Digital Processor Reviews

A couple of weeks before I was to submit this Follow-Up, I received an e-mail from Paul McGowan saying that he wanted to send me new firmware for the DirectStream that was to be released to the general public in a few days. The firmware is in the form of a computer file that can be e-mailed, transferred to an SD card, and inserted in a slot on the DS. According to McGowan, the new firmware, the work of Ted Smith, not only fixes the bass-distortion problem that John Atkinson had identified in his measurements, but represented an overall improvement in sound quality.

I was e-mailed the new firmware and installed it—a process simple enough even for someone with my limited computer skills—then listened. A few days later, the public release of the DS firmware was made available for download from the PSA website. I downloaded and installed that one; my comments are about the latest version (v.1.2.1). I'm told that PS Audio had come up with 20 different versions of the new-generation firmware; the final version was selected on the basis of listening tests by McGowan, Smith, and Arnie Nudell.

No doubt about it: The latest firmware represented a major improvement over the one that I and Art Dudley and Michael Lavorgna had. Soundstages were now deeper and wider, and well outside the speakers' positions with some recordings; and images on those stages were now more "rounded," more three-dimensional. The bass was cleaner, with better-defined transients, a difference I easily heard with Mickey Hart's Planet Drum (CD, Rykodisc RCD 10206). In audiophile jargon, the sound was less veiled, more analog-like.

Conclusions: For me, PS Audio's combo of DirectStream DAC and PerfectWave Memory Player CD/DVD transport represents a good step up from the already-excellent Ayre Acoustics CX-7e^MP, and increases my enjoyment of my CD library. If I decide to get into high-resolution downloads and/or streaming, I'm confident that the DS will be able to handle whatever I throw at it, and its ability to have its digital processing updated through convenient firmware upgrades is a major advantage. For now, I'm all set—until Ted Smith conjures up another firmware update.—Robert Deutsch