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The high-rez DVD audio format didn’t succeed. Some tried bravely to issue recordings in this format but these were rare voices in the wilderness. One of them was Todd Garfinkle of m.a. Recordings. He issued a few of his outstanding recordings on DVD ROM. The Mathias Landaeus Trio Opening is one of them. Besides 88.2kHz FLAC tracks, the disc also contains 24/176.4kHz cuts. Because the PWT is equipped with a computer-based disc mechanism, reading this type is no problem. For the DSD DAC the 24/176.4 signal was no issue either. The display promptly showed the format once the first bits were received and the DAC’s software recognized the format. Of course hi-res recordings contain more data than 16/44.1 and that we could experience with another m.a. issue of Sera Una Noche. We own this recording of Argentinean tango fusion in a variety of formats. The original was done in 24/176.4 on a Fostex DVD-ROM deck. We first played the 16/44.1 CD version and then the DVD-ROM 24/96 hi-res version. There was a difference no doubt but the difference was very small too. A blind ABX test would not be easy to pass.
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input board
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The CD medium might be running on its last legs, replaced as it is by downloads or even more current 16/44.1 full-resolution streaming to satisfy the most critical music lovers. That’s why we have taken out a €20/month subscription to the streaming service of Qobuz. This French company offers a lot of music right up our alley and the FLAC files they stream straight into our house offer the same quality as our EAC rips from CD to HHD. All the convenience without any of the hassles. How about that? Plus, we can access all the music everywhere in and around the house plus at a workplace as long as there’s an Internet connection.
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To explore the merits of the DSD DAC further, we downloaded its USB Windows driver to output Qobuz streams to it. In Apple’s OSX the DAC is generic to have no need for drivers. In the Qobuz Desktop application the PS Audio driver shows up as ASIO: PS Audio USB so there’s no possible confusion. There’s also the option to choose WASAPI in exclusive mode or Direct Sound. The latter always uses the Windows Mixer to be avoided at all costs. ASIO and WASAPI bypass this mixer. Though WASAPI works fine, the ASIO option offers faster responses to be recommended. For the best sound from both PC and Mac, one should avoid any parallel tasks to streaming music. All tasks battle for CPU attention. The fewer interrupts, the better the sound.
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filtering
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Just as was true for the power cord, the interconnect between PC and DSD DAC matters. We found an AudioMica Pebble Consequence to outplay a €5 generic USB cable. With that in place, music streamed all the way from Paris gained in solidity. Bass showed more control whilst the upper mid frequencies and highs lost the graininess of the generic cable. Even with a DAC like this, the adage of garbage in/garbage out still stands.
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Once all was set up, streaming fun could commence. Roaming through the giant Qobuz library was only the start. Once a playlist is assembled, the music just keeps coming. For the DSD DAC it mattered not what the source was. It simply converted what it was fed. Again, musical garbage in equals musical garbage out - and there is quite a lot of garbage available. By this we mean that quite a number of recordings and productions are of poor quality. That’s true not only for older material that has been re-reissued and mangled in the process but also for very current releases. Take ‘Mr. Pono’ Neil Young who used a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth to record his latest A Letter Home with covers of Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson and others. The sound quality is horrendous. The album was probably made only ‘because it could’. We wouldn’t have bought it but now could listen to Mr. Young as part of the subscription. And for the DSD DAC it did not matter.
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In conclusion, the PerfectWave DirectStream DAC is a bit like following Howard Carter, the archeologist who discovered King Tut’s tomb. Its ability to uncover hidden beauty is some rare form of sonic archeology. And vitally, this DAC needs no secret PCfi handshakes or advanced set-up skills to work. Just connect it with good quality cables. Its options are easily accessible via a simple menu that controls input source and output volume. In PS Audio tradition the firmware is easily upgradeable with an SD card and might there be reason—which we cannot foresee for a long while—the unit can even be hardware upgraded without a substantial loss on the ‘old’ version investment. With its great sound quality and versatile usefulness, the DirectStream DAC from PS Audio offers the best way we’ve yet encountered to convert ‘digital’ music into real music.
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Condition of component received: Excellent and brand new.
Reusability of packing: Many times over.
Website comments: Elaborate and informative
Completeness of delivery: Everything needed but the manual was missing.
Pricing: Compared to the gold mine you soon realize you're sitting on, very realistic.
Human interactions: One word - great.
Remarks: Why took it this long to liberate music from its PCM captor? |
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