PS Audio DLIII DAC Inverts Absolute Polarity

Just wanted to let everyone know, who has a Digital Link III from PS Audio, that they may not be realizing the full potential of this incredible DAC.

I was fortunate enough to come across a new old stock unit from a dealer in CA recently. As I was waiting for the unit to arrive, I decided to catch up on some reviews to get a feel on what others thought about this DAC. I then came across a press review from Audio Xpress magazine where they described a slight flaw with this DAC.

The article says that the DLIII actually inverts polarity. What this means is that if you connect your DAC normally with either the RCA or XLR outputs, the output will be 180 degrees out of phase (reverse polarity). As I read this, I started to panic and thought I just purchased a dud. But the article goes on to say that this can be easily corrected in one of two ways: by swapping pins 2 and 3 on the XLR outputs or if all the music sources are being routed through the DAC, then you can simply reverse your speaker connections.

So I then decided to enlist the help of Rob Fritz at Audio Art Cable to make a custom XLR-to-RCA cable that makes pin 3 from the XLR connector as the Hot signal on the RCA instead of Pin 2.

As I was waiting for the custom cable, I decided to break in the DAC for a few days with the normal connections.. After about 100 hours, I was not that thrilled with the sound. Though it was warm sounding, the soundstage was a bit odd and well in front of the speakers. The bass also was very loose and ill-defined and the highs seemed a little rolled off. When I started to compare my observations with other press reviews, others had similar things to say, like a very forward soundstage.

But once my custom XLR-to-RCA cable arrived, the sound went from good to phenomenal. The soundstage was incredibly open as well as wide and deep. The treble was smooth and had great extension and refinement. But the biggest improvement was the bass. It was more natural with great definition and punch.

The reason I am sharing this experience is that many people may not know about the phase issue with the DLIII and may not be realizing the full potential of this incredible DAC.