Has anyone had any experience of the PS Audio DirectStream Memory player?
When they work they are really good. They’re expensive to fix. They work best with a PS Audio DAC.
Only with their DAC?
What it’s doing is converting the CD or SACD into data, in close to real time, and then it streams it to the DAC. A network player doors the same but without the disc. It can play from a pen drive, but it’s not clear if it’s actually a network player from the Plush review I read.
It seems an odd product, implicitly admitting that playing data rather than direct from CD is superior, but not allowing the most convenient way to play data.
But if you’re still playing CDs, why not? I’m sure it sounds great. Just makes no sense to me personally!
Thanks Adam.
I’ve never heard anything PS Audio that I like the sound of. The transport and DAC combo has always sounded as if it’s trying to impress you by throwing all the detail it can muster at you.
Not my thing but every ones ears are different.
1 Like
Absolutely this. Wouldn’t go near the brand if you value your ears.
1 Like
It can connect using a HDMI cable using LVDS I2S protocol. It supposedly works better than SPDIF or AES/EBU. There are other DACs that support the protocol.
I was always suspicious about these players. If it is such a good idea to read the entire file into memory to squash jitter, part the veils and provide inky blackness etc then why not just rip the entire CD and set up a streamer or PC/Mac to buffer the tracks before playing? Must be cheaper than the PS Audio doodad…