Anything wrong with PS Audio DirectStream DACs?

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?

The DirectStream is a damn good DAC, but as I said their are folks who continue to seek perfection or just a different sound. So out it goes and something else comes in. No component is perfect and every component sounds different in different systems. For some the DirectStream is the end of the road for now (that's me). Personally I'm not that big on finding the latest and greatest, I just want a DAC that I think sounds good and a lot of other folks think is good so I don't have the strong urge to search for something else. I like how it sounds and really like that it can be run as a preamp too (in an all digital system). Over the years I've seen this happen with many other "hot" components. A lot of people try 'em and then move on ....

Some brands just don't have that esoteric, unobtanium, pixi-dust reputation (i.e., snob appeal) and get kicked around in the used market. Theil, BAT (particularly the VK-300 integrated series) and PS Audio?

This is why you shouldn't go by magazine reviews.

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.