T+A DAC200 vs PSAudio Direct Stream MkII vs MCD12000?

That is an unusual trio for comparison so I’m not surprised you haven’t received any feedback. I’m curious: have you heard all three DACs or are you considering auditioning these three and are wondering if they’re appropriate choices for consideration?

I have direct experience with the DAC200 as I own it and have auditioned a number of competing units in that price range. Happy to try to answer questions if you have them. I understand the MkII version of the PSAudio to be quite good, but haven’t auditioned it.

the Mac?  My previous experience of auditions and my dealer’s direct experience is that digital is not their fast ball. At least yet. Perhaps this one is different.

I think you have a good plan for this. I thought I would mention that you may very well find the DAC200 spectacular on PCM with your Aurender unit. Many do. 

There are so many variables. The quality of the streamer (you have a very good one), and input source on your DAC (s/pdif, AES, USB) and quality of your network in front of your source all make a difference. 

I mention these things so you are not dissuaded from trying the DAC200. PCM was very good - and I was comparing it to another $7500 DAC and a $10,000 DAC in PCM. In my system - because I could - DSD was better. 

Good luck with your car restoration. We hope you come back to this thread and let us know what you found.

Best,

@mhwilliford 

My apologies for not being clearer. I think the DAC200 and PS Audio to be competitors. The Mac was the outlier - sorry for the confusion.

As I noted, I haven’t heard the PS Audio unit, but understand it to be quite good.

I’ve owned or auditioned comparably priced DACs from Auralic, Simaudio and Linn Organik. I’ve also auditioned much more expensive DACs from Linn, Ideon and T+A’s reference series (though I didn’t try DSD on that unit because I didn’t know then what I know now).

On PCM files, the DAC200 was similar in performance to the others (very good, different, but not necessarily better or worse). It wasn’t until I fed it DSD files (I have a processor that let’s me convert all files to DSD) that I noticed the benefits claimed by T+A of having a separate true 1 bit processing path for DSD. On those, the T+A pulled ahead of everything else I had compared it to anywhere near its price. You can use HQ player software to accomplish the same thing.

If you don’t have a dealer to work with, I can comfortably recommend you reach out to Juan @blisshifi. His guidance was particularly helpful to me and he’s not pushy in the least. One of the good guys.

As @soix notes, there is a lot of good competition at this price point to consider that might be an even better fit for you, depending on what you’re looking for. For me, I can gladly say the positive reviews and chatter about the DAC200 proved true. On DSD, it’s very, very good.  

As always, YMMV so a home audition is a must. 

Best,