Because some are going to want to buy an we all went through the DMP issues together. It is not hard to understand!
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You are not “too honest,” just strongly opinionated and heavily biased. 
As with essentially all enthusiasts.
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If I’m biased towards providing the most people with the best possible audio experience at the best affordable price with the highest degree of functionality and reliability taking up the smallest amount of real estate, then I’ll wear it as a badge of honour.
Not Socialism, more Benthamite Utilitarianism.
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This is not any of the biases I am referring to. 
But there is nothing wrong with having strong opinions. And we all know to take your pronouncements with large grains of salt.
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Would it just be easier to wax lyrical that every PS Audio product is best in class and power conditioners destroy sound?
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Just as users here take some of Paul’s hyperbole and exaggerations, and put them into context. It’s perfectly understandable and it’s OK.
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The forum is all about opinions and finding out what works best for your own individual system set up. I learn a ton from everyone here!
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Exactly!
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Back in the day when I taught wine appreciation classes, one of my “rules” was “. . .Taste is a matter of taste”. Applies to stereo equipment too.
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Here is a review written by one of our beta testers. He asked me to post it for him. Enjoy!
"My system is:
M-700
BHK Preamp
P-12
GCD- Using DAC only
Stellar Phono Stage
PST (Replacing Marantz SA-14S1)
All cable is Nordost Heimdall 2 except speaker cable is Nordost Frey 2
Stillpoints Ultra SS under all electronics
Speakers are Phase Linear Andromada III - Removed sub from system
RELS/5 - one each in both corners
Turntable is VPIS 1.1 w/ Dynavector 10x5 m/c cart.
I have had three CDs for quite a while that are my go-to for judging new equipment: Steely Dan Gold (MCAD10387), War Greatest Hits (ASR1061-2), Snowflakes Are Dancing by Tomita (RCA09026-63588-2). All are redbook. Tomita’s is all electronic music of Claude Debussy. This CD has great dynamics. Before I used the PSA transport, the highs on this album sounded very edgy. Now they sound very clean and smooth. The same is true with the mids and lows. There were noticeable improvements in all aspects, separation of notes, hangtime, clarity, and cleanliness.
War Greatest Hits: There are even more dynamics on this CD. In the song, “All Day Music;” the bass is incredible and clean, lead and harmony voices now jump from the speakers as never before. The ‘toy’ piano on “Why Can’t We Be Friends” now does not have an edgy sound to it like it did before. All songs on this CD sound renewed, remastered, great.
Steely Dan Gold: Again, every song has even more distinct separation of each instrument and voice. There is noticeably more texture to the music, and I can now easily understand the words because it is so clean - I guess digging deeper into the ‘dits and dots.’
Everything I have played has noticeably improved. Songs I have listened to many, many times have notes and voices from deep into the song that I have never heard before now are plainly audible. A dead, quiet background for the song to appear from. I’m very impressed with what it does for my redbook CDs. I expected SACD to sound great, and it does. The CDs and SACDs I play are like going from 720p to 4k. Some of the discs I thought did not sound very good now sound great. It is amazing to me all the sounds and textures I am now hearing. The separation between instruments and voices as well as the depth and placement of everything to be heard. The textures of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s voice and guitar are much improved as is the rest of the band. Little Feat’s Waiting on Columbus even more gives you the feeling of being there in person as they perform, if you close your eyes. I can speak from experience - I saw them play live twice. They are a great band. The PST gives you the ambience of being there more than ever before. It truly digs into the recording to where the ambience of the music and the crowd is unbelievable.
Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones (SACD-Abkco90042) is another that sounded pretty good with the Marantz, but the PST gave it another two or three steps of improvement. “Love In Vain” is my favorite song on that SACD. It sounds, as all do on this SACD, spectacular. The instruments are more clean and dynamic than I’ve ever heard them.
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (SACD-CDP7243 5 82136 2) sounds refreshed. Dynamics, textures, and cleaning up edginess on some parts, especially on Clare Torry’s voice on “Great Gig In The Sky.” The clocks on “Time” absolutely sound like real ones are ringing in the room.
Everything I am hearing has really been the biggest improvement from any upgrade step I have taken before. I am very pleased.
Cons: I leave it in standby. Eight times the blue button did not turn it on. The remote did turn it on, but the button to open the drawer would not respond. I turned off the unit in the back, waited a few minutes, and turned it back on in the back. Then I hit the blue button, and then it would play. This has happened about a quarter of the times I’ve turned it on." - Mr. Mays
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hmmmm–GREAT IDEA!!!
Sorry for being late in the game to posting here as a Beta Tester. Hard to find the time when I’m enjoying listening to so much music on this amazing player. I first got introduced to PS Audio a few years back searching for improved CD playback and purchased the PerfectWave Transport. Then over the last few years have immersed myself in PS Audio components. First it was replacing the PWT with the Direct Memory Player, and adding the DirectStream DAC. Since then added the Power Plant P15 and the BHK Preamp, while being a tester of the new SACD Transport.
So now, the audio components are:
PST >> Directstream DAC >> BHK Preamp >> Parasound a21 amp >> Goldenear Reference speakers. Also incorporate an Oppo UDP-205 which I primarily use for listening to FLAC hi-res music files.
I couldn’t be more pleased. Each upgrade in transport was a noticeable improvement to my ears and the latest to the PST is the most improvement I’d heard. Not that I was ever considering going back to vinyl, but don’t see the point now! The music on the PST seems to just come out of such a dark quiet background into such a “real” sound to my ears. SACDs are superb, and redbook CDs (at least well recorded/mastered ones) sound just so good now it’s brought back to life for me my admittedly embarrassingly large CD collection.
I’ll continue to listen to music files through the Oppo because the file playback of the PST (thru USB input) is really not what it was primarily made for from what I gather, other than just having that option to listen to music files as experimental rather than serious listening. With the small screen, there’s just no good option for being able to scroll through a large amount of files you might have on a thumb drive or external hard drive.
Was fun to be part of the tester team, and couldn’t be more happy with the end result!
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Excellent, informative review.
Thanks!
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Really? I was thinking that would be the primary way - only way, really - to play DSD128 files so that PST could supply it to the DS DAC over I2S.
Thanks! This is great information and much appreciated.
You can play the DSD layer of an SACD using the i2s connection to a compatible DAC. From the manual:
> The DSD layer on an SACD may only be played through the PST’s I2S output. DSD files on the USB drive or burned to a DVD may be played on any output.
and, also in the manual re the USB input:
Note that while this front-panel input is a convenient way to access a limited amount of music – for example, playing demo tracks from a friend’s collection or at an audio show – it is necessary to scroll through the tracks one by one, which can be time-consuming. As such, this input should be viewed more as a courtesy port than a primary means of connecting music.
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I used an Aurender server but, I badly wanted Roon. Aurender will never play with Roon. I solved my problem by buying a dcs Network Bridge and turning my Aurender N100H into a NAS. I run the Roon Core from a recent model iMac. You are right about the dcs - it’s simply amazing.
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Qq: I’m modding my DSD and using a Denafrips Enyo. Do I use coax3 if coax is the only option available on the DAC? I don’t think the Enyo expects two coax.
Left and right coax 1 and 2, then coax3 for combined without dsd128?
I think you’ll have to go with COAX 3 out of the transport. It doesn’t look like the Enyo accepts BNC.
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BNC. Thanks! I’ve somehow avoided this because of i2s