DirectStream DAC MKII Released

Why was the Mk2 page taken down?

If youā€™re talking about the product page on the site, it still shows up for me.

Thank you!

Here you goā€¦

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It is available thru the link posted by @weedeewop buy not if you go thru the PSA products home page.

This is the same argument used in asserting a modded car is worth more than stock.

Few are convinced by it. I am not.

Others may be, most of whom will be owners of modded units who want to sell. :slight_smile:

Keep in mind the question is not whether a modded unit does or does not sound better. Rather the issue is whether a modded unit is worth more as a used component than a stock unit.

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I owned an Airtight ATM2 tube amp years ago and made the mistake of upgrading the RCA connectors. They were top of the line Cadas connectors, but I ended up taking a hit when I sold it.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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For a lot like myself the only mods are the edcorr 4400ā€™s and the external power board. The external power board can be easily removed and sold to another Mk1 owner and the edcorr 4400 mod wonā€™t decrease the value IMO.

Itā€™s a call I have been waiting for. I have been emailing back and forth with Scott and Chris from PSA for while. In my last email a couple of days ago Chris asked for my phone number so when I saw (THE CALL) on caller ID it was from Denver I was like well dam I better pick that up!:joy:

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Sort of. :slight_smile:

There will always be outliers, pro and con.

What remains to be seen is whether the marketplace as a whole will see the modded units as a pro, a con, or of no consequence. This will determine what the Music Room, and others, will pay for them and subsequently ask for them as used bits of kit.

My prediction is the modded units will be sold at the same price as unmodded at best. But we will see.

As pointed out above, pulling the mods out and selling them separately will be the way to go - just like selling a modded car.

Audiophiles are finicky and unpredictable.

This is actually probably a good sign, since it could mean you got nearly all of what you wanted into the mix right off the hop for initial release, such that it is not easy to think of later improvements. And as to ā€œlow probability,ā€ maybe just need to ruminate for awhile until the light clicks on and see the path.

Question: At this point with mk2 as compared to mk1 years ago when it was released, do you foresee as much room to improve with mk2 as mk1 had in its run of improvements, or is the runway not as long due to getting closer to the target initially here? Or too early to tell? Another way of asking: when mk1 was released were you also not sure what the steps forward would be and they came to you later, or did you at that time have things in your back pocket you knew would be implemented?

I do think mods are best for pieces you basically love and want to keep or extend the longevity of without concern for resale. If resale value is a higher priority - that is, youā€™re guessing that it will be surpassed in the future and you will eventually want to sell it - I would think keeping it stock is a good idea. Wonder if anyone has done a study of that, given all of the data potentially available from resale sites.

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For a fair chunk of my career Iā€™ve been a Sony Pro video camera guy, and the company itself does the ā€œmodsā€ and ā€œupgradesā€. Iā€™m not aware of anyone who does third party mods to the hardware itself. As with adding an external Matrix to the DS, say - there are lots of those things.

In the case of selling one of these cameras, youā€™d have a hard time selling one that didnā€™t have all of the subsequent (paid) released hardware and SW upgrades to that camera which keep it up to date. Just to recoup anything near what you paid for the thing prior to any updates. And I canā€™t imagine anyone selling a camera they had done hardware mods to.

So in this DS Mod case, it seems like it is about various folks taking it upon themselves to offer kits for putting better this or that into a product. Iā€™ve frankly been surprised by this trend here. Not the interest of owners, but the acceptance of it by Paul and Ted. Though I assume it comes with a ā€œyou break it, you bought itā€ caveat, and a voiding of the warranty.

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Not even thatā€¦Paul once mentioned, if thereā€™s no evidence a mod has to do with a problem, he has no such with keeping warranty up. This is great.

I also positively wondered around all the modding topics, but I think finally PSA benefits from this support. Modding only makes sense for anyway good equipmentā€¦and all this demonstrates the longevity of (especially) a DAC.

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Yes - I suppose things are changing, and Iā€™m being ā€œold schoolā€ here. And I will admit to voiding the warranty on my Auralic by installing an upgraded 3rd party power supply board.:man_shrugging:t2:

I just convinced a friend to buy the MkII instead of starting the soldering modding path now. He still uses the otherwise modded MkI in the most revealing setup I know (you e.g. hear the thunderstorm on Brothers in arms moving back there on the ceilingā€¦or being there just as a soundā€¦depending on accompanying equipment status). It shows the potential the DAC still has (even if otherwise modified). I never heard those details in any other setup, no matter how expensive the source. There are so many things to improve instead of always having the latest or most expensive HW.

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I think until we hear something from the sales team regarding trade in values for modded gear, itā€™s all speculative. Maybe itā€™ll come down to - just what does PSA do with the traded in PSA gear? If a modded unit will affect what they wind up doing with these things, it may drive a difference in the value.

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Until we hear from our announced Beta testers and/or PS Audio all said regarding the Mk II is no more than speculation. Regarding Mk I trades, it will be a matter of what closes the deal IMHO, and most likely will vary from transaction to transaction, with mods complicating the final negotiated deal.

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Yay! A small screen. Seriously, I never liked that hokey touch screen thing.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

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