Jump to content
IGNORED

Article: PS Audio DirectStream DAC (Snowmass) Full Review


Recommended Posts

11 hours ago, ednaz said:

Bravo on posting your playlist. I think that the music used to make judgments can influence the results. Not a negative - it influences the results to match YOUR preferred music.

 

A long time ago, I moved to Singapore for a bit and left my audio gear in the US so I needed to buy a whole system. They had a wonderful mall that was four floors of high end audio gear. Most of the shops small, four or five brands. I had a handful of CDs that were my playlist. I had a written guide - this disk, these two tracks, that disk, this one track. I always let the shop use their playlist initially, but once I heard how different my playlist made the gear sound, I realized that the shops' playlists were selected to show off their gear best. After a half dozen shops, my rule was, my playlist only.

 

Interesting results. A few shops, the owner went downcast seeing my CDs. In one case, he said "you won't like anything here, I know this". In a couple of shops, the owners broke into huge grins. In a couple of cases, they whipped out disks of music I love, that could well have been on my playlist. Guess what? Everything I bought came from those shops.

 

Since then, I've kept track of what reviewers say they listened to. Funny... those who did rave reviews of gear I owned called out music that I enjoyed. Most reviews you get piecemeal info. Posting the playlist ROCKS because it simplifies things.

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to love your playlist, and a new DAC at this price range is not likely in my immediate future...

 

Like you I always bring my own reference tracks for any serious auditions of HIFI equipment of any kind.

Regarding Singapore and the Adelphi which I guess must have been the shopping  mall you are referring to,unfortunately it is not quite what it used to be any longer. But there are at least  still some serious high quality shops left.

One  of the so called "dedicated headphone shops"Jaben, even has a desk selling gold watches . And others have noisy coffe machines next to very highend equipment. And only a couple have rooms  big  and good enough to demo big speakers and an environment suitable for serious listening comparisons.

The open doors onto a noisy mall policy, has hit the Adelphi too.

 

Most  shops cram too much  midfi stuff  into a too small room imho.

Many of the former HIFI shops have been replaced with hairdressers saloons and specialist dental care and what not.

The Adelphi used to be my Temple of Audio worship in Singapore but it has  lost some  of  its former attraction.

 

But yes I  too bought my Chord dac from one of its shops and some headphones too. 

I bought the  Hugo MScaler in Malaysia which is cheaper than Singapore on most things these days.

 

The problem with KL is that  the shops are spread out over a huge area of Klang Valley.

So getting from one good dealer to the next one can take up to an hour of travel.

Singapore and the Adelphi in particular, still rules over KL in that respect.

 

PS I did not  really expect the PS Audio to beat  the HMS either.

Nice read though from austinpop again,although I would have preferred more recent hi res symphonic classical music than Solti's Mahler 8?

Imho MTT's Mahler 8 with the SSF is a better recording than the 70s DECCA.

It is if I am not wrong also a native dsd recording?

 

But  he included one of the Nidaros recordings from 2L which I know well enough having spent a week there  photographing for Morten at another project with the same forces.

On the other hand no mention of native dsd listening material which is what PS Audio is mainly about,right?

Anyway his playlist made me curious about both the Ibn Battuta album and the Indian music one.

One of my favourite classical Indian Music  albums, is the live recording from the Herkules Saal in Munich, with Hariprasad Chaurasia playing his "Magic Flute".

 

 

Cheers Chris

 

 

Link to comment
20 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

I do rank MTT/SFS's Mahler's cycle as my favorite, because BOTH the recordings and the performances are wonderful, but there are exceptions for individual symphonies. For the 8th, Solti's version, for me, beats all others on the sheer beauty of the performance. Yes, the 70's Decca recording is - adequate - but I will say that the 24/96 remaster on the Blu-ray release does have much better SQ. 

Well I only have the Solti on LPs and it sounds quite  compressed compared to both the MTT  on SSF and Gergiev and LSO LIVE respectively.

But yes the Solti gets a spin too once in a while. And I guess the Blu-ray has more of the dynamic range of the master tape than what was cut onto the LPs.

Another recommendation  for Mahler's mighty 8th,would be last year's binaural live  version from  the BBC Proms if that one is still online?

Very spacious indeed.

 

More on the  topic of dacs and such, how big or what  difference would say there is between the  Wave Storm and your  Habst BNCs with your HMS/TT2?

I am currently comparing Wave Stream and Storm both via headphones and speakers, and I am honestly quite impressed by how much both improve SQ  compared to the stock BNCs of my HMS.

I did not expect BNC upgrading to make such a  big  difference as it does to me.

 

PS. I'd be interested in your take on TT2 against DAVE next time.

And finally , Have you heard Hariprasad Chaurasia's live performance recording from  the Herkules Saal?

If not, don't miss it, great stuff imho.

And if you ever go to Sri Lanka I can  recommend the Ibn Battuta Suite at Cinnamon Rock  Hotel in Galle.

 

Cheers Chris.

Link to comment
22 hours ago, ednaz said:

Yep, it was the Adelphi. Damn, sad to hear it's drifted, although that's consistent with the path of high end audio in the US. Hardly any good specialist shops left except in the largest cities, and a fraction of what there used to be.  I do remember that many of the shops were too small for the speakers they had even then (1998). 

Well the good thing is it is still there at least.

But apart from the place that demos the BIG Avantgarde  Horns most others are  cramming too much into too small  spaces.

My favourite showroom in Singapore and one of the few with a very nice dedicated BIG listening room for BIG speakers is AV INTELLIGENCE at Millenia Walk not too far from the Adelphi, 5-10 minutes walk.

I'd LOVE to hear the Hugo MScaler and the dacs that go with it via Andy's biggest speakers in that room.

Unfortunately I don't think  he is selling Chord's dacs yet.

But  if you're visiting Singapore don't miss his place.

Cheers Chris

 

Link to comment
1 hour ago, FIndingit said:

Nice review, comparisons are valuable. Side note: the LSO LIVE recordings are mostly or all recorded in the Barbican hall. Unfortunately no one can make an excellent recording in that venue. It has acoustics resembling of a movie theatre.

Correct, regarding most of the LSO Live releases.But there are some exceptions luckily.

 

Both Berlioz's Requiem and the Gergiev Mahler 8 I mentioned were recorded live in Saint Paul's Cathedral.

 

But there and where the BCC Proms actually beginning  tonight 1930 GMT and running almost daily until early September,are recorded, the acoustic problems are the opposite of the those at the Barbican.

Both the Royal Albert Hall and Saint Paul's are huge  venues and have very long reverberation times.

Cheers Chrille

 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...