PS auido Direct stream Dac

I've owned, in order, the NAD M12 pre/DAC, MYTEC Liberty DAC, Audio Mirror Tubadour III SE, and now the PS Audio DirectStream DAC.  The PS Audio DirectStream DAC, IMHO, is the best of the lot.  For the price you pay, you'd expect it to be.  The Audio Mirror DAC is a close second and is a wonderful sounding DAC.

If you go the DirectStream DAC route, I suggest buying a Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2 instead of Bridge II, and a decent HDMI cable for an i2s interface.  I have both, and the Matrix SQ is clearly superior.  I no longer use Bridge II.

See:  www.AbsolutePolarity.com

You are in luck!  I just made the switch the Holo May KTE from the Direct Stream.  I had both in my system for 3 months and in my particular system (Innuos MK3-->DAC-->Don Sachs Custom Pre-->Coincident Frankenstein 300B monos--> BD Design Horn speakers) the May crushed the Direct Stream of which I had used for 3 years.  Note that I did load the new "sunshine" firmware on the Direct Stream and A/B ed for a week before finally letting go of the DS.  Make no mistake the DS is very good and with the multiple firmwares available it's quite flexible.  The downside is the Bridge-II is marginal at best and to get the best from the DS you must use the I2s input which has minimal upstream support.  Your mileage may vary. 

The Directstream is wonderful. However, PS Audio shall soon release the next version dac. Very good deals may be reached soon for this unit. 

Cambridge Audio 851N is a nice streamer with good DACs. Hindered by a so-so app (StreamMagic) it’s not magic 😏

Yeah, PS Audio is intriguing, but as the state of the art is in flux, the price is a little steep.