thosb OP Also try a different source, as I’m not convinced about the firmware fixing what the Stereophile reviewer heard because they didn’t do back-flips over it, which is kinda what your hearing too. As what they heard could be
interpreted as "smearing" also. Cheers George |
thosb
BAT VK-55, sourced by PS Audio PW DAC, with bridge II, mostly tidal. The DAC serves as a preamp in terms of volume control. Mostly Audioquest cables, amp power cord is Cardas Clear m, all fed by PS Audio upc-200. I am am hoping to improve the highs, which sometimes sound smeared, too much sibilance; would like more air and clarity. thosb Looking at all your specs: By going direct from PS Audio to Bat 55 and using the Bat’s volume control, specs below shows you have a perfect match with it and the most transparent and dynamic way you will hear your system. If your getting "smearing of the highs" putting an expensive preamp in the chain will not fix the problem, all it can do is color it more, the problem lays elsewhere. Specs
"The bat VK55 input impedance is 215kohms"
"PS Direct Stream’s volume control is a no-loss design and may be used at any setting from 1 to 100 without fear of resolution loss.
DirectStream also has two output levels available to users. Go to the setup menu on the front panel touch screen to select the best output level. The maximumoutput voltage at 1kHz was 2.85V balanced and 1.44V" In the Stereophile review below of your PS dac they said below. This maybe colored by getting the very fine Shiit $149 http://www.schiit.com/products/loki an equalizer that a few here love for what it can do for a problem system, and you can send it back, if it don’t work. " My first impression was that the PS Audio was rounding off the attack components of notes to the detriment of their sonic physicality, seemed a bit rounded off and lacking the immediacy of, say, Bricasti’s fine M1 DAC" New firmware seemed to fix some of this, but the way they described it wasn’t convincing, to me at least.. Listening with new firmware
Apparently, my thoughts on the DirectStream’s slightly distant, less-than-fully-textured sound were shared by someone at PS Audio: Unbidden, Paul McGowan contacted me in early June, alerting me to a user-installable firmware update aimed, he said, at "opening up" the sound—and, concomitantly, enabling the DAC to accept PCM files of sampling rates up to 352.8kHz. The new firmware (v.1.1.4) arrived the next day on an SD card; installation was a simple matter of powering down the converter, inserting the card in the rear-panel slot, powering the unit back up with the card in place, and, after reinitialization, removing the card. Anyone could do it. To get a handle on the update, I went back to Beck’s "Lonesome Tears"—and was pleasantly surprised by a very audible increase in texture and touch. Cheers George
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so that implies there is a role for separate linestages but theirs is a very sophisticated passive. Curious to hear the difference. I’m not convinced an active linestage does anything needed, but might create a sound that sounds more dynamic Could only sound more dynamic if the passive was hobbled with a serious impedance mismatch. As an active line stage cannot in any way improve the dynamics of the source unless it has a dynamic range ex-pander circuit in it, and they sound rubbish. Cheers George |
Schiit Freya?
Perfect, you have the choice of passive, tube, or solid state. And it has everything you need. Still going direct without "bit stripping" is the most transparent/dynamic way of getting the source to the poweramp/s. Some people just don't like the sound of their source so they prefer to color it with a preamp. Cheers George |
