As someone who is in the clothing business, my technical knowledge of some of the things mentioned above is pretty limited. that said, i have been into and enjoying good home high end audio since the mid seventies. I have a system that is 100% PS Audio and think they are a fantastic company with fantastic products. Is there better out there? Probably but i do not stray as i am happily married. When a company has designers like Paul McGowan, Ted Smith, BHK, etc. then that is pretty impressive. Add great customer service and built and serviced in the US, plus the free upgrades like Red Cloud (which i thought was a nice improvement over Huron) and they are #1 in my book. And they have great sounding products which is why we are all here.
I love my PS Audio Direct Stream with Red Cloud :)
Yesterday, PS Audio released the Red Cloud FPGA software written by MIT genius
Ted Smith.
With immense delight, I auditioned all through the night.
The beauty exceeds what were my wildest expectations when I purchased the DAC
several years ago, and reconfirmed that I had made another good choice (my
previous good choices include Tannoy 15" DC speakers, Cary SLP05 preamp,
Art Audio Jota HC monoblocks, Wavelength Cardinal monoblocks, Cardas Clear
cables, Acoustic Zen reference cables, Wyred4Sound server, PS Audio Premier
Power Plant, inexpensive HDMI cable, and ceramic corn dishes.
While I haven't heard a great many DACs, I have heard static-state Sabre DACs,
which sound ear-bleeding mediocre IME, and R2R chips which were the thing 20+
years ago. I think that FPGA Red Cloud is superior, and the best thing
aesthetically to have come from a scientist educated at MIT. Make music, not
war.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with PS Audio, except as a happy customer. It's
just a great company!