Article: Playback Designs MPS-8 CD/SACD player, DAC and Streamer Full Review

[firedog]

1 hour ago, Doak said:

“Stream-X is an option ....”

A price would be nice, however,  the specs appear to indicate that this unit is “begrudgingly” a streamer. Let’s say I chose to plug a USB HD music library directly into the back of the unit. My music format choices top out in PCM @192kHz & DSD64. Less than impressive IMO.

This appears to be a choice for someone who will mainly be spinning disks and will, maybe, dabble in streaming.

Has it possibly been kneecapped to steer potential customers up the product offerings? Not saying that is the case,  though one must wonder what is steering the unit’s feature list.

The above quote is only about the streaming module. The product specs say over USB it does 384k PCM and 4X DSD; over Ethernet 192 and single rate DSD. I don’t really see this as a problem. Especially as it works internally with its’ own algorithms and apparently converts everything to DSD. 

[firedog]

18 minutes ago, Doak said:

So this $28.5K Player/DAC/Streamer should not be taken seriously as a streamer. 

Why?What is your point? What isn’t serious?

[firedog]

1 hour ago, Doak said:

 

I appreciate your info about the "streaming option," Chris, on what is basically a very good Player/DAC. I see that the specs of the streamer option on this unit are quite similar to the "network bridge" option on the PS Audio Direct Stream (BTW: yet another model review from Austinpop). What I have been picking up from my readings is that a built-in streamer card in the DAC environment is prob not the best way to go, for very good reasons. A more indepth review might have discussed this. While I appreciate the effort, I do feel it glossed over a lot of things that could have proved more enlightening regarding this particular product offering.

The streamer option certainly would not be for me and I expect a lot of other folks who frequent this forum. However, it is an option and as such one may just eschew it and supply their own streaming solution. 

 

 

So you read those streaming specs and you know from them that it doesn’t sound as good as some streamer that does stream 8x rates, etc? Sorry, that doesn’t match reality.

Basically you’re saying that based on the specs, you’d buy a $200 streamer with the specs you demand to put in front of it, b/c  that, by definition, is superior. Really? Has the possibility that the internal handling of those rates and the elimination of another box in the chain might actually produce better results than adding an additional box, even an expensive one, into the chain? 

 

I’ve encountered plenty of units of various types that necessitate downsampling of extremely high rates that sound fantastic.Some even convert everything to 24/96. Ultimate sound quality has little (if anything) to do with the ability to playback 8x sample rate rates. 

 

[firedog]

20 minutes ago, matthias said:

The german hifi magazine hifistatement reviewed the MPD-8 and found the EXTERNAL streamer STREAM-IF the best sounding streamer for the Dream Series.

Even the USB input of the STREAM-IF is superior to the direct USB Input of the MPD-8.

The external STREAM-IF allows up to DSD256.

 

Matt

http://www.playbackdesigns.com/docs/manuals/PlaybackDesigns_Stream-IF_Manual1v0.pdf

Again, acc'd to the manual, ethernet input allows only 192 PCM and single rate DSD. And if you use the USB as an input for high rates,  you don't have an output other than the proprietary PLINK for 8X PCM or more than single rate DSD.  Of course if you connect it to an MPD-8, you can use the PLINK)....Clearly an inferior product😄.

 

 

[firedog]

7 hours ago, Ran said:

 

Just for the record, I am not complaining... I stream redbook from my nas / qobuz 95 percent of the time. I don't care so much for all the specs but I do wish to get some transparency from the companies that make streamers. How many times did I see things like "we built our own Linux OS" or "We optimized the OS to our needs" or "We built the streamer from the ground up" only to find out that it is far from the truth.

I don't think they've hidden what they did. Did you see somewhere where playback designs said they made the streaming section themselves?  I don't think they ever claim anything like that.

It seems pretty clear their products are designed to work optimally with the PLink system. Someone who doesn't want their internal or external streamer "limitations" an buy a nice ethernet to USB unit and use USB from another company as an input. Problem solved. What's the big deal?