Digital Processor Reviews

Robert Deutsch wrote about the Torreys upgrade in November 2016 (Vol.39 No.11):

Ted Smith, PS Audio's wizard of converting digital signals to analog, has been at it again. It's not as if he hadn't warned us. In the November 2015 issue I reported on Yale, the latest iteration of the DirectStream D/A processor's operating system. Although Yale was, in my estimation, a considerable improvement on the OS that preceded it—Pikes Peak—Smith said at the time that he was "already working on ideas that should make it much, much better still."

Now we have Torreys, DirectStream's latest OS, available for free download from PS Audio's website ($29 when supplied on a pre-formatted SD Card or USB stick, the latter for the DirectStream Junior DAC only). The claimed improvements include better low-level linearity at low volume levels, improved HF noise performance, lower jitter, and better support for gapless playback of DSD content. What I most noticed from my copy, downloaded from PS Audio, was an increase in resolution that corresponded to what Paul McGowan, CEO of PS Audio, referred to in an e-mail as "improved Red Book performance."

The verdict: I would take Torreys Final over Yale. My only digital source is CD (via PS Audio's PerfectWave transport), so I can't comment on the DirectStream-Torreys reproduction of native DSD and other high-resolution formats—but since the DirectStream approach involves converting all inputs to DSD, I would expect that the improvements available from high-resolution content are at least comparable to what I've experienced from Torreys.

This just in: PS Audio has announced that, in combination with their Bridge II network card, both the DirectStream and DirectStream Junior DACs are now compatible with the popular Roon music-management software.—Robert Deutsch