Review and Measurements of PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream DAC

[Human Bass]

Purchased the Gustard X 26 xlr dac which lies number six from the top of the SINAD list because I was so impressed with Amir's review.
Now, I will get to sell off my PS Audio DSD MKI and get some extra money.
Didn't work out after 6 weeks. The Gustard didn't generate the bouncing waves of music coming towards engulfing me or feeling the earth move below my feet. In other words the thrilling actions are very limited. However, the Gustard carries way more clarity.
So I am back where I started.

You are expecting something that no dac can provide. What really makes the sound is the speaker/headphone.

 

[Count Dacula]

A few pages into this, way after the fact, and I think how this shows the perils of being an early adopter.

Someone WANTS this PoS Audio thing to be really good, or just wants to have really good sound available, so they bite down pretty hard on audio generalities, catch phrases and name-dropping. It all makes a curiously strong case for a multitude of Cognitive Biases. It's not appropriate to expand on them now, but we know it when we see it.

I really wouldn't know where to begin on anything less than a Doctoral level.

List of cognitive biases - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For common errors in logic, see List of fallacies.
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm and/or rationality in judgment. They are often studied in psychology, sociology and behavioral economics.[1]
Although the reality of most of these biases is confirmed by reproducible research,[2][3] there are often controversies about how to classify these biases or how to explain them.[4] Several theoretical causes are known for some cognitive biases, which provides a classification of biases by their common generative mechanism (such as noisy information-processing[5]). Gerd Gigerenzer has criticized the framing of cognitive biases as errors in judgment, and favors interpreting them as arising from rational deviations from logical thought.[6]
Explanations include information-processing rules (i.e., mental shortcuts), called heuristics, that the brain uses to produce decisions or judgments. Biases have a variety of forms and appear as cognitive ("cold") bias, such as mental noise,[5] or motivational ("hot") bias, such as when beliefs are distorted by wishful thinking. Both effects can be present at the same time.[7][8]

or simply...

 

[evanft]

With this infinite supply of huge and material differences, progress must really be moving fast in the shed.

The last discussion I had of PS Audio was arguing with someone (here) who said PS Audio couldn't afford a Klippel. Amazing what they do on a constrained budget over there.

PS (so to speak): Will the next one be called "Mount Hyperbole"?

Bruh a literal YouTube reviewer, Erin's Audio Corner, has one. Surely someone who sells $7k DACs that perform worse than a $10 Apple dongle can afford one.

 

[MediumRare]

Bruh a literal YouTube reviewer, Erin's Audio Corner, has one. Surely someone who sells $7k DACs that perform worse than a $10 Apple dongle can afford one.

If they bought one they’d instantly be liable for fraud for knowingly making false statements. When it’s a personal opinion they can get away with it.

 

[ahofer]

Bruh a literal YouTube reviewer, Erin's Audio Corner, has one. Surely someone who sells $7k DACs that perform worse than a $10 Apple dongle can afford one.

You did detect the sarcasm?

 

[evanft]

You did detect the sarcasm?

I have a PS Audio Sarcasm Detector, so no it probably wasn't working right.

 

[nanook]

All of this is beside the point that I clearly showed the issues with this DAC being due to use of output transformer. They distort. Everyone knows they distort. And that is what I found. How cout that distortion not be correct to find in measurements and to hear in person?

First of all: I am someone who values neutrality in equipment, but who considers it fundamentally legitimate to incorporate “flavorings.” And I think it is absolutely right that @amirm addresses this “voicing” in all clarity.
Nevertheless, I would like to take up the cudgels for transformers—they don't have to be bad, especially when they are cleanly implemented in the output stage of a device.

One example of this is the output stage of the Audio Precision System One. Here, an auxiliary winding that serves as a resistor generates a voltage drop that gives the output stage a negative internal resistance and, with exact matching, eliminates the problem of distortion at low frequencies.

Audio Precision decribes the circuit as follows:

Another very nice example ist the output stage of the Studer Tuner A764.
Here, the feedback for the op-amp is generated via an auxiliary winding. To avoid stability problems, op-amps with a transistor stage are directly negatively fed back via capacitor C4 for higher frequencies.

If you want to use a transformer in the output stage and avoid distortion, there are some very good solutions available.
;-)

 

[Sal1950]

If you want to use a transformer in the output stage and avoid distortion, there are some very good solutions available

But the big question then is why ?
Distortion is one thing. Output impedance affecting frequency response due to interaction with the speaker impedance is something else.
Some excellent transformers can be made, at a cost!
More to the point is that this is a way obsolete technology, amplifiers are so much better now using more modern designs.
So unless you want to built a expensive amp, that is no longer transparent, to appeal to a particular listeners preference, again the question is WHY?
YMMV

 

[nanook]

But the big question then is why ?

Absolutely
I do not have a single piece of equipment that has a transformer output - guess why - it's just not necessary and a good transformer is a lot more expensive and difficult to implement properly compared to amplifiers.
I am a freedom-loving person myself and I don't want to impose anything on others.

Output impedance affecting frequency response due to interaction with the speaker impedance is something else.

Absolutely again
My comment was focussed on transformers in line level connections.