I purchased a refurbished DS DAC Mk 1 from The Music Room where they are selling them for a great price. I offered $1600 and they accepted.
I have it now and I have a few questions. I’ve been playing it continuously for about three days now.
#1 Would burn-in be needed on the refurbished unit? Would any critical parts have been replaced? Or is the answer “we don’t know”? Or “it depends”? I’m not going to have a final judgement for at least a few hundred hours. TMR has a return policy so if I really don’t like it, I might return it, but it’s pretty wonderful in a lot of ways.
#2 Here’s what I’m getting on the sound signature so far. It’s very musical and detailed. They are musical details, not analytical details. Remarkable! But the bass is lean on some instruments. The problem I have is that it doesn’t have good pitch definition on the softer bass instruments, like bass guitar or double bass. The bass instruments are easily overwhelmed by the midrange. I can hear there’s something going on down there, but I can’t tell the pitch. (It does very well on unpitched instruments, like bass drum or kick drum. VERY deep bass on those.) Classical music recording engineers are generally not bass freaks and recordings often need some help in the playback, and I’m not getting that help from the Mk 1.
But, maybe this is something that will change with burn-in?
#3 I have a technician who does remarkable work on custom mods. Would anyone know what mods would improve the bass pitch definition? What area should he focus on? Or is this unknown? Or does the problem go away anyway?
The rest of my equipment:
Driving the Mk 1 through USB from an Aurender N100. Connected to either a headphone amp (custom 12AU7/FET by this same technician) and the Audeze LCD-2. Or to a B&K ST120 speaker amp and Spendor S 3/5 speakers. (I’m not judging the bass through the speakers, which are bookshelf varieties.)
Mike, the bass will probably improve a bit with more time plugged in and in use.
I had a stock Mk I and one that has the Edcor transformer upgrade and the outboard power supply J. Richards was supplying for a spell and a Farad Super3 outboard power supply for the analog, and. . .well that did improve the bass quite a bit!
If you have the Bridge II in your DAC ( I’m trying here to save you some money). Try a free trial of Roon/ Qobuz if still available, your bass will improve in transparency, ie depth, accuracy, speed, resonance (stand up bass will impress) and roll off.
Enjoy.
Replace the stock output transformers with either the Edcor XS4400s (economical, same product used in the MK2) or the custom-designed option from APS (expensive but amazing)
Upgrades to the analog board power supply are highly regarded but not quite so tidy to live with. Input shorting plugs especially for USB and HDMI are a great tweak to remove haze and open up the top end.
Hi ,Mike .
If you have a lot of time on your hands , read through the Modding the Direct Stream DAC MK 1 Category on this forum .Lots of interesting options there .
What Dvorak suggests is a good summary though .
I caution you about moving to fast. Live with that DAC for a few months, 1000 listening hours if you want a number. The mods will still be available then.
I used my MK1 for nearly 3 years before the mod talk started. Well, I was very happy with it but the copious amount of mod talk definitely excited me; until I took a breath, and realized how happy I had been for 3 years.
Good point. I love the DS DAC more than any other I’ve heard, but it is disappointing that I can’t hear the pitch of bass instruments in many classical recordings, so maybe I want to do the VOCM mod and Edcor transformers now. Another reason to mod now is that I know a really great technician engineer, and I have another component I don’t need which I could trade for his work on the mod. (he wants it) So I could get the VOCM and Edcor mods done at no cost except for parts which aren’t very expensive. (The APS transformer is a little too rich for my blood at this point.)
Do the Edcor transformers change the tonal balance? What I’m getting now from the Mk 1 is that it’s bright, has powerful deep bass, but is recessed in the lower mids/midbass.
Not my experience in my system…FWIW. I find the DS Sr. to be well rounded and enjoyably detailed, including great, snappy bass and mid-range with well-recorded music.
Curious regarding what DAC you have replaced and which DS Sr. FPGA software version your have installed…
Also, I did not find that the EDCOR transformers had much of an impact on tonal balance. In my system, the EDCOR transformers plus the JK Richards analogue power supply card resulted in an incremental improvement to low level detail retrieval and a skosh more “clarity” in the mid and high frequencies.
Nothing night and day, but a bit better…
I hope you manage to sort some better performance from your system.
I have found each iteration to provide subtle differences. Some more than others. None were huge sea changes to my ears.
However, others have reported definite preferences and consider some of the versions to have definite colorations, if you will.
Since you are using headphones, I would expect the number of variables that could impact the sound are reduced a bit and you might, by definition, have a more “sensitive” system.
Have fun playing around with the search for improvement.
@scotte1 Sunlight is installed. Partly I’m judging the tonal balance by comparing to a Gustard x20pro, a Gustard R26, and a modified iFi iDSD. The iFi is closest to neutral in my system. The Gustard x20pro sounds a bit warm, very extended on top, but not bright compared to the Mk. 1. The Gustard R26 sounds bassy and rolled off on top, which I don’t think is working right, judging by others’ opinions of it. I’m exchanging it. My headphones are a bit on the warm side, pre-fazor Audeze LCD-2. My system shouldn’t be giving me the wrong impression of the Mk. 1. Maybe it’s not burned in yet… I bought it as a refurbished unit and I don’t know if they put any new components into it. It has about 100 hours on it since I received it.
I wasn’t immediately completely satisfied and eased into the sound of the DSD Mk I until after 500 or more hours. It may be refurbished, but it may also need 300 or so more hours to “be all it can be.” Once it settled in (after a few shifts in the first 400 hours or so) it was not harsh or thin or edgy. If you can, give it more hours of play, perhaps put something on repeat for days. . . .
I have never “upgraded” any of my PS Audio Dacs. I have the transformers, they were a gift from a forum pal. I have the power supply board, the special cable, and the power supply. But The DAC is on permanent loan to a friend and he isn’t asking for upgrades.
I am sad a fella just got a new DAC at a great price and instead of saying Congratulations some of you are telling him it needs to fixed. Bah. Bah twice.