Anything wrong with PS Audio DirectStream DACs?

One of my friends has a Lampizator 5 and it's a very good sounding tube DAC. I don't think it is as quiet as DirectStream or nearly as finely nuanced. But that being said, I only heard the Lampizator in his system compared to the DirectStream in mine.

Of course from what I know about tubes (and I do have a fair amount of tube gear that I really enjoy) they add more noise and distortion than solid-state so some fine detail seems to always go missing. The strength of tubes as I see it is in providing a smooth musical presentation and the better tube pieces don't lose that much detail... but compared to the near-state-of-the-art DirectStream they seem to lose a fair amount of musical nuances. And the big plus for DirectStream is that although its topology is solid-state it provides a very non-fatiguing, musical performance... akin to tubes, but without losing the fine details.

There was also a glut of PS Audio Perfect Wave DACs for sale a few years ago on Audiogon. Paul McGowan, the head of PS Audio, tends to hype his latest product release, in ways that have undermined his credibility in my book. A year ago, he was claiming the Direct Stream was the best thing since sliced bread. In a recent write up, he wrote that the amp is more important in the audio chain than the DAC. No surprise that PS Audio has a new amp to sell, although he seems to be implying that the Direct Stream now plays second fiddle in his product lineup.

Also, some PS Audio dealers sell their components at deep discounts, so I suspect many owners of new units believe that others who are not aware of these discounts will buy a used unit at a seemingly big discount off the "retail" price. Hence, people think they can buy new and flip for minimal loss, a mistaken perception, in my view. That could explain why so many are for sale.

Yea... well - the market is flooded with them. I'm sorry Pmotz, the "search for the latest and greatest" might be true (we all do that) but I don't see the (say) lampizator or even benchmark units being sold second-hand at fire-sale (and I bet that there are more benchmark owners than PS directstream owners).

What's out there that might be the next best think (other than the Lampizator, of course - hehe).

Cbozdog,

After reading your last post, I think you've answered your original question. Think about this for a second, because something is missing. You started off by asking why is there so many PS Audio dacs are for sale? Its a reasonable question, but you clearly missed something in your analysis. If you want to properly judge the dac, you need to judge it fairly. You have it ruled out but you've never even listened to one. I suspect that most, if not all, of the people selling their PS Audio dacs did the same thing. Its more likely that the dac in question doesn't match the personal tastes of the of the people that bought them, than the dac just being "not good". So, if you want to rule this dac out as a potential purchase, you really need to hear it for yourself. Otherwise, you're just guessing.

Where there is smoke there is often fire.

We had a very prominent reviewer compare the PS with our similarly priced Aqua Hifi La Scala Dac which is an $8k dac and he was bowled over by how much better the Aqua sounded.

Is is any wonder PS gets such glowing reviews could it be huge advertising?