakers are capable of such kind of bass! the modded digital link iii adds another octave to the bass. before, the bass already sounded very punchy and solid, well, now you can actually feel the bass (assuming your speakers/headphones are capable of going that low). the improvement in details is also quite striking, now you can actually hear the guitar player scratching the finger board in between notes. finally, the slight tinge of brightness in the pre-modded digital link iii is now completely gone. i was very surprised that my modded ps audio digital link iii, still a solid-state dac, had a sweeter and smoother mid-range and treble than the paradisea+ tube dac.

i listend to the modded ps audio digital link iii for about 20-30 minutes using a couple familiar tracks from the diana krall cd, then i switched to the paradisea+ and listened to those tracks again. it took me less than 5 seconds to hear the difference. the comparison is similar to the one i made above between the modded and unmodded digital link iii, except the paradisea+ had more midrange sweetness but slightly less resolution and significantly less bass than the unmodded digital link iii.

anyway, hope this helps. i haven't had the chance to compare the usb inputs or the better coaxial input. i would imagine with the modded ps audio digital link iii, the usb to sound slightly worse or about the same as the optical input, and the coaxial input (upgraded during the mod to wbt nextgen rca jack) to sound even better than the optical input.

if you can afford it, by all means give the modded ps audio digital link iii a hard look. you are unlikely to find anything better under $10k or even over $10k. it really made the cd-layer sound better than the sacd played through my oppo 981. it also beats paradisea+ in every single area. but if your budget is under $1000, even though i think the unmodded ps audio digital link iii still is better than the paradisea+, some people may prefer the paradisea+ because of the sweetness and smoothness it brings.

 

[Jon L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by happybob /img/forum/go_quote.gif alright guys, i finally got around to listen to my newly modded ps audio digital link iii, and as promised, here's a brief review. i compared it to my mhdt lab paradisea+ (with bendix 6385 tube). i was expecting to a very detailed 1-2 hour listening session comparing the two, but didn't have enough time and ended up listening to only 1 CD for about 30 minutes. regardless, 30 minutes turned out to be plenty sufficient as the difference was quite large and stunning. first, my listening setup: amp: simaudio I-3 integrated amp speakers: totem sttaf cd transport: yamaha cd changer dac 1: ps audio digital link iii with full-level stage III mod by rick cullen, the builder of ps audio digital link iii (cost of dac: $995 + $695 for mod = $1690) dac 2: mhdt lab paradisea+ with bendix 6395 tube (cost of dac: $599 + $85 for bendix = $684) power cords: zu cable birth on both amp and dac interconnect: zu cable oxyfuel rca interconnect digital cable: monoprice premium optical cable speaker cable: tara lab prism bi-wire cd: diana krall "girl in the other room" sacd - cd layer i listed the prices for both dacs upfront to show that in all fairness, this is not a fair comparison as one dac costs almost 3 times as much as the other one. now on with the review, so what do you expect? by some miracle the paradisea+ would beat out the ps audio digital link III? you know it's not going to happen. if you have seen my earlier posts comparing an unmodded ps audio digital link iii with the paradisea+, you would've already known that i had already considered the ps audio digital link iii to be at least one league up from the paradisea+. it had better bass, detail, and resolution that were unmatched by the paradisea+; however, as i also had repeated many times before, i really enjoyed the sweetness and smoothness of the sound from paradisea+. with a power cord upgrade, silver-based interconnects, and bendix 6385, i was able to improve paradisea+'s resolution, detail, and slam to make them a little closer to the unmodded ps audio digital link III's level, but now with the modded ps audio digital link III, it's not even close anymore. right from the start, the improvement of the modded ps audio digital link iii over the unmodded version was quite dramatic. the soundstage is now about twice as wide and twice as deep, it basically fills up the entire wall in front of me, and the dynamics is also quite impressive, especially in the bass slam. i never realized my totem sttaf speakers are capable of such kind of bass! the modded digital link iii adds another octave to the bass. before, the bass already sounded very punchy and solid, well, now you can actually feel the bass (assuming your speakers/headphones are capable of going that low). the improvement in details is also quite striking, now you can actually hear the guitar player scratching the finger board in between notes. finally, the slight tinge of brightness in the pre-modded digital link iii is now completely gone. i was very surprised that my modded ps audio digital link iii, still a solid-state dac, had a sweeter and smoother mid-range and treble than the paradisea+ tube dac. i listend to the modded ps audio digital link iii for about 20-30 minutes using a couple familiar tracks from the diana krall cd, then i switched to the paradisea+ and listened to those tracks again. it took me less than 5 seconds to hear the difference. the comparison is similar to the one i made above between the modded and unmodded digital link iii, except the paradisea+ had more midrange sweetness but slightly less resolution and significantly less bass than the unmodded digital link iii. anyway, hope this helps. i haven't had the chance to compare the usb inputs or the better coaxial input. i would imagine with the modded ps audio digital link iii, the usb to sound slightly worse or about the same as the optical input, and the coaxial input (upgraded during the mod to wbt nextgen rca jack) to sound even better than the optical input. if you can afford it, by all means give the modded ps audio digital link iii a hard look. you are unlikely to find anything better under $10k or even over $10k. it really made the cd-layer sound better than the sacd played through my oppo 981. it also beats paradisea+ in every single area. but if your budget is under $1000, even though i think the unmodded ps audio digital link iii still is better than the paradisea+, some people may prefer the paradisea+ because of the sweetness and smoothness it brings.

So Rick didn't change anything about the resampler chip or USB-spdif conversion?

Anyway, after you experiment some more, esp USB vs. coax, do post further impressions.

As you know, I'm trying to see if my only caveats with stock PS DLIII get much better, i.e. more microscopic resolution and density/authority in the midranges.. Personally, I don't think this is fundamentally possible unless asynchronous upsampling can be bypassed, but we'll see..

 

[happybob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L /img/forum/go_quote.gif So Rick didn't change anything about the resampler chip or USB-spdif conversion? Anyway, after you experiment some more, esp USB vs. coax, do post further impressions. As you know, I'm trying to see if my only caveats with stock PS DLIII get much better, i.e. more microscopic resolution and density/authority in the midranges.. Personally, I don't think this is fundamentally possible unless asynchronous upsampling can be bypassed, but we'll see..

no, didn't change the resampler chip or usb-spdif conversion. i think ps audio has started to investigate more on the issue of how to make usb sound just as good as the spdif inputs. the purpose of rick's mods really wasn't to go for one design philosophy over another. there are plenty of debates around regarding usb vs non-usb, i2s vs no i2s, upsampling vs non-oversampling, synchrous vs asynchronous. you will find different camps everywhere arguing over the pros and cons of each. the goal of rick's mods was to upgrade all the important components to higher-end parts that will make a tangible difference, not to completely change the design of the DAC. changing the dac from synchrous to asynchronous, usb-spdif to usb-i2s, upsampling to non-oversampling basically means that you would have to change the chip and design philosophy completely. at that point, i would have to wonder why bother? why am i spending more money to convert a DAC into something that's completely different when i can and should probably just sell the DAC and buy something with a design more along the line of what i'm looking for?

my suggestion is that if you really want something that does synchronous upsampling and usb-i2s direct conversion, then rick's mods are definitely not for you. but if you like how your ps audio digital link sounds, and want to improve on that sound, then definitely consider Rick's mods. there's definitely more microscopic resolution across the board. i'm not exactly sure what more density/authority in the midrange means. does that mean more punch in the midrange, like more punch in the bass? the midrange sounds more analog like to me with the mods, the tinge of digital brightness in the unmodded version is now gone.

overall, for the price of the mods, it made a quite significant improvement. for the type of mods you are suggesting that completely alter the DAC, you might want to check out Empirical Audio. i browsed through Empirical Audio's website the other day and checked out their offerings. some of the mods they do on the benchmark media dac1 not only add an additional IC board with new DAC chip, but pretty much replace all the parts in the DAC, including the op-amp, the clock, most of the capacitors, the power supply, etc. at the end, the only thing that still makes it a benchmark media dac1 is probably just the box with the benchmark logo on it. not to mention if you add up the cost of all those mods, you are looking to spend an amount that's several times the cost of an unmodded benchmark.

anyway, enough with my ranting... just want to make sure that before anyone pursues modding an already decent DAC, try to decide first whether you really want to "mod/improve" the dac or "change/gut/buy another" the dac.

i will try to post more impressions later in the week once i get to play with the usb and coax inputs.

 

[spacemanspliff]

Who did the mods? I have a Superlink II that I would not mind modding if it's not to pricey.

 

[happybob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spacemanspliff /img/forum/go_quote.gif Who did the mods? I have a Superlink II that I would not mind modding if it's not to pricey.

contact rick cullen at cullen circuits (www.cullencircuits.com), he's the one who built most of ps audio's equipments for them before they started out-sourcing to china.

 

[325xi]

Re: twice as wide soundstage - it's not like "the more the better", it just should be natural. One can have a widest possible soundstage even on $25 boombox by engaging that DSP effect...

To me it sounds strange that the described mods could possibly cause so drastic changes in sound quality...

 

[happybob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 325xi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Re: twice as wide soundstage - it's not like "the more the better", it just should be natural. One can have a widest possible soundstage even on $25 boombox by engaging that DSP effect... To me it sounds strange that the described mods could possibly cause so drastic changes in sound quality...

you are right, maybe i didn't really describe it correctly. what i was trying to get across was that the soundstage is now more "involving". now i feel like i'm sitting in the middle of a concert with a large stage in front me that seems to stretch from one wall to the other, while before the mods, the soundstage seemed to locate only in the middle of the two speakers. i guess if you want to get technical and use a ruler to measure the soundstage in front of me, it's probably not quite twice as wide since the distance between my two speakers is wider than 50% of the wall to wall distance.

but either way, soundstage really is a semi-subjective thing, everyone will hear a slightly different soundstage. i could only describe what i subjectively perceived. i'm not saying one is better than the other. but in the case of the ps audio digital link iii, after mods, the soundstage did become wider yet still realistic with focused imaging. yeah, i too am surprised why mods can make such a big difference in sound. but on the other hand, why not? different DACs sound differently because they are designed differently and use different components. of course mods would make a drastic change in sound if the mods involve changing significant number of components inside the DAC.

on a side note, if you enjoy the soundstage from a $25 boombox with its DSP effect, more power to you, you just saved yourself a ton of money and time surfing these high-end audio forums!

 

[happybob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L /img/forum/go_quote.gif So Rick didn't change anything about the resampler chip or USB-spdif conversion? Anyway, after you experiment some more, esp USB vs. coax, do post further impressions.

Jon, in a recent newsletter from Paul McGowan (founder of PS Audio), he mentioned that he's currently looking into how to make the usb input sound just as good as the spdif input. I also just sent Rick a private message seeing if he has any plan to work on a usb mod. I too would be very interested to learn more about that since I listen to mostly apple lossless files. However, I think the current mods provided by Rick will improve the sound across all inputs since most of the upgraded components are after the spdif-i2s conversion along the pathway.

I will post an update after I hear back from Rick and have more time to listen to the USB input.

 

[velogreg]

A small nit. You might want to change the Cullen Circuits hyperlink. It appears the HL is picking up the close parenthesis in the link yielding a "cannot locate website message"

Great stuff, I am very interested in having this mod done myself. Please keep us posted upon further observations especially if you are still as enthusiastic of the results after a month of listening.

 

[happybob]

finally had a chance to listen to my "modded" ps audio digital link iii more a couple days ago. was able to do a comparison of the optical/spdif input vs the usb input. still didn't get to try out the coax input (with its new wbt next-gen rca connector), will try it next time. during my comparison, i got to try out the excellent new Belkin Network USB hub also.

here's a link to the device:
http://www.belkin.com/networkusbhub/

although there are a few other network usb hubs/servers out there, as far as i know, this is the only one that supports "usb audio". what this means is that for those of you who own a DAC with usb input (Benchmark Dac 1 usb, PS Audio Digital Link III, Mhdt Lab Paradisea+, Scott Nixon, Stello, Apogee, etc...), with the Belkin Network USB Hub, you can now stream music from your computer through ethernet or wirelessly (a separate wireless router required) to the usb input of your DAC.

this means you don't need to deal with the apple airport express's optical output and its jitter problem, or spend a lot money on a squeezebox, transporter, sono, olive and more money modding them to make them sound good. i guess you won't have the nicer user interface of the squeezebox, but you can use itune, and any usb-based remote control.

i was able to do a comparison between the apple airport express and the belkin network usb hub. the airport express was connected to my modded ps audio digital link iii's optical in, and the belkin network usb hub to the usb in. i streamed music to both from a computer in another room through the network using itune and apple lossless files. i listened to Diana Krall's "The Girl in the Other Room" through both devices, and also listened to the same songs from the CD layer of the SACD/CD hybrid played through my Yamaha CD changer/transport connected to the modded ps audio digital link iii's optical input as my reference. in my setup, both my sister and i thought the CD had the best combination of tonal richness, smoothness, and details. The Belkin Network USB hub sounded very close to the CD in richness and smoothness, but perhaps very slightly less in details, while the airport express had similar details as the CD, but sounded thin and harsh at times. my sister had a more difficult time picking between the CD and the Belkin Network USB hub, but was able to pick out the airport express's harsher sound 90% of the time.

so what does this all mean? is the optical-in better than usb-in? perhaps, it might provide a tinge more details and resolution, but then again it might be due the issue of CD vs apple lossless. i re-read paul mcgowan's (ps audio's founder) latest newsletter. his observation wasn't that spdif-in was better than usb in, but rather that a CD transport still sounded better than devices like sono or squeezebox streaming lossless files. and that's what he's currently investigating. since sono and squeezebox both lack usb-out, i think paul was only using the spdif inputs of the digital link iii.

during my test, when streaming apple lossless through the belkin network usb hub and apple airport express, the sound from the usb clearly sounded better than the optical through airport express. but does this mean that usb input was better than optical input? probably not, most likely the airport express was the source of the problem with its possibly high jitters.

so from the comparison, i can only conclude that streaming apple lossless files through the usb hub to the usb input was better than through airport express to the optical input, and about 95% as good as playing the CD through CD transport connected to the optical input.

hope this helps.

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by happybob /img/forum/go_quote.gif you are right, maybe i didn't really describe it correctly. what i was trying to get across was that the soundstage is now more "involving". now i feel like i'm sitting in the middle of a concert with a large stage in front me that seems to stretch from one wall to the other, while before the mods, the soundstage seemed to locate only in the middle of the two speakers. i guess if you want to get technical and use a ruler to measure the soundstage in front of me, it's probably not quite twice as wide since the distance between my two speakers is wider than 50% of the wall to wall distance. but either way, soundstage really is a semi-subjective thing, everyone will hear a slightly different soundstage. i could only describe what i subjectively perceived. i'm not saying one is better than the other. but in the case of the ps audio digital link iii, after mods, the soundstage did become wider yet still realistic with focused imaging. yeah, i too am surprised why mods can make such a big difference in sound. but on the other hand, why not? different DACs sound differently because they are designed differently and use different components. of course mods would make a drastic change in sound if the mods involve changing significant number of components inside the DAC. on a side note, if you enjoy the soundstage from a $25 boombox with its DSP effect, more power to you, you just saved yourself a ton of money and time surfing these high-end audio forums!

If that's what the unmoded PS DAC sounds like then it's performance is quite poor in my book. The least I expect out of any source is able to extend soundstage beyond the speaker (front/back/sideways); I even get that type of soundstage and finger-plucking detail with my Presonus CS albeit with PS Audio power conditioner

(what can I do, PS Audio is in my pocket one way or another..ha)

Conjecture: IMO PS Audio should just stick with their power related stuff. Their audio stuff was great back in the days, now its just mediocre and I would not be interested in really any sound-producing product from them

Suggestion: Unless you actually heard a 10K+ source I would be hesitate to do draw any conclusion; I find the 10k+ source brings you even closer to the music as in 'holy @#$' there is the piano player...'look' bass is right there .... they are all in my room.....NICE..

 

[happybob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chesebert /img/forum/go_quote.gif If that's what the unmoded PS DAC sounds like then it's performance is quite poor in my book. The least I expect out of any source is able to extend soundstage beyond the speaker (front/back/sideways); I even get that type of soundstage and finger-plucking detail with my Presonus CS albeit with PS Audio power conditioner (what can I do, PS Audio is in my pocket one way or another..ha)

again, the soundstage stuff is all relative, it's not that the unmodded ps audio has a flat soundstage, it's just that compared to the modded version, it's not as 3-D.

Quote:

Conjecture: IMO PS Audio should just stick with their power related stuff. Their audio stuff was great back in the days, now its just mediocre and I would not be interested in really any sound-producing product from them

Suggestion: if you haven't heard any ps audio dac, i would hesitate to draw any conclusion... and if you are not interested in any ps audio sound-producing product, why are you wasting your time reading this thread?

Quote:

Suggestion: Unless you actually heard a 10K+ source I would be hesitate to do draw any conclusion; I find the 10k+ source brings you even closer to the music as in 'holy @#$' there is the piano player...'look' bass is right there .... they are all in my room.....NICE..

i have heard 10k+ sources, but i have to admit, not with my setup. heard them in a hi-fi show, and to be honest, wasn't all that impressed. my 10k+ reference was based on quoting someone else's review of his modded ps audio digital link iii. he does own 10k+ sources, with wilson speakers. sorry for not making it clear.

 

[happybob]

just wanna make a disclaimer. seems like a couple people are offended by my glowing review of the ps audio digital link iii mods. well, please remember that my review is of course only my opinion, and it only applies to my setup. your mileage may vary. and i have no affiliation with ps audio, and could care less if you get their mods or even buy any of their products. if you don't agree with my review, that's fine. you are welcome to provide your opinion and objective data to back it up. please refrain from thread crapping or condescending remarks. if you have no interest in ps audio dacs, don't waste your time reading this thread.

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by happybob /img/forum/go_quote.gif Suggestion: if you haven't heard any ps audio dac, i would hesitate to draw any conclusion... and if you are not interested in any ps audio sound-producing product, why are you wasting your time reading this thread?

I think you have confused my wording. I specifically pointed out what I wrote is my conjecture and not conclusion.

I am inherently interested in all audio related stuff, especially anything that can even remotely improve what I have

e.g. I personally dislike Thiel (they do not sound like music to me) but I still like to read about them ...

 

[happybob]

chesebert, here's the link to the $10k DAC reference i was making. the person had a prism dream da-2, a professional DAC, which costs $9,405 online. so maybe not quite $10k, but close enough.

http://boards.psaudio.com/viewtopic....&t=4736#p32390

keep in mind that it is from the ps audio forum, so most people on that board are ps audio loyalists... but since you do own other ps audio products such as the power conditioner, you might find some useful information on that forum.

the only ps audio equipment i own is the ps audio digital link iii dac. based on the reviews, their power cords are generally over-priced, you can find similarly or better performing stuff for cheaper somewhere else. their power conditioning stuffs are supposedly great, but my electrical engineer friend from MIT (who's also an audiophile) told me not to bother with power conditioners. so i don't own any. i just have most my equipments connected to professional quality UPS from tripp lite to avoid the occasional black and brown outs.