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

[Danny Kaey]

Death by a thousand cuts... J/K. Look, I’m sure you can find all sorts of issues with any product. The LessLoss I reviewed a couple months back was this, that, the other, yet sounded very, very good. In the end, what matters only is, do you like it, do you want to own it. Like all PD products, its built here in the US, California no less. The drive is an all new OEM design from Denon, which dCS amongst others, also uses. It’s the only commercially viable CD/SACD drive available today, built with metal parts as far as I can tell.  What’s it all mean Basil? 

 

I do enjoy the activity of these threads and the engagement they produce... cheers!

[barrows]

On 7/14/2019 at 11:24 AM, matthias said:

Interesting that in the Dream Series all files with the exception of DSD256 are first converted to DSD128, then with PDs own algorithms upsampled to DSD2048 before the conversion to analog.

 

Matt

Indeed.  This very high final rate of 90.32 MHz (1 bit) makes the "work" of the final D/A conversion stage easier.  It is reassuring to me to see that PD is now running the conversion stage at this high a rate.  I wonder what, exactly, the conversion stage is comprised of though-likely some implementation of a low pass filter, but i wonder if it just a simple filter (R-C) or something like @Miska's DSC approach.  The Mola Mola DACs run their final A/D conversion at a similar rate (100 MHz, 1 bit) and use what appears to be a similar FIR filter implementation (shift registers and resistors) as Jussi's design.  In any case, having been very impressed by the sound of Mola Mola DACs, I am very interested in hearing the Dream Series DACs. 

[Miska]

13 minutes ago, barrows said:

Indeed.  This very high final rate of 90.32 MHz (1 bit) makes the "work" of the final D/A conversion stage easier.  It is reassuring to me to see that PD is now running the conversion stage at this high a rate.  I wonder what, exactly, the conversion stage is comprised of though-likely some implementation of a low pass filter, but i wonder if it just a simple filter (R-C) or something like @Miska's DSC approach.  The Mola Mola DACs run their final A/D conversion at a similar rate (100 MHz, 1 bit) and use what appears to be a similar FIR filter implementation (shift registers and resistors) as Jussi's design.  In any case, having been very impressed by the sound of Mola Mola DACs, I am very interested in hearing the Dream Series DACs. 

 

At least earlier PD devices have been somewhat similar to the DSC, so I would find it likely that is the case here too...

 

[matthias]

45 minutes ago, barrows said:

Indeed.  This very high final rate of 90.32 MHz (1 bit) makes the "work" of the final D/A conversion stage easier.  It is reassuring to me to see that PD is now running the conversion stage at this high a rate.  I wonder what, exactly, the conversion stage is comprised of though-likely some implementation of a low pass filter, but i wonder if it just a simple filter (R-C) or something like @Miska's DSC approach.  The Mola Mola DACs run their final A/D conversion at a similar rate (100 MHz, 1 bit) and use what appears to be a similar FIR filter implementation (shift registers and resistors) as Jussi's design.  In any case, having been very impressed by the sound of Mola Mola DACs, I am very interested in hearing the Dream Series DACs. 

 

Agree,

the question is why they do not upsample or convert all files in a first step to DSD256 and then to DSD2048. IMO, converting of 32/384 for example to DSD128 seems not to be a perfect solution.

 

Matt

[chuck1801]

On 7/14/2019 at 12:04 PM, Danny Kaey said:

I've been reading some of these comments over the past day or so and think that this isn't nearly the big issue some of you make it seem. The Stream-X module is just that, a module; an optionally available way to create a network ready endpoint for Roon or other software. You can always use a PC or Mac via USB to playback any format you wish (minus MQA) in higher quality than via the Stream-X option. That said, I'd like to reiterate that virtually all streaming capable DACs I've seen / used in the past couple of years, from AURALiC to dCS to Playback Designs, have all sounded better when used as a stand alone DAC w/ my EINSTEIN The Last Record Player leashed as the CD transport. So that tells me that there's something about NAS or internet derived music files that's still not quite as developed as CD transport sourced data. 

 

PS: since the review was published, I heard from Andreas who merely uttered, "the 8 series isn't nearly end-game digital..." which leads me to believe that we may yet one day hear more from PD...

It has been a long time now, have you heard anything new from PD?  I own PD 8s gear so would like to know.   Perhaps they have decided 8 series is end-game after all.   I have not heard anything better.  I don't use the internal streamer, use a Baetis external. 

[matthias]

On 7/14/2019 at 9:04 PM, Danny Kaey said:

PS: since the review was published, I heard from Andreas who merely uttered, "the 8 series isn't nearly end-game digital..." which leads me to believe that we may yet one day hear more from PD...

Danny,

now more than four years later will there something more end-game digital be released by Andreas?

Thanks

 

Matt

[Danny Kaey]

On 11/1/2023 at 7:59 AM, matthias said:

Danny,

now more than four years later will there something more end-game digital be released by Andreas?

Thanks

 

Matt

Ha! No clue, but I would assume so, maybe, possibly?