Gordon 7:26AM
Posts: 5,761PS Expert
Well, here we go with first LISTENING impressions.
The DirectStream DAC has been playing and burning in on the Bridge input for a bit over 24 hours. It is cool that I just touch a button and get a drop in gain in case anyone wants to sleep through the night while the music continues to play. I mentioned earlier, there are some thoughtful and welcome changes to the front panel that feel, well, just more 21st century than the old one.
My Set up for Perspective.
Mac Mini running JRMC with cat-6 ethernet connected to the DS/Bridge.
Single ended rca from DS to First Sound tube pre-amp and single ended to Jeff Rowland MC-6 amp running in “high current” mode and connected with Shunyata “Lyra” speaker cables to a pair of healthy, but vintage, Wilson Watt3/Puppy2 speakers.
The general signature of my system is pretty neutral. The Wilsons, in some set ups, can tend to be a bit analytical.
A few years ago I swapped out the Puppy drivers for the ones that are supplied in the newer 7 and 8 series. They are not necessarily “warmer” but just a bit “fuller”.
This and the tube pre-amp into the Rowland SS amp has pretty much provided me with a system that just plays what is there and you either love it or you don’t.
Oh, “and just one more thing”.
My honey came home last evening from a few days trip and a neighbor’s wife popped in to say hi for a few minutes.
Music was playing pretty loud and I was sitting with a note pad throwing some words on it when she asked “what are you doing, now”?
Well, “see that silver box over there”? I am listening to it.
The look on her face was a classic. Somewhere between a stern policewoman and a compassionate psyche ward nurse.
“OKaaaaa” she said, walking away.
It dawned on me that what I had said could sound pretty ridiculous to many people and give the impression that “Audiophileism” does strange things to grown men over time.
My list of things to check like stage, timbre, tone, articulation, energy, presence, emotion, yada yada yada can be summed up in ONE word.
YES!
Perhaps you were awaiting some thesis on the DS that would be “over the top” positive to justify that you have a DS or kit on order and whether you can afford it or not.
I had many PMs begging for a comparison to my PWD , which , by the way is just another little box but happens to be black.
So one box to another? really?
The PWD, as most of us know, rings all the bells in the above buzz words and rings then loud and clear. The subjectivity is in the degree for each descriptive and can vary depending on the equipment used and the ears of the listener.
The PWD is GOLD.
The DirectStream DAC is PLATINUM+.
It does EVERYTHING the PWD does, it just does them all better.
Timbre, for example was remarkable with PWD MKII and nativeX. The separation of attack, tone and decay were well discussed here after the MKII upgrade.
The already VG sound stage is even better now .
What does better mean? Wider, higher, deeper? NO. “MORE REAL”.
So I am going to let the review experts delve more deeply into the “fine details” and I’ll try to sum up the bottom line for this new DAC.
From the first few minutes of listening I felt that something was very different.
I took out my buzz word list so I could start dissecting the “what is different” and of course “was it a better, different?”
I kept getting distracted from my list. Yes, by the MUSIC.
My body was toe-tapping, my shoulders moving, WTF.?
The difference, with this DAC is that it SOUNDS RIGHT!
The timing is spot on. The instruments sound REAL for the first time.
Not Analog real, or Organic real etc, JUST real like it is somehow supposed to be in nature. Like “you are there”? You be the judge of that. I think we have never been closer.
So far I have limited my listening to red book to see if what Ted and Paul were saying held true for me.
Yes, it does seem like some instruments have more presence and they have this without becoming more forward. Tabla and high hats etc are now more part of the performance.
Is this because of “more info” on the CD? I am not sure and quite frankly, I don’t care.
It is just there and if I were to rate this baby compared to PWD then it would be a 10-15% improvement on all the buzz words but a whole new experience in the “realness” of what this “BOX” delivers.
I hope to listen to some hi-rez and DSD files today. I am not so sure that I will be posting whether flac-192 sounds better than DSD64 yada yada,.
It really doesn’t matter.
What you put in to this baby is what you get out. If the red book is well produced it will be really yummy. If not, you will just not play it as often.
"REAL" is what I think I have been striving for all these years.
And, "REAL" it is!
To quote a fellow Canadian starship commander "ENGAGE".
One thing you WILL do is Listen to Music, and YES, tap your toes.
- See more at:
http://www.psaudio.com/vanilla/discussion/6605/directstream-dac-first-impression...------------------------------------------------------------------
tedsmith 4:03PM
Posts: 173Member, PS Expert
My design goal was to get people's feet to tap. I'd witnessed for years that when I heard jitter people were a little more on edge. When I didn't hear jitter their feet tapped. I only make changes to my system that cause me to tap my feet more. If I tap less (or worse listen less) I know I've gone too far or just screwed up. When I have people over to listen or I take my DAC to other places I don't care what they say, I watch their feet.
Most people won't worry about how it compares to a PWD after they hear it. They enjoy the DS more and see no reason to care about how or why it's different.
P.S. I consulted on the MkII, or more properly we all had a brainstorming session and I suggested a list of possible ways to lower jitter (get people's feet to tap more). They chose from that list a subset that they thought were interesting/possible/practical/whatever and not a little of the MkII difference from the original PWD comes from the same point of view as the DS.
- See more at:
http://www.psaudio.com/vanilla/discussion/6605/directstream-dac-first-impression...