PS Audio Direct Stream

This is a 30 minute discussion by PS Audio on their new Direct Stream DAC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRg-Rrd2blY

Paul describes some brief history of the project and Ted Smith, Technical Designer, provides a review of the technology. It is very interesting.

As per the PS Audio web site, the PS Audio Direct Stream "converts all digital inputs, including PCM, to pure 1-bit DSD". All of the Direct Stream processing is being done using the 1-bit DSD format.

Does this mean the source PCM music is going through a "double" conversion? The PCM source is being converted to DSD and the DSD is being converted, again, to analog for input to an amplifier (or a pre-amplifier).

Since the source music is being converted twice, does this mean some music is being lost with the two translations? I always thought that less conversions being done to the source music produces the best sound. Will the double conversion produce the desired results? Maybe a better question is how successful is the DSD processing in the Direct Stream.

If the conversion from PCM to DSD produces the best musical sound, does this mean that others will offer DAC's that do the same PCM to DSD conversion?

I am waiting for someone to review the Direct Stream and let us know how it sounds. I have the same comment as Ozzy did above. "The PS Audio claim seem too good to be true".

Ozzy: You have zero risk buying the PS Audio Direct Stream DAC since PS Audio has a 100% money back return policy. If the unit does not sound okay, you can return it and get your money back. In addition, PS Audio Customer Support is terrific if you need it.

Please see this link for the PS Audio return policy.

http://www.psaudio.com/returns-and-security/

I agree with you that many hi-end units require a break in time. For example, I own the Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC and their manual says the unit requires about 100-500 hours of break in time. My unit sounded much better after about 200 hours of use. It is fully broken in now and sounds terrific.

When you get the unit, please give us your impressions out of the box and again after some break in time.

As noted above, three magazines gave the PS Audio DirectStream DAC an outstanding review.

However, it still brothers me that the DirectStream converts all inputs to 10 x DSD, and then uses a true single-bit double-rate DSD core engine to prepare the signal for output. In other words, it is performing many calculations on the source file for output. I suppose I should forget about the technical stuff in the DirectStream DAC and just judge the DirectStream by how it sounds.

In any case, I am still very happy with my Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC and see no reason to think about replacing it. I am still fascinated by the DirectStreams’s technical design and its use of DSD technology.

Does it really sound as good as the reviewers say it does?