Opinions on PS Audio Direct Stream DAC (Mk 1)


PS Audio is clearing out factory refurbished Direct Stream DACs, the original version from 2014 or 2015, for about $1800. I'm wondering if I could get opinions on this DAC. It's old technology as far as digital goes, but it got nice reviews when it was new. It can do DSD64 and DSD128. It upsamples everything internally to DSD.

I'm interested in musicality and musical involvement, especially dynamics (macro and micro), accuracy of instrumental timbre and extracting the beauty out of the recording, low noise floor and high resolution.

magon

I had one for 2-3 years and it was meh, ok.  The main issue that I had with it is upper treble extension - or lack thereof it.  PS gently rolls off the highs for some unknown reason and this ended up being what did the unit in for me.  Combo with with one of their P12 regenerators and it's way too much.  I was coming from record/turntable listening, so I didn't really know any better.  I thought maybe a high end DAC was supposed to make digital sound more like the relaxed highs from an analog rig.  But little did I know... 

Even my Ayre Codex PC DAC sounded better in the end, so I moved it into my main system and sold the PS while awaiting a new QX-5 Twenty from Ayre.  I love that thing.

Cool. Could be just bad synergy. It’s very detailed in my system and treble is excellent 

***Before buying, read the recent Stereophile review of the MkII, which provides some useful first-hand comparisons.