Directstream Regulator question

How much this clock costs then? They do not have my value,so,i cannot buy it…What about nagra 64k price DAC,yours is better?

I’m not trying to claim I have the best clocking around. But I did spend time getting the best clocking I could for product in this price category. Many people spend money on long term stability (e.g. 1ppm or temperature controlled, or atomic clocks) and that’s a waste for audio. Close-in phase noise is what matters, not long-term stability or frequency accuracy (it simply doesn’t matter if the music plays 100ppm too quickly or 100ppm too slowly or if it slows down by 100ppm over, say, an hour.) I don’t think you can easily replace the clocking specifically in the DS and get as good a result as I designed in. When I was prototyping the DAC I had Vectron build me a custom VCXO to spec for this purpose and they weren’t cheap. As it turned out, as we were going into production Crystek had just designed a high quality VCXO for exactly this purpose.

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How much Power Supply regulation this DAC have? Nagra uses more,than 30steps of regulation…this is important? How much it costs then?

Regulation matters a lot. Clearly, I don’t have 30 steps of regulation (tho that sounds wrong if they are all in series: that would require very low drop out voltages and that’s not the best way to regulate voltage - the bigger the dropout the better the opportunity for regulation.) I suspect that if they have 30 regulators (as they well might), that there are a smaller number in series for each destination, but that there are multiple destinations which is still impressive.

Anyway, I have multiple quality discrete regulators in series with a custom bootstrapped voltage reference for each of the VCXO proper, the VCXO frequency control circuitry, the reclocker, and the digital switches. There’s also isolation between those regulators and the regulators used for other circuitry on the analog boards. More than 1/2 of the non-transformer area of the analog card is dedicated to voltage regulation.

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So,this DAC is the best in the world then,designed by you? Do you have it for itself to and listen it too? What kind of system do you have?

No, it’s not the best DAC in the world. It’s a fine DAC that was carefully designed to be a proper successor to the PS Audio Perfectwave DAC series. I don’t understand your intent with these questions. Of course I have a DS, I have multiple DSs, both engineering prototypes and three for my multichannel music system. I also have the prototypes for it which were built without regard for cost:
My new DAC (long, but with pictures) - Ted Smith - Computer Audio Asylum

This system description is a little stale:
Inmate Systems - Audio Asylum

Also you can see some pictures of my setup here:
Tweakers’ gallery - Accessories and Tweaks - PS Audio

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You have a lot of equipment,i am more modest with equipment…which is the best DAC in the world in your opinnon? It is stated at PS Audio site,that,this is the best DAC ever made,i think…

Ted, you truly have the patience of Job…

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Thank you for your time and patience in my matter…

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By the time you get to, say, the $20k price point the differences between various DACs are essentially personal preference. When I started this project I liked the EMM and Playback Designs DACs much better than the top end MBL and dCS DACs. The DSD based DACs just seemed more musical. I haven’t heard a lot of high-end DACs recently, tho I still tend to think that DACs from Playback Designs should be near the top. I’m hoping that the (yet to be released) PS Audio TSS DAC will play well in that market, but time will tell. The DS Mk II which is coming more quickly will definitely be better than the DS but not anywhere near the $50k DAC level.

Oh, and you need to forgive the marketing hyperbola, both at PS Audio and at the other sites you mention. Anytime a site says, “best”, “most …”, or any other superlative you know it’s just marketing.

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Yes,but,it is more,than satsfying to listen DS DAC…for me,it may be completely fine with upgraded fuses and Edcor XS4400 transsformers…i will be more,than pleased,as i am even now with my system and i must upgrade my preamp with Vishay Nude and Audio Note Niobium resistors and better power cable and with silver wires for AUX and output,i have all the best parts inside of my preamp,but,most improvement would be with your DAC probably,as stated by some people in forums,that,this DAC is really good…with upgraded transformers,it willl be even better…TSS DAC will be 20k price?

These supply line problems, parts availability issues, etc. make it hard to guess a price on a product that (as yet) isn’t in production. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were $20k, but it might be higher.

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And on Sunday no less.

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What willl be better in TSS DAC,than in this DAC?

There’s a thread about the TSS :slight_smile:

In particular it will be two separate boxes, digital and analog with an optical connection so that, for example you can put the digital box next to your digital sources and the analog box near your analog outputs without tying their grounds together or sharing an outlet, etc.

There will be Jensen output audio transformers of the kind that were used in the old analog mixing boards rather than the much less costly ones in the DS, etc.

There will be twice as many digital switches which will lower analog noise floor by at least 3dB. The switches themselves will be better than those in the DS (but the Mk II will be using them) and that will save another 3-6dB of noise floor.

Each of the four analog output power supplies (left/right and +5/-5) will have it’s own transformer windings and be otherwise isolated from the others. A separate transformer will be used for digital things in the analog box. Those dew digital things won’t include any kind of processor, etc. which would generate noise.

There will be three (or four depending on how you count) reclockers in series to further lower jitter. Each with its own quality regulator.

There will be a much more powerful FPGA (or two, or three) which will allow much more refinement of the digital algorithms.

Every input and output will have optional galvanic isolation (controllable ground lifts). The analog outputs will have more configurations like using the RCA output balanced, having the center tap of the transformer grounded to the output connectors ground or not… These will allow better integration with more varied systems than the DS.

More levels of regulation everywhere.

With a much less constrained budget there will be upgrades everywhere in the circuitry. (Well, I can’t do better than the current VCXO, but otherwise everything is upgraded.)

Here’s the thread:
TSS Two Chassis Super DAC - Audio Components / DACs - PS Audio

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Great stuff, Ted.

Thanks again for your patient and informative participation here.

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So,this would be allmost the best DAC in the world then,no matter of price? Would there be upgrades also for this DAC,like for DS DAC?

I’d like it to be very good, but still there are companies out there who build DACs with many times the budget and they aren’t dummies. I think it will be a good value for the money like all PS Audio products, but there’s always something better out there if you want to spend the money, time or effort to get it.

All of the things you might upgrade in the DS or the DS Mk II will already be upgraded in the TSS. All of the obvious upgrades will already be done. I’m reasonably sure that we’ll find something to do later, but the software upgrades that will come will likely make more difference than any simple modifications.

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And what moods would be in DS MK II?

Hello Ted…do you know,where the bridge of four power diodes are placed in DSD,are these on Power Supply board,or on analog board,where the cable is coming from the Power Supply board?