Just ordered a Direct Stream MK2

That $3500 trade-in was just too good to pass up.
Paul, when is it arriving? Hurry up already I pushed “place order” 10 mins ago! :slight_smile:
Thanks
Lee

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It is a great deal.

Please report in after you have played with it a bit.

Mine is due between 10am and 2pm on Monday according to fed ex website

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Well rkindel? you should have had yours for 24 hours where is my report? :slight_smile:
Lee

Does anyone know if the trade-in deal applies to Jr’s as well, or is it just to the Seniors?

Give PS Audio sales a call and ask.

Not likely as the sales price of the two units when still available was considerably different.

I’m only on hour 70 or so. Waiting for break in to complete before I submit my impressions. Purposely set mine up without any tweaks initially. I would rather introduce them one at a time. Last night at hour 56 or so I hooked up my own power cord. Now we’re talking. Instantly soundstage grew immensely. Bass was more impactful and details became more delicate everywhere. Major improvement in depth. Today I will introduce vibration isolation.

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Day three and I woke up to another step in quality. A watershed in digital technology folks. Its taken four decades but the promise is finally realized!

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@rkindel you should be a nice neighbor and when you get yours all broken in ship it to me I will ship you my new one so you can enjoy breaking it in all over again :slight_smile:
Lee

Just took the bait myself!

I tried this once before when the MK II was first introduced but had to return it because, in my case, using it in place of a preamplifier, it was way too noisy. Now that I have a StellarGold preamp and the Mount Massive firmware has been finalized, I’m thinking this problem should be eliminated.

I do have an additional concern, however, in that I’m using the surround playback feature of the Memory Player with a Mk I DAC and two Directstream Junior DACs for the surround channels (most SACDs have these extra channels. I get the feeling I’m in very limited company doing this). The DACs cooperate in this configuration so that volume settings on the main DAC are automatically reflected on the two surround DACs.

If the cooperation feature doesn’t work with the MK II, it won’t be a big deal but if there are larger issues such as surround not working at all when the MK II is introduced, then it will have to blow my socks off in performance for me to give up the surround capability. I’ll report back my findings when I get the new MK II.

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It has only been a slight ordeal to make sure my CD transport is properly set on repeat so not to waste the hours of break in while I’m asleep.

I’d been really busy with other things in life for the last several months, after a long hiatus logged onto the PS Audio site to see the $3500 trade in offer, pulled the trigger and ordered the unit, which arrived yesterday.

First impressions: this unit IS better than my beloved MK1 DAC, right out of the box! I’ve been feeding it various music and pink noise files, to expedite the break in.

I did read a review (can’t remember the source) which was not glowing. I have the PST and P15 in my system, and they all match up really well. I suspect that, if you just have the DAC but don’t feed it “clean” AC power, it won’t perform to its full potential.

I’ll post a follow up after I’ve put about 100 hours on the unit and play around with some of the settings but my initial impressions are really really positive!

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I think mine is mostly broken in today. I am a believer now. When you finally get yours broken in you will definitely know it. It’s a dramatic difference.

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I should also say, I have a PST connected to the DAC using the I2S1 input, and when I selected that input on the remote and played my first SACD disk, there was no “pairing” that needed to be done, it “automagically” paired the transport and the DAC without my intervention.

Good job PS Audio!

I finally got the MK II installed, powered up and held my breath.

I put on my go-to reference SACDs and listened. So, OK, the noise issue has been solved. Totally silent background, even while playing. I noticed a bit more separation with each instrument and a bit deeper sound stage. Not jaw-dropping but enough of an improvement that I wanted to keep listening.

Then I put on a CD.

HOLY CRAP!!

That’s when the magic happened. The cleanest, silkiest highs I have ever heard from a Redbook CD! It makes sense now that I think about it. The DSD stream of an SACD is basically passed through, but the CD PCM stream requires some computation to convert to analog. This is where the MK II shines!

I never dreamed there was that much detail on a CD. I’m afraid I’ll need to listen to my collection all over again…

I haven’t yet had a chance to try the surround setup but one thing’s for certain: I’m definitely not returning the DAC this time!

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This is in order, Welcome to the club!

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:wink:

I boxed up my MK1 and dropped it off at the local UPS store this afternoon, my MK2 is definitely a “keeper”.

Right out of the box I enjoyed more detail (hearing sounds I’d never experienced on music I was very familiar with), the soundstage (especially front to back) is better and the tonality is more natural.

Now after putting about 100 hours on the MK2, it’s all that I’ve described above, and I’m noticing a slight bit of improvement in super high frequency tones (like the splash of crash cymbals).

I’m definitely enjoying discovering new things with music I’m very familiar with.

Good job PS Audio!

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What power cords do you folks like with the Mk II?