PS Audio DirectStream DAC
PS Audio is proud to introduce the revolutionary new DirectStream DAC.. DirectStream is the result of lead designer Ted Smith’s decade-long obsession with DSD
DirectStream converts all digital inputs, including PCM, to pure 1-bit DSD, in an elegantly-simple path. In the process, the PCM feed becomes more linear, less edgy, and never-before-heard musical details are released from all digital audio recordings.
It’s not enough to just convert PCM to DSD: Converting PCM to DSD can be an easy exercise using any number of computer software programs or IC solutions. Converting PCM to DSD properly, and in such a way as to reveal missing details in the music, is a serious technical challenge.
DirectStream utilizes 66-bit fixed-point FIR filters, eliminates headroom issues common to PCM, flattens noise response in the 20-100kHz region, uses coefficients optimized for best sound rather than faster processing speed and optimizes hardware-specific operations not possible in software.
Method: Unlike other processors available today, DirectStream unifies all inputs (PCM or DSD) at 10 x DSD, then uses a true single-bit double-rate DSD core engine. True DSD core engines (compared to the standard multibit Sigma-Delta converters followed by random lower quality multibit converters) offer advantages in simplicity, linearity, and in analog-like overload characteristics that avoid PCM’s “hard clipping” potential and a PCM processor’s propensity to mask subtle details.
Construction: Instead of being based upon a packaged PCM-based DAC chip, with all of its inherent compromises and limitations, DirectStream utilizes an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array). An FPGA is capable of dissipating large amounts of heat, enabling intensive levels of signal-processing that are impossible to achieve with an off-the-shelf chip.
PS Audio’s DirectStream is a totally new approach to processing digital signals. By means of its radical architecture and construction, it is able to offer state-of-the-art digital performance and previously masked musical details from all formats, at an affordable price. DirectStream will change viewpoints regarding ultimate sound-quality while simultaneously offering greater value than any contender for state-of-the-art.
PS Audio’s DirectStream isn’t just another new DAC. It’s a whole new process for decoding digital audio.
Available early May
