Listened to a PSAudio Directstream Today

[acg]

Some of the local audio community have been getting pretty excited about the new Directstream DS dac and I had heard enough of one a few months back to picque my interest.

So today I wondered down to the Gold Coast with a NOS1a and invaded that room.  The DS sits on an optimised isolation platform with a PS3 power conditioner, media server and power supply underneath on their own isolation platforms.  Great big thick expensive looking power cables everywhere and some nice floorstanding speakers.  The room is quite heavily damped and is less lively than I would like it.  The amplifier was a very expensive but exceedingly dry sounding behemoth that will remain nameless because I did not like it at all.

The NOS1a got its own isolation platform although it is one rated for a 30kg valve amplifer and is most likely too stiff to do much of a job.  My computer sat on the floor and my power cables were the $2 variety that did not run through any power conditioning at all.  Balanced interconnects were an identical make to the DS although mine are shorter and I was unable to keep them away from power cords.  $2 USB cable for me and $500 USB cable for the DS.

I gave the NOS1a a couple of hours to warm up and get on-song and then I did some proper listening.

Well Peter, based on that room you have nothing to fear from Directstream (with current Pikes Peak firmware installed).  The NOS1a was more fluid, more defined and especially the vocals were a step above.  An interesting thing that I noticed was that in the slower music   the DS seemed to be running about 10% faster than the NOS1a...it seemed to be in a hurry and rushing things.  By comparison the solo piano/female vocal with the NOS1a was seductive...it got the blood flowing like it was supposed to...with the DS it seemed like the artist was smashing through things cause they needed to go to the loo (over-exaggeration but you get what I mean).  I don't know what was causing this.  With the DS I was hearing more of a "blowing on the microphone" sound and with the NOS1a I was getting much much more of the sound that comes from the throat:  that purr, hoarse whisper; growl.  Later on I set a timer on two tracks and both dacs seemed to run to within the margin of error so all was ok with the rate of playback it seems.

In contrast when I put on some energetic beat heavy music such as Daft Punk the NOS1a was more lively with better bass control, especially in the sub 100Hz region.  I am not sure what is going on, but the DS seemed fast in the slow stuff and slow in the fast stuff when compared to the NOS1a. 

The DS also played plucked strings differently...they sounded "fatter" and less crisp.  The NOS1a certainly put more twang into those strings.  I had some good cymbal tracks lined up but ran out of time (only had 4 hours!!).

All in all though, I think the DS is probably the best DSD dac that I have heard, it probably came the closer to a Phasure dac than the Playback and MSB dacs that I had in my room for several weeks each.  Considering those other DSD dacs cost a lot more than the DS that is something special.

In the end though, I came away loving the overall "balance" of the NOS1a.  I felt that the DS was still an immature product, it still has pimples and a croaky voice, but if what it's fans say is true, each firmware release is bringing it much closer to full maturity.  The NOS1a by comparison is at its maturity/performance peak, it is the master of its endeavours and it seems to set no foot wrong.

Cheers,

Anthony

PS:  Just re-read this...I hope it does not come across as too wanky...

[PeterSt]

Well well Anthony, what do you know ...

Wanky ? nah, didn't see that. Only the title could be somewhat misleading. See mine. Haha.

So even wth Pikes Peak eh ? well, too bad I guess.

I assume you were not alone in there. Did the other(s) agree ?

Thank you so much for sharing !
Peter

[acg]

It was not an organised GTG.  I was dropping some amplifiers down there and at the last moment decided to throw the NOS1a in the ute as well.  Our mate Bill was also going to be there at about the same time, but I said nothing about having the NOS1a on the back seat so he was delayed somewhere along the line and did not make it until later on.

The guy there (Aiden) dropped in and requested some Diana Krall so we played that on both dacs and then he mentioned that he like the "blowing on the mic" thing and then he went out to do something else.  So I had four hours to myself, which was just perfect for making up my own mind.

[PeterSt]

LOL!

Thank you Anthony.
Peter

[acg]

Wanky ? nah, didn't see that. Only the title could be somewhat misleading. See mine. Haha.


Peter

Title changed.  Did not even pick that mistake up.  Thanks Peter.

[manisandher]

Well Peter, based on that room you have nothing to fear from Directstream (with current Pikes Peak firmware installed).

Are the two similarly priced?

Although I haven't heard many recently, I get the impression that modern delta-sigma DACs seem to be getting a lot better (with PCM material). Is the PSAudio one of the current front-runners in this regard?

Mani.

PS. Nah, not wanky at all.

[PeterSt]

Although I haven't heard many recently, I get the impression that modern delta-sigma DACs seem to be getting a lot better (with PCM material).

Hi Mani,

What gives you this impression ?
Could be difficult to answer and never mind then.

Peter

PS: For fun read the PS Audio page about this :
http://www.psaudio.com/directstream-dac/
and reflect ...

[acg]

Well Peter, based on that room you have nothing to fear from Directstream (with current Pikes Peak firmware installed).

Are the two similarly priced?

Although I haven't heard many recently, I get the impression that modern delta-sigma DACs seem to be getting a lot better (with PCM material). Is the PSAudio one of the current front-runners in this regard?

Mani.

PS. Nah, not wanky at all.

Very similarly priced.

There has been an extraordinary amount of hype surrounding the DS...some big claims made and some dubious "supporting evidence".

[manisandher]

What gives you this impression ?

Well, the main thing is my own impression of every delta-sigma DAC I've ever heard. They sound 'dead' to me. And I'm not hearing people reporting this nowadays when they write about modern DACs. But as I said, I haven't heard many (any?) high-end ones for years now.

PS: For fun read the PS Audio page... and reflect.

Just read the PSAudio page. In the 'Features' they say:

Most of today’s sophisticated DACs are IC based instruments using off-the-shelf-chips that are Multi-bit Sigma Delta based designs. While these are relatively simple to design and produce, they don’t often give the best results sonically. Because they are one-chip systems compromises are made in their architecture that found in DirectStream’s custom based architecture.

I added the italics because I don't understand this sentence at all. Anyone care to help me?

Then in the 'Specs' they say:

Analog Conversion method:   Delta Sigma (DSD) Single-bit double rate

So, the unique selling point of this DAC is single-bit delta sigma conversion??? I have an old KORG MR1000 ADC/DAC here which uses the CS4398 DAC chip - a single-bit double rate DAC chip. Presumably, this old unit does exactly what the PSAudio does when converting PCM to analogue. So what's new in the PSAudio? The fact that everything is converted to DSD? Isn't this exactly what the CS4398 DAC chip does? I mean, isn't DSD the marketing name for single-bit delta sigma?

For me, the really crucial thing is that there is still a digital conversion stage going on in the PSAudio in getting from PCM to analogue, and this can never be a good thing.

Someone please... what am I missing?

Mani.

[PeterSt]

If you can translate this for me :

Introducing DirectStream DAC, both Stereophile and Absolute Sound’s Product Of The Year. Hand written, discrete, perfection based conversion that uncovers all the missing information hiding in your digital audio media for all these years.

then maybe we understand more of it.

Start with the first sentence to maybe better interpret the (first two words of) the second.

[manisandher]

WTF? Haha...

And what's 'perfection based conversion' anyway?

Totally off-topic (seeing as we're talking about PSAudio):

I still have an old PSAudio P300 AC regenerator - very useful for when I need a 120V input for a source component (you can bypass the 120/240 output transformer to get 120V). Mine has the 'multi-wave' function - here a single odd harmonic is added to each sinewave fundamental to produce "partial" squarewaves. What's interesting is how this totally changes the sound. It has made every source component I've tried it with seem brighter and more dynamic. And I've wondered for many years if noise in the AC mains does a similar thing. So maybe we shouldn't be striving for perfect AC mains after all?

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Kemp's "regenerator" stuff do similar; make a sine more square with the idea that net there's more juice to the connected equipment which meanwhile is harmless.
But not exactly my idea about things.

Brighter ? the word/phenomenon already doesn't sound the best to me. Distortion is just that (maybe try again without upsampling/filtering ).

Peter

[manisandher]

Well, I've had my P300 for about 14 years or so now. It took me a very short time when I upgraded to 'multiwave' to prefer the straight 50Hz pure sine setting.

But I find it interesting how profoundly the AC mains can affect a component's sound.

Mani.