I purchased a PS Audio DirectStream MK II, my first PS Audio gear, and it arrived about a month ago. I’m familiar with the thread regarding hum. It’s a head scratcher and I can’t make any sense of it.
That said, this Dac is mind blowing good. Although I have experienced hum and ground loop in other older equipment and know how frustrating it is trying to resolve , the MK II is dead quiet. I find it difficult to turn off as the music keeps sucking me in for “just one more” track. I’m running Roon on a 2013 Mac Pro with both Qobuz and Tidal and a small library of DSD 256 files to a Rose 150b, then to the MK II via AQ Coffee USB, onto a PrimaLuna EVO 400 integrated and finally out to Klipsch speakers. The MK II dac provides significantly more detail and 3D sound stage than the Rose 150b internal dac although the latter is very good as well. I was influenced to buy intrigued by the inclusion of two FGPAs and ability to galvanically isolate various inputs and outputs.
PS Audio Direct Stream MK2 DAC
While researching the PS Audio Direct Stream MK2 DAC on the PSA Forum, I came across this:
"Regarding “hum,” Ted said: “ You had the opportunity to return your device if it was wasn’t acceptable. I don’t know how one could claim to have been screwed…….”
Not only that, this “hum” was a known feature, as it was discussed early and often in the beta thread. Paul even went so far as to claim every component PSA has ever produced (or at least, every component on his shelf) has this hum."
Further, Ted himself says:
"The hum is coming from the piezoelectric response from a few critical capacitors in the power supply. The device was designed with a component that wouldn’t cause this problem, but supply chain problems forced us to design in a slightly older version of the part which caused the hum. Unfortunately, the new and old parts aren’t footprint compatible, so we’re stuck with the older version for a while even when the newer parts become available again."
Ted is Ted Smith, the" Chief Digital Dude" at PS Audio.
Question to all PSA DS MK2 DAC owners, do you hear a hum?
All in all, do you think it would be better to wait for a while until the problem sorts itself out - OR - is it "much ado about nothing" and I should just go ahead and get the PSA DAC?
I am leaning towards waiting .... But I am interested to hear your views too.