At my last outing, I built and thoroughly enjoyed the Audio Note 4.1 LE all tube multibit nonoversampling dac.
With a great offer for it in trade for my recently acquired Conrad-Johnson Premier 140s (more than I paid for the Audio Note), I thought I might use the opportunity to try something a little different (!) and got another outstanding deal on a new in box PS Audio Directstream DAC. You can read the universal reviews and accolades of this piece, but I'll just share my initial impressions, and will do a follow up later, after complete burn-in (said to be 250-300 hours). Whether you subscribe to burn in or not, an extended listening period will refine my impressions.
The Directstream is an FPGA dac, hand coded by Ted Smith, an MIT PhD and former senior Microsoft engineer, so I'd guess he has the chops to pull this off.
Here's what I hear, with about 35 hours on the dac streaming Tidal HiFi (16/44 and MQA) through my custom VTA SP14 preamp, M125s or biamped Conrad Johnson Premier 140s and Magneplanar 3.6/R speakers, carefully positioned- the latest software, Snowmass, arrived in the dac.
The AudioNote 4.1LE has a midrange and sense of "you are there" to die for. The Directstream, which is also transformer coupled at its output, maintains this glorious midrange but adds extension at both the low and high end. The lows are very solid, articulate and convey all the harmonics a real acoustic string bass is capable of. Wonderful!
With a noise floor of -130 to -140 db, the highs are very detailed with no sheen, screeching, dentist drill effect or other digital nasties that most delta-sigma chips can produce.
Like having all the goodness of a good multibit dac with none of the drawbacks. With the transformer coupled output acting as a low pass filter, both the Directstream and the Audionote do a great job of avoiding the usual digititis. No opamps or other uninspired cost savings measures in either dac.
The Directstream, with it's quiet, extended response conveys a nice sense of fullness, very satisfying.
Dynamics, decay, and really impressive imaging and soundstaging are all attributes of the Directstream, and the "impact" of leading edges such as the strike of a piano key, the pluck of a guitar string or the "blat" of a trumpet really bring music to life. Toes a tappin!
More to come later, but this dac is a keeper, especially with the regularly updated software as Ted Smith continues to refine his code. Like regularly having a new, updated dac at no additional cost.
Strongly recommended. Expensive, but if you shop carefully.......
BTW, the Directstream Jr, with the same FPGA code but recently discontinued is a great buy. PS Audio will continue to support the Jr.
Later -
Bill
With a great offer for it in trade for my recently acquired Conrad-Johnson Premier 140s (more than I paid for the Audio Note), I thought I might use the opportunity to try something a little different (!) and got another outstanding deal on a new in box PS Audio Directstream DAC. You can read the universal reviews and accolades of this piece, but I'll just share my initial impressions, and will do a follow up later, after complete burn-in (said to be 250-300 hours). Whether you subscribe to burn in or not, an extended listening period will refine my impressions.
The Directstream is an FPGA dac, hand coded by Ted Smith, an MIT PhD and former senior Microsoft engineer, so I'd guess he has the chops to pull this off.
Here's what I hear, with about 35 hours on the dac streaming Tidal HiFi (16/44 and MQA) through my custom VTA SP14 preamp, M125s or biamped Conrad Johnson Premier 140s and Magneplanar 3.6/R speakers, carefully positioned- the latest software, Snowmass, arrived in the dac.
The AudioNote 4.1LE has a midrange and sense of "you are there" to die for. The Directstream, which is also transformer coupled at its output, maintains this glorious midrange but adds extension at both the low and high end. The lows are very solid, articulate and convey all the harmonics a real acoustic string bass is capable of. Wonderful!
With a noise floor of -130 to -140 db, the highs are very detailed with no sheen, screeching, dentist drill effect or other digital nasties that most delta-sigma chips can produce.
Like having all the goodness of a good multibit dac with none of the drawbacks. With the transformer coupled output acting as a low pass filter, both the Directstream and the Audionote do a great job of avoiding the usual digititis. No opamps or other uninspired cost savings measures in either dac.
The Directstream, with it's quiet, extended response conveys a nice sense of fullness, very satisfying.
Dynamics, decay, and really impressive imaging and soundstaging are all attributes of the Directstream, and the "impact" of leading edges such as the strike of a piano key, the pluck of a guitar string or the "blat" of a trumpet really bring music to life. Toes a tappin!
More to come later, but this dac is a keeper, especially with the regularly updated software as Ted Smith continues to refine his code. Like regularly having a new, updated dac at no additional cost.
Strongly recommended. Expensive, but if you shop carefully.......
BTW, the Directstream Jr, with the same FPGA code but recently discontinued is a great buy. PS Audio will continue to support the Jr.
Later -
Bill
