I was like you until two days ago, when my PMG Sig 512 arrived to take over for my trusty DSD Mk1. I settled in to listen to some familiar performances on the DSD, then to quickly switch to the PMG to listen again to detect the nuances that, hopefully, showed the superiority of the new DAC.
Maybe flabbergasted is too strong a word to describe what I heard, but I think it’ll do. There are no nuances. Everything is obvious, and better, and not in a small way. Instruments are precisely placed, not only across the soundstage but also front-to-back. I didn’t realize my DSD was smearing the size and placement and the actual sound of the sound until I heard the same pieces via the PMG. It’s as though there was always cloud of chaff, diffusing, dulling, and modifying the sound, but I never noticed it until it was gone. Bass is significantly more articulate.
The space between instruments is q u i e t. The timbre and tone of instruments is blatantly clear, and it’s a joy to hear. This fact improves the sound of percussion to perhaps an even greater degree. Transients of any sort are much cleaner.
Please don’t think I’m effecting the persona of some golden-eared audiophile and exaggerating the differences between the two DACs. I’m not. The differences are immediately apparent.
For what it’s worth, for quite some time after I acquired my DSD Mk1 I drove my amplifiers directly with the DAC. When I eventually dusted off my preamp and inserted it between the DSD and amps the sound improvement, particularly with bass, was notable. The PMG, though, has no trouble directly driving my amps with no assistance from my preamp to supply the current they require.
Except for smaller tweaks, I haven’t upgraded my system in quite some time, having decided I’m near enough to end-game to spend our retirement income on wine and other stuff Melanie and I both enjoy. There are undoubtedly many much more expensive ways to incrementally improve its sound, but the PMG Signature 512 DAC is, in my system, a great leap in improvement. I now realize I hadn’t been taking full advantage of the capabilities of my gear.
My stuff: Vandersteen 5A Carbon speakers, Atma-Sphere MA-1 Mk3.2 amplifiers, Sonic Frontiers Line 1 SE w/ NOS Mullard tubes, Auralic (RIP) Aries/Matrix X-SPDIF 2, DirectStream DAC Mk1=>PMG Signature 512 DAC. I won’t bore you with the specifics of power cords/cables/interconnects, though I’ve pretty much standardized on Analysis Plus for the fat cables.
—Chris