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#11
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I'll give it until Monday and see what I hear over the weekend at RMAF.
The way I have described Wadia before is that the DirectStream sounds great for digital right now but the Wadia sounds like music. Update: Interesting. Just for grins I compared Redbook and while the DirectStream blows away the Oppo UDP-205 on SACD, for Redbook it's the opposite, with the UDP-205 being almost as good as the Wadia; the piano sounds like piano, the guitar like guitar but the Oppo doesn't quite have the space around instruments the Wadia does. However to my ears the Oppo does not have the harsh leading edge to piano keys and guitar string plucks the DS DAC seems to, at least running Huron. I tried connecting the Memory Player to the DS DAC using AES/EBU and Toslink just to see if either of those would make a difference as compared to I2S for Redbook, but they all sounded pretty much the same and just as "edgy." Update 2: I confirmed the same edge to piano keys and guitar strings on the DirectStream DAC Paul was demoing at RMAF, so it's wasn't burn-in. Ted suggested dropping back to Torreys and that ameliorated about 90% of it, but lost a fair degree of spatial resolution as well. In short, Torreys sounds like about 90% of what I get with the Wadia; Huron just seems to sound nasty with Redbook, or at least with the particular torture tracks I have. Last edited by BillK; 10-08-2017 at 02:44 AM. |
#12
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I just picked up PS DAC to run Aires Mini of which will install Bridge II soon.
I am playing Tidal MQA Masters thru the PS DAC. I was amazed at the difference, before I was running 44.1k Aires via my Wadia 16 and then a Wadia 861 I demo'ed I am more than thrilled at the MQA thru PS DAC |
#13
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I have had my DirectStream DAC now for nearly three years, so it's well "broken in". From what I hear and read from others, most people find the DAC is "settled in" when it's got about 500 or so hours on it.
I used to have the PS Audio PerfectWave transport, and I thought that sounded excellent on "regular" CDs, connected to the DAC with the I2S (HDMI) cable. I upgraded to the DirectStream transport, connected as well with the HDMI cable, for probably the first 200 hours just playing SACDs, to break the unit in. Once done, I must say, my "regular" CDs do sound significantly better than they did when played on the PerfectWave transport, many of them sound just as awesome as SACDs. I do have one small problem with the new transport. Only very occasionally, and only when playing SACDs, the sound will drop out for a second or so. Paul has indicated that they are working on a firmware update for the transport, when that's available, I'll apply it. This happens so infrequently, not something I'll stress about. In all, I think the DirectStream DAC+transport combo is the best digital sound quality I've ever heard, better than the best MQA I've auditioned (using my Mytek Brooklyn DAC). Very happy with the new transport!
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McIntosh C2500 pre amp, MC452 power amp, Autonomic MMS-5A server, PS Audio P15 power plant, DirectStream DAC, DirectStream CD transport, Focal Sopra No2 speakers, JL Audio F113V2 sub woofers (2), Sennheiser HD800 headphones, Dell laptop iTunes/Tidal/Roon, Wireworld cabling |
#14
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Try cleaning your HDMI contacts on both ends including the HDMI jacks on the DMP and DS. I had the same problem shortly after I bought my DMP replacing my PWT. After doing so it stopped dropping out. Now I clean them about every three months or so. I use Kontak with a very thin hobby paintbrush to get into the thin slot on the cable ends and inside the jacks. Works wonders. I do it 4 times instead of the minimum two Kontak suggests. I do the same with all Audio and spkr terminals every six months. Result is sublime sound.
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#15
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Wow. This is curious. I love my DS. I see u have Ayre gear. What speakers? I have Maggie 20.7s. Pretty revealing I think - certainly not what I would consider 'hot' sounding. I am hooked direct to amp.
But everybody likes what they like and I have heard some great wadia CD players as well. |
#16
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In my "journey" one of my audio buddies (who isn't fond of that equipment from Binghamton, NY) got me interested in trying out a vacuum tube preamp. Once I swapped out my C50 for a C2500, acoustic pianos sounded more "natural" to me. When I swapped out the tubes for Gold Lions, the improvement was even better.
So, I'm of the opinion that the best sounding digital I have in my home is the DS pair, though smitten with MQA, I think the PS Audio pair outperforms MQA.
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McIntosh C2500 pre amp, MC452 power amp, Autonomic MMS-5A server, PS Audio P15 power plant, DirectStream DAC, DirectStream CD transport, Focal Sopra No2 speakers, JL Audio F113V2 sub woofers (2), Sennheiser HD800 headphones, Dell laptop iTunes/Tidal/Roon, Wireworld cabling |
#17
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Quote:
You may be aware, but D/S will support MQA but there is an application called MControl - it’s not the most interactive but will only cost you time setting up if you don’t already have it. I used it a few times and gave up as Roon, and now Aurender are better applications to use IMO |
#18
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To be fair to PS Audio the plan was to implement MQA on the Bridge that was Roon compatible.
But Roon changed their API to support MQA at the very last minute. In fact it was a day before the Bridge MQA firmware came live. So the only way to get TIDAL now is to use the MConnect software. But the plan is still to support MQA over Roon. But ETA unknown.
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