Review and Measurements of PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream DAC

[g29]

This is truly disappointing. I was hoping the rewrite would yield some positive results against the known benchmark.

 

[GrimSurfer]

Hey buddy, need a power conditioner and some cables?

 

[Zog]

What's the next one going to be called? Mount Difficulty?

(Kiwis will love that name, which is the same as a particularly good vineyard on the South Island. Great pinots!)

I guess I should have known that - but then my love is for that medicine from Scotland, aka single malts.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Hi dudes, took some time to read through this thread and there are some great personalities in here. Love seeing all of the enthusiasm!
Hifi advocate here. Title should speak for itself. I advocate for HiFi... Duh. Or I guess "Artfully Tailored Sound Advocate. Or Tastefully Shaped Sound Advocate." ain't bad. Definitely would be Tube Boob if Paul would let me

If y'all can handle just a little more 'shite,' one of Ted's biggest focuses with the Windom update was to decrease the noise floor.
I know I open myself up by saying this, but it sounds better. Simply put. I run a DSJ in my system at home and I'm still having a lot of fun going through some of my ref albums.
Thanks!

Hello and warm welcome to the forum (no joke).
The fact one of your flagship DAC mesures bad (indeed), doesn't mean we shouldn't have some technical discussion as gentlemen!

The first person who can show this across at least 8 trials, will win $500 from me.

Thanks @amirm for re-doing this. I turned to be wrong: I was thinking FPGA upgrades may bring changes with some DSP tricks (the only way to sound different in my book). With a so close measured performance and the same FR, I don't see how it could sound different (not to mention any better). Perhaps @PSAJH may give us a clue about what they measured, and provide some datas ?

 

[Zog]

which is which. The first person who can show this across at least 8 trials, will win $500 from me.

Hysterical! Love it! Money where moth is! or is that Money where the mouth is? Ain't no way I'm takin' that bet dude!! (to use my best Americanism).

 

[graz_lag]

According to the company “…Windom reveals richness and natural detail within the music at levels formerly unattainable in any digital to analog converter we have auditioned. With its improved retrieval of reverb and ambience, Windom communicates with a glorious sense of openness and effortlessness, adding a sense of immediacy and ‘rightness’ without sacrificing honesty or transparency.”

Source:
https://www.audiostream.com/content/ps-audio-releases-‘windom’-os-update-directstream-dacs

 

[Deleted member 65]

So, all these happy PS Audio Directstream customers can't be wrong. Or can they?

Topping DirectStream 50 DAC – Mountaintop Kebnekaise

New Mountaintop Kebnekaise hardware update, the Topping D50 DAC is transformed into a completely new listening experience, for a minor cost. And if you don’t like the update for some reason, you can easily uninstall Mountaintop Kebnekaise.

Converted my Topping D50 into a PS Audio DirectStream DAC (well sort of anyway). Sorry for any IP theft. Dual Supra toroidal transformers implemented, see picture. Here's the impact of sound:

Better linearity and lower noise. Totally transformed the sound aso, aso, aso ...

Mountaintop Kebnekaise hardware update applicable to all DAC's.

Try it, you wont regret & no going back!

 

[graz_lag]

So, all these happy PS Audio Directstream customers can't be wrong. Or can they?

Topping DirectStream 50 DAC – Mountaintop Kebnekaise

New Mountaintop Kebnekaise hardware update, the Topping D50 DAC is transformed into a completely new listening experience, for a minor cost. And if you don’t like the update for some reason, you can easily uninstall Mountaintop Kebnekaise.

Converted my Topping D50 into a PS Audio DirectStream DAC (well sort of anyway). Sorry for any IP theft. Dual Supra toroidal transformers implemented, see picture. Here's the impact of sound:

Better linearity and lower noise. Totally transformed the sound aso, aso, aso ...

Mountaintop Kebnekaise hardware update applicable to all DAC's.

Try it, you wont regret & no going back!


View attachment 35064

It looks you did not bolt the two units together, I do not know whether that was a wise choice of yours ... We all know as any unwanted case vibration may alter the SQ ...

 

[Deleted member 65]

It looks you did not bolt the two units together, I do not know whether that was a wise choice of yours ... We all know as any unwanted case vibration may alter the SQ ...

Thx, forgot about the vibration impact. Now remedied & new SQ level reached ... ;-)

 

[graz_lag]

Hahaha! I have the same green straps to secure my bicycle onto my Thule carrier ...

 

[Deleted member 65]

Hahaha! I have the same green straps to secure my bicycle onto my Thule carrier ...

My green straps was released when I got this Thule carrier, highly recommended. Now off to some MTB training in a wet Stockholm.

 

[Cortes]

According to the company “…Windom reveals richness and natural detail within the music at levels formerly unattainable in any digital to analog converter we have auditioned. With its improved retrieval of reverb and ambience, Windom communicates with a glorious sense of openness and effortlessness, adding a sense of immediacy and ‘rightness’ without sacrificing honesty or transparency.”

Source:
https://www.audiostream.com/content/ps-audio-releases-‘windom’-os-update-directstream-dacs

PR of PS audio is top notch.

 

[ahofer]

Happy to match your $500, Amir, as long as there’s some independent verification.

In fact, I think it would be interesting if ASR denizens put together a blind test pool, a la David Clark.

But I think the people taking the test ought to have *something* to lose (although the reputational hit is obviously steep). Maybe make them put up $500 against our larger prize.

 

[digititus]

Failing either, science, engineering and common sense indicates that the new firmware doesn't do anything to rescue the DS DAC from our bottom of the pile with respect to performance. It is a distortion factory and to my ears and others who have tested this DAC, is unpleasant.

Still shite then

 

[graz_lag]

PR of PS audio is top notch.

Sure, what I find amazing is the concentration of BS per paragraph, one BS after the other ...

That's BS poetry at the highest level!

 

[30 Ounce]

Wonder if it would measure better if you tested with a DSD stream so it wouldn’t have to do the conversion? They did say that the conversion from PCM to DSD raises the noise floor of an already noisy FPGA.

 

[scott wurcer]

Sure, what I find amazing is the concentration of BS per paragraph, one BS after the other ...

That's BS poetry at the highest level!

Yes, the bass it's always the bass just like op-amp rolling the least likely thing to be improved upon.

"Bass is significantly more impactful and better-defined than with any previous OS"

 

[GrimSurfer]

Hi dudes, took some time to read through this thread and there are some great personalities in here. Love seeing all of the enthusiasm!
Hifi advocate here. Title should speak for itself. I advocate for HiFi... Duh. Or I guess "Artfully Tailored Sound Advocate. Or Tastefully Shaped Sound Advocate." ain't bad. Definitely would be Tube Boob if Paul would let me

If y'all can handle just a little more 'shite,' one of Ted's biggest focuses with the Windom update was to decrease the noise floor.
I know I open myself up by saying this, but it sounds better. Simply put. I run a DSJ in my system at home and I'm still having a lot of fun going through some of my ref albums.
Thanks!

Is that an 8 GB simm card in her hand?

 

[amirm]

Wonder if it would measure better if you tested with a DSD stream so it wouldn’t have to do the conversion? They did say that the conversion from PCM to DSD raises the noise floor of an already noisy FPGA.

I don't have good test tones in DSD format. Nor can my analyzer generate them. It is a hole in measurement industry.

As far as I have read, it also upsamaples DSD so it will have to dither anyway.

The noise we are seeing is a combination of analog and digital stages. Unless they can demonstrate it is all from digital stage, in which case their competence is seriously in question with respect to signal processing, I say there is little they can do to impact the noise level of this unit in grand scheme of things. It is short by 30 dB or so to match state-of-the-art DACs. That is a huge, huge gap. Engineers kill for 3 to 6 dB improvement in noise level. 30 dB is an eternity.

 

[scott wurcer]

Unless they can demonstrate it is all from digital stage, in which case their competence is seriously in question with respect to signal processing, I say there is little they can do to impact the noise level of this unit in grand scheme of things.

I see obfuscation in the discussion of digital "noise" becoming analog noise. A process like a digital multiply and accumulate has an answer there is not some uncertainty (noise) restricted to the lower bits due to layout/partitioning issues, which would become an analog noise issue. What is published at times preys on the general lack of knowledge of the average user of what is going on.

Digital processing with insufficient length of coefficients or intermediate results properly covered up by dither might result in an analog noise floor when converted back to analog by a DAC.