[ALRAINBOW]

The new direct stream is at another level , I cannot compare it to the Pwd mkii directly as it was an upgrade. But I can say it has some really good quality . The music has separation that is found on my msb only. The M7 is with the Pwd mkii. In fact in
Inked the M7 better than the Pwd mkii. . I have only had a few hours on it for now .
Al

 

[music_man]

which msb? I think the directstream is only bested by the diamond dac iv. it is 120x the price. ps audio is known to knock it out of the park. my Cullen gcha is still my favorite amp and I have so called much better ones. I hope they make a new headamp. I am looking for ways to mod the directstream and hopefully then it is the best period. for the moment at least. that is assuming some people don't just think I am a troll.
 
I like the very analog sound of my modded teac. it cannot match the detail, separation,placement  of the directstream. the teac actually is better in the prat department. solely because it sounds close to a turntable. as of right now though the diamond dac iv is a whole different thing. I think I can fix that!

 

[ALRAINBOW]

PM me later if ok and we can talk in this way. My msb stack is the platinum plus and galaxy clock. Diamond PSU
Also the UMT plus and dual transport PSU.
Al

 

[music_man]

i don't really have anything my mind lol. you have good stuff. right now high end pcm wins. i realize the diamond dac iv select is at a different price point. i thought this was going to kill it. i would like to see an all out assault on dsd.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

It's funny a while back I did a post on the absolute best recordings anyone
Had to offset any genre. I simply wanted the best there was
So I may buy some new stuff. Not one person picked any
DSD stuff. This was posted on 7 web sites.
Including ps audio.
Now since then I found opus 3
Acoustic sounds
And bluenote.
Elvis 57 DSD download is an amazing DSD 64
As us opus 3 no DSD 128. My pint is someone close told me
I asked something that most had no idea existed and that is why
There was no suggestions for the above labeles
He said this is faiy new.
So where is the DAC makers in this DSD world
Well other than MyTek and my msb most are coming on board now or soon
I also have heard two lampi dacs a level 4 and 5
Very good DSD and PCM. I have a level 7 on order
So we will see. The MyTek does DSD pretty well but PCM is nails in the head
The msb and lampi and now the direct stream do it all good.
The direct stream beats the MyTek hands down
But the msb I have not compared it as yet. The unit is new
And I am letting things go slow
Al

 

[music_man]

the directstream is pcm>10x dsd>2x dsd. if I have that right.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Close. It's PCM or dsd in and it them up samples to 10 times dsd then to analog

It sounds really good
Al

 

[music_man]

I am almost positive it says it samples back to 2x dsd before analog. anyways it does sound real good.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I can find out I am in there forums often.
The point is it's a not a ready made chip either it is a programmable
Chip

 

[music_man]

it says in ps audios spec sheet it converts back to 2x dd before analog. no matter it obviously works. I am sure they had a reason for doing that. it also does say it is not a off the shelf dac chip but custom made in house. you are correct. regardless, it does sound very good.

 

[SoupRKnowva]

i got to hear the Direct Stream DAC at the Spring Fujiya Avic Headphone Festival, I'll copy my impressions from that thread over here.
 

 
DACs
 
The last thing I will discuss is full sized DACs. This is for one main reason, and that is that I only had my JH13 FPs and for a bit of the festival the Pure II portable amp to use. Not the best for evaluation DACs with. Not to mention I was spending most of my time listening to portable gear, mainly CIEMs and amp/DAC combo units to use with my macbook. Also to add onto that further, I am incredibly happy with my current Audio-GD Master 7, though I still need to purchase an OffRamp for it. But anyways, there were a few units that I still had to check out.
 
The first of which was the new PerfectWave Direct Stream DAC from PS Audio. I sat down and plugged in my laptop running Audirvana with iTunes. Took some fiddling to even get it to work, turned out you cant use Integer mode with the Direct Stream’s USB. Anyways, from the first moment I started listening to music, it basically blew me away, the detail, the bass, and the imagine and soundstage. From a technical perspective I will admit I was not expecting much from this thing, it sounded like it was trying to hard. But after hearing it, I will say that I definitely would love to get one in house for several weeks to compare against the Master 7, it was good. Really good. So good in fact that I sat and listened to it for almost half an hour, transfixed with my 13s in ear running through the Vorzuge Pure II.
 

 
 
The only other DAC I listened to was the MSB Analog DAC. I have long wanted to hear an MSB DAC so I was pretty excited and it was only two tables away, though from the same distributor, as the Direct Stream, which would turn out to be a bad thing. Going straight to this unit from that one, made for a bit of a let down. Not that the Analog DAC was bad, it was incredible as well, and I don't necessarily want to say that one is better than the other, but on first impression and which one I remember the most it would have to be the Direct Stream DAC.
 

 
Before I wrap up completely onto my best of show. The best of show was for me, without a doubt, the PS Audio PerfectWave Direct Stream DAC, it really did blow me away. 
 

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Very cool review , I have the direct stream for about 9 days now burning in 24 hours a day . it really is a special dac.
i also own the msb platinum plus stack and umt plus . they are in two different places so no a b so far. i am glad to read some reviews other than ps audio forums.
http://www.audiophilia.com/wp/?p=13620
this is the first posted review i have found besides this .
al

 

[ALRAINBOW]

ps the direct stream works fine on integer mode as well.

al

 

[SoupRKnowva]

ps the direct stream works fine on integer mode as well.

al

huh...they were having quite a few problems with the USB that weekend, though I didn't have any, other than integer mode not working and it working just fine as soon as i turned it off. Oh well, it didn't stop it from sounding pretty unreal 

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I was asked to post it he comment . Honestly I do not know what interger mode means lmao. But I did notice last night the box is checked in j river and it plays fine. I did think interger mode was Mac thing ? Anyway yes it does play very well. So far I like it better than my M7 with the offramp.

It's better than my mytek and was better than the Pwd mkii
Al