I’m speculating here, but when the Music Room refers to the dac as being refurbished, they’ve probably done nothing more than dust it off and make sure it’s functioning properly.
So the dac probably doesn’t need any break-in time, however in my experience if a piece of kit has been unplugged for any length of time, it will take days and possibly a full week to reach it’s optimal operating temperate.
Other factors that come to mind that can affect the sound of the dac are, the quality of the power and the footers.
Although I loved the sound of my DS DAC MkI, the sound reached another level with proper AC filtering and footers.
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Are these dacs at TMR ones that were traded-in to PS Audio for MK2s?
Many are, for sure. Probably, most of them.
PSA “partners” with TMR is some form or fashion.
FYI.
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Priced so low at 1,800 I am tempted to pick one up and send it out to a third party for modding, but there is no info on the history of these “factory refreshed” units. I auditioned a stock DS years ago and remember a lack of detail that turned me off, but the mods I think have addressed that. Still, the lack of history on these dacs give me pause.
I don’t know about just dusting off from TMR? Mine arrived in an outer box from TMR (triple box) with the PSA double box having PSA factory seal tape. Appeared new with no evidence of any use so if it was preowned it was extremely well cared for. Had the plastic film on top and it wasn’t peeled off and reinstalled. The remote was factory sealed and not a mark or any sign of wear. Batteries were sealed and even the manual looked new. As soon as TMR received these I grabbed one so maybe I was lucky. If my mine was used then PSA did a great job cleaning, repairing and replacing what needed to call these refurbished.
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Been a while since I posted. I’ve been listening to many DACs in my system with many different USB cables. The DS DAC was appealing from the beginning but had a tonal balance problem. It was bright, lacked mid-bass, and the low bass had poor pitch definition.
Well, turns out swapping the USB cable from the Aurender N100 fixed that… the DS Mk. 1 has natural tonal balance and good bass now! It has no flaws except for a bit wanting for resolution and oomph compared to the other DACs I tested, while the other DACs had major flaws. I’m going to go with the DS Mk. 1 and get the VOCM/transformer mod. While he’s doing the mod, I’ll have Igor take a look at the power supply and perhaps install some ERS fabric and a few bypass caps based on his judgment.
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I have owned several PSA DACs and each were excellent for their time. Digital Link III, PerfectWave DAC, DirectStream Sr., and currently DSD MK 2. The biggest improvement I found with the DSD Sr. Was when I put a Matrix X-Spdif 2 in the chain and used the I2S input instead of the USB. This is not an expensive option. You should use the best I2S or USB cables you can budget though.
With the MK 1 USB is not the input to use, either is the Bridge 2 IMO. With the MK 2 I was able to remove the Matrix since USB sounded equal to me to I2S.
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