An original thread that was closed was titled DSD first impression. Some of you must have hundreds of hours now on your DSD what do you think now, has it continued to get better, are you happy with your purchase?
I found mine continued to change, improving for the most part, til about 400-500 hours and then has remained rather consistently wonderful. I don’t regret my purchase at all. . . well I regret the sucking hole in my bank account, but that’s all. 
I was very happy with the PWD Mk II and I don’t find this to be as radically different as some do, but the differences are important and very pleasing.
lonson said I found mine continued to change, improving for the most part, til about 400-500 hours and then has remained rather consistently wonderful. I don't regret my purchase at all. . . well I regret the sucking hole in my bank account, but that's all.
I was very happy with the PWD Mk II and I don’t find this to be as radically different as some do, but the differences are important and very pleasing.
Thanks lonson. I agree with everything you said. I really liked the MK II but I think that the DSD has kicked everything up a notch but it doesn’t blow the MK II out of the water but the improvements were enough that I would do it again.
lonson said I found mine continued to change, improving for the most part, til about 400-500 hours and then has remained rather consistently wonderful. I don't regret my purchase at all.
My feelings although I noticed improvement all the way up to 2 plus months of 24/7 which is about 1500 hours.
Interesting. Mine may be subtly improving still, I just feel after a month that it has settled down into a rich and satisfying sound and I’ve relaxed into listening, suspending a lot of “critical” aspects.
I love the natural tonal balance top to bottom and the deep spacious nature of the sound. I’d say “presentation” is the big difference and the big selling point with this compared to the Mk II. Yes, detail is probably the reason but I don’t seem to focus/concentrate or be drawn to the detail so much as the whole big picture.
I find that the same cabling I used with the Mk II works excellently with the DS.
I only heard considerable changes during the first few hours to first week or so of playback - if there have been much/any changes since then it’s been very subtle. The biggest changes have been Firmware related, and of course adjusting the overall system to compliment the new, better defined sound. In my case that meant adjusting the speaker locations a bit to fill in the bottom end without ruining the imaging or spaciousness the DAC does so well.
I know I’m beating a dead horse at this point, but I wish for more output on the DS.
I feel the DirectStream is pretty much defined by it’s separation of instruments and voices, even balance throughout the sound spectrum, and especially ambient retrieval.
As we all know, the Redbook, and PCM playback in general, is excellent and has woken up my whole (ripped) CD collection. And recently I feel the DSD has taken a slight step up, but I think that discussion needs to be fleshed out at a later date.
Lonely Raven said I feel the DirectStream is pretty much defined by it's separation of instruments and voices, even balance throughout the sound spectrum, and especially ambient retrieval.I agree about all these, and would add the natural timbre of instruments and voices. With the DS, singers (especially a cappella or with modest accompaniment) sound by far the best I've ever heard; so lifelike and easy to listen to.
My DS kept improving noticeably until somewhere in the 400-500 hour range, and may still be getting a little better. No regrets even though it was not a small purchase (and thanks again to PSA for the Mk II trade-in).
Still the most impressive change from PWD MKII to DS for me is what the DS does with/to redbook files. I have literally thousands of these and with the PWD I almost turned my back on them and went to Highres. Not only that this costs a fortune, you are in fact limited to a small variety of music. The DS gave me back the joy to listen to the music I like a lot because of the music, not the sound.
So if I put in account what I save for not buying Highres files that excessively than I did before, I believe that the money I spent for the kit will be “in” again in near future.
The only issue I have actually with the DS is that my PC always “loose” the USB driver if had turn it down over night. I have to do a cold start with the DS to get the driver back. But I don’t know if win8.1, the driver itself or the DS is to blame for this bug. And anyway, I can handle it.
One good thing I didn’t mention yet is that my bridge, which worked very poor with the PWD, is now rock stable. Still no gapless play, but no hickups or dropouts on any resolution, including DSD, with the DS any more. If there will be an upgrade path from the old to the new bridge, I will absolutely go there.
aliaswolf saidI had that same issue with 8.1 - I've since moved on to Windows Server 2012 and I've not had any issues since then.The only issue I have actually with the DS is that my PC always “loose” the USB driver if had turn it down over night. I have to do a cold start with the DS to get the driver back. But I don’t know if win8.1, the driver itself or the DS is to blame for this bug. And anyway, I can handle it.
lwin1949 said An original thread that was closed was titled DSD first impression.Great idea to reopen this topic. The old thread became a dumping ground for everything DS. Dedicating a thread to impressions is an excellent idea.
I’ve only had my DS for a couple weeks. Maybe 100 hours at the most. I noticed a huge difference the first day (upgraded from a PWD). Then, I sort of thought was the DSL really worth the 3K? This went on for a while. I guess you could call it buyers remorse. Now as the DS settles in, I’m in love with the sound again (looking forward to more improvements with the new firmware). Is it break in or just my emotional response? I have no idea.
Probably both.