Problems with PMG 512 DAC?

[flenser55]

I’ve decided to go ahead and keep the PMG 512, despite the horrific state of the streamer. The DAC sounds just ridiculously good in my system, where previously a DirectStream Sr./Mk 1 provided the digital/analog interface. I was prepared for something better in various nuanced ways, but it turns out there’s really no comparison between the two. It’s so obviously and significantly better in every way I just can’t bring myself to return it. I can listen to my system via my OG Auralic Aries/Matrix X-SPDIF 2/I2S connection with absolutely no issues, and it sounds fabulous. Eventually, I guess PSA will fix its issues, and when that happens I can compare the sound of my current setup vs. the DAC’s built-in streamer and switch if I want to.

Here’s what I said in an earlier post, and I’ve not changed my opinion:

@flenser55

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.