PS Audio Directstream DAC

Yomaha · « **on:** 2 Jun 2018, 04:27 am »

Hi

I have a PS Audio DSD DAC arriving tomorrow. I am curious if folks here have any listening impressions or experience with this DAC. I was also interested to see what seems to be the best way to feed it? They have an Ethernet card that can be purchased separate and function as a roon point. It can also take USB. I'll be sending It USB via raspberry pi. I suspect that may be my weak link for the time being. Any I put on that is much appreciated.

busterfree · « **Reply #1 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 12:36 pm »

I like mine. I use the Bridge II input. Enjoy.

TomS · « **Reply #2 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 12:43 pm »

I love mine too. I use Roon, mConnect, and Spotify directly with the Bridge II via ethernet connection, so no need for another USB streaming device at all.

jtwrace · « **Reply #3 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 01:00 pm »

Love mine too. Get the Bridge II!

santacore · « **Reply #4 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 05:17 pm »

I love my DS Jr.! So much so that I've debated upgrading to the Sr..

richidoo · « **Reply #5 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 06:40 pm »

Quote from: santacore on 2 Jun 2018, 05:17 pm

I love my DS Jr.! So much so that I've debated upgrading to the Sr..

I'm thinking about getting DS Jr. What's the difference to the daddy DS besides the chassis?

A_shah · « **Reply #6 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 07:10 pm »

Quote from: Yomaha on 2 Jun 2018, 04:27 am

Hi

I have a PS Audio DSD DAC arriving tomorrow. I am curious if folks here have any listening impressions or experience with this DAC. I was also interested to see what seems to be the best way to feed it? They have an Ethernet card that can be purchased separate and function as a roon point. It can also take USB. I'll be sending It USB via raspberry pi. I suspect that may be my weak link for the time being. Any I put on that is much appreciated.

Congratulations ! you will enjoy your DS DAC, I love mine , it compares favorably to the Chord Dave DAC.
listening impressions, it is very smooth converts all inputs to DSD format , I did not buy a Bridge 11 as PS audio is coming out with a Bridge 111 hopefully at the end of the year !
I use OPPO 203 UHD as a transport and DS as the DAC , using Analog connections of the Oppo.
For a 2nd input the Optical with a glass Toslink which gives me 24bit/96 resolution for streaming through Nvidia Shield TV box to stream Tidal , Sportify and upsample Vimeo/Utube Video's ( does the same job as a bridge 11)
One thing to be aware off is that that "Is/HDMI " does not work with HDMI of OPPO or any other device except for PS audio Memory Player( that uses an Oppo Transport!!).
The unit is very sensitive compared to my other DAC's also I note it seems to get better after it is broken in

Asghar

TomS · « **Reply #7 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 08:15 pm »

Quote from: richidoo on 2 Jun 2018, 06:40 pm

I'm thinking about getting DS Jr. What's the difference to the daddy DS besides the chassis?

Just go big!

Yomaha · « **Reply #8 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 09:34 pm »

I've read in the PS Audio forums that bridge III will NOT function as a roon endpoint. At least that's what they are saying right now. PS Audio is working on a program to compete with Roon. They call it Octave. I love roon so I'm probably not waiting around for octave. But that's just me.

I found my DSD senior used from a very reputable dealer. I'll just say the cost was less than a brand new Junior and it came with 90 day reseller warranty. I can see on the FedEx website that the DSD Sr. has arrived! Can't wait to get home and fire it up. I'll be really curious to see how it breaks in!!

santacore · « **Reply #9 on:** 2 Jun 2018, 10:33 pm »

Quote from: richidoo on 2 Jun 2018, 06:40 pm

I'm thinking about getting DS Jr. What's the difference to the daddy DS besides the chassis?

The JR is built on a single board and the SR on 5 separate. Allegedly the SR has a lower noise floor because of this, and possibly better detail. SR also has color touch screen, transformer based outputs vs op amps. From what I've read you get that extra 10-20% resolution/performance from the SR.

richidoo · « **Reply #10 on:** 3 Jun 2018, 01:59 am »

Thanks for explaining the differences santacore. The output stage is important to me so I guess it's SR for me.

andolink · « **Reply #11 on:** 3 Jun 2018, 11:29 am »

Interesting thread as I'm expecting my DSD Sr. to arrive Wednesday afternoon following home trials of 3 consecutive DSD Jr.'s each of which ended up having the same problem (intermittent failures of the remote volume control).

The class act that PS Audio are, they offered me the DSD Sr. in a direct swap for my 3rd malfunctioning DSD Jr. at no additional cost.

I'll be feeding it with my DirectStream Memory Player which I've had in my system for about 8 weeks.

mav52 · « **Reply #12 on:** 3 Jun 2018, 03:22 pm »

Question for those DirectStream DAC owners with the Bridge. Is its DSD limit 256 ? Will this DAC upsample to 256 ? What about upsample to 512 , just wondering.

Yomaha · « **Reply #13 on:** 3 Jun 2018, 03:25 pm »

My frame of reference is limited to my Bifrost DAC which is not an apples to apples comparison to the DSD Sr. But what I can say is that the clarity, detail and staging is night and day better. There is a crispness to the high frequencies but it is not harsh or fatiguing. I’ve already heard several new nuances and details in tracks that I’ve listened to for 20 years and never noticed before . That’s one of my favorite things about this hobby (obsession).

I let the dac burn in all night. Can’t tell a noticeable difference yet but I found my remote not working this morning. Same issue as mentioned above?

Yomaha · « **Reply #14 on:** 3 Jun 2018, 03:28 pm »

Looks like a reboot fixed remote issue.

andolink · « **Reply #15 on:** 3 Jun 2018, 03:58 pm »

Reboots and any number of other things failed to fix the remote volume control issue I was having with the DSD Jr.

Glad to hear a simple reboot was all you needed and hope it continues problem free.

nc42acc · « **Reply #16 on:** 3 Jun 2018, 05:18 pm »

Rich
Get in touch with Ron at Liquid HIFI, he will give you a great deal.

Quote from: richidoo on 3 Jun 2018, 01:59 am

Thanks for explaining the differences santacore. The output stage is important to me so I guess it's SR for me.

richidoo · « **Reply #17 on:** 3 Jun 2018, 09:23 pm »

Quote from: nc42acc on 3 Jun 2018, 05:18 pm

Rich
Get in touch with Ron at Liquid HIFI, he will give you a great deal.

busterfree · « **Reply #18 on:** 4 Jun 2018, 12:37 am »

Quote from: mav52 on 3 Jun 2018, 03:22 pm

Question for those DirectStream DAC owners with the Bridge. Is its DSD limit 256 ? Will this DAC upsample to 256 ? What about upsample to 512 , just wondering.

I don’t know. Webpage says “DAC upsamples PCM and DSD to 20x DSD rate”. Not sure what all that means. I have played some free classical DSD64 files with the Bridge II. My music collection sounds great and the streaming is very convenient.

mav52 · « **Reply #19 on:** 4 Jun 2018, 12:51 am »

Quote from: busterfree on 4 Jun 2018, 12:37 am

I don’t know. Webpage says “DAC upsamples PCM and DSD to 20x DSD rate”. Not sure what all that means. I have played some free classical DSD64 files with the Bridge II. My music collection sounds great and the streaming is very convenient.

I found where Ted Smith the designer noted this

" 20 times the nominal DSD rate is 10 x as fast as double the DSD rate (DSD 128). The nominal DSD rate is DSD 64 which is 64 * 44.1k. DSD 128 is double rate DSD or 128 * 44.1k.

20 x the nominal DSD rate is 56.448MHz. The DS upsamples everything to 30 bits at 56.448MHz then converts it to double rate DSD (one bit at 5.6448MHz) for final output. This allows small integer upsampling of 44.1k, 88.2k, 176.4k, 352.8k, 48k, 96, 192k, 384k, etc. (by 1280 x, 640 x, 320 x, 160 x, 1176 x, 588 x, 294 x, 147 x, etc.) "https://forum.psaudio.com/t/dsj-roon-with-or-without-hqp/5565

So bottom line " it’s 30 bits at the rate of DSD 1280, not just 1 bit at the rate of DSD 1280". clear as mud.