AndrewDavis
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- Apr 4, 2019
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Oof. Ouch. The number of super high end DACs shown to have simply flawed engineer ing is amazing.
FPGA vs R2R. So Totaldac definitely sounds more analog. Because I say so. Still, costing twice as cheap, and not showing ground loop, the Perfect Wave has the best value, IMHO. I would say, save money and go for the PerfectWave! But don't forget to burn in your unit 1000 hours, at least.Can't decide between this and Totaldac. Can you guys help? Which one sounds more analog?
FPGA vs R2R. So Totaldac definitely sounds more analog. Because I say so. Still, costing twice as much, and not showing ground loop, the Perfect Wave has the best value, IMHO. I would say, save money and go for the PerfectWave! But don't forget to burn in your unit 1000 hours, at least.
Yup, the 62 db noise floor is the dead giveaway! In an earlier life coulda been a Goldmund Reference TT.So, as I'm reading Amir's evaluation and analysis, I'm thinking: is this an example of what I've read where individuals strive for a DAC which they claim is superior because it sounds more analog?
The version number was in the picture in the review. Here is the zoomed version:
View attachment 34194
As you see, it says 3.0.6.
Thank you, I was curious about the required burn in time. 1000 hours sounds about right.
Listening Tests
For subjective testing, I chose to use the recently reviewed and superb Monoprice Monolith THX 887 Balance Headphone Amplifier. This Monolity has vanishingly low distortion and hence is completely transparent to DACs being tested. For the alternative DAC, I used my everyday Topping DX3 Pro 's line out RCA to Monolith. I then used the XLR input to connected the DirectStream DAC. Once there, I played a 1 kHz tone and used my Audio Precision analyzer to match levels using PS Audio's volume control. PS Audio claims perfection there ("bit perfect") so I figured they can't complain about that. The final matching was 0.3 dB difference between the two.
For headphone I used DROP + MRSPEAKERS ETHER CX with its XLR connection to THX 887 amp.
I started the testing with my audiophile, audio-show, test tracks. You know, the very well recorded track with lucious detail and "black backgrounds." I immediately noticed lack of detail in PerfectWave DS DAC. It was as if someone just put a barrier between you and the source. Mind you, it was subtle but it was there. I repeated this a few times and while it was not always there with all music, I could spot it on some tracks.
Next I played some of my bass heaving tracks i use for headphone testing. Here, it was easy to notice that bass impact was softented. But also, highs were exaggerated due to higher distortion. Despite loss of high frequency hearing, I found that accentuation unpleasant. WIth tracks that had lisping issues with female vocals for example, the DS DAC made that a lot worse.
Good question.@amirm why not state PS Audio, the manufacturer, on this thread title?
So this $6-7k product is easily outperformed by an Apple adapter (DAC + headphone amp for $9) or a Raspberry Pi with HiFiBerry board (streamer + DAC for < $100)? Surely this can't be right? It's late and I must've missed something.This is a review and detailed measurements of the PerfectWave DirectStream DAC. It is on kind loan from a member. The unit that I have has the network "bridge" streaming option and costs US $6,899. Without that option it costs US $5,999.
I'm fairly sure than anything from dCS will measure superbly, like the top Chord stuff, but the issue ia absurd price for something not audibly better than good products in the low $hundreds range (for humans anyway).Thank you Amir, kind of expected poor results but this was far worse than expected, and kudos to the owner sending it in. Would really like to see tests of other costly DACs from DCS, Bricasti, Berkeley and so on. But I guess the upside for an owner of an expensive DAC is negligible and the downside massive (value-and pride of ownership wise)