I love my PS Audio Direct Stream with Red Cloud :)


Yesterday, PS Audio released the Red Cloud FPGA software written by MIT genius Ted Smith.

With immense delight, I auditioned all through the night.

The beauty exceeds what were my wildest expectations when I purchased the DAC several years ago, and reconfirmed that I had made another good choice (my previous good choices include Tannoy 15" DC speakers, Cary SLP05 preamp, Art Audio Jota HC monoblocks, Wavelength Cardinal monoblocks, Cardas Clear cables, Acoustic Zen reference cables, Wyred4Sound server, PS Audio Premier Power Plant, inexpensive HDMI cable, and ceramic corn dishes.

While I haven't heard a great many DACs, I have heard static-state Sabre DACs, which sound ear-bleeding mediocre IME, and R2R chips which were the thing 20+ years ago. I think that FPGA Red Cloud is superior, and the best thing aesthetically to have come from a scientist educated at MIT. Make music, not war.

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with PS Audio, except as a happy customer. It's just a great company!


jburidan

Showing 5 responses by in_shore

I recently purchased the Direct Stream Dac senior and I’m thrilled with the new firmware  and unlike Deepgroove my experience is completely different , LOL ,..
Sure the $800.00Gustard along with the Audio Gd shamed the PS Audio Dac ,..You see , its all about the bass ,,Lol 
Having just purchased PS Audios Direct Stream Player and Direct Stream Dac senior I’m now completely satisfied with digital playback and this latest firmware release has made listening even more pleasurable.

The PS Audio components replaced a Esoteric K03 which replaced a EMM Labs CDSA-SE both fine players in their day however when I really wanted to hunker down to listen to music I enjoy vinyl playback was ultimately more satisfying to me ,.,
Now that I have the Direct Stream Memory Player and Dac vinyl is rarely played now ,....

Going through some of the well known great recorded music spanning over past 60 years available on CD , SACD , Blueray including so called HIRES down loads which all were a pleasure to listen to however one recording in particular stood out that will give many a fright it’s sooo realistic sounding , a percussion piece recorded by Tonian Labs , Drums & Bells .
Tony Minasian engineer extraordinaire with a investment of over 200 grand in mic’s alone he modified specific models that capture so much realism in his recording of Drums & Bells with more to come from what I understand. 

Getting back to the subject, this Red Cloud firmware update was immediately noticeable , so my highest praise goes out to PS Audio ,.
Lancelock , Incredible timbre and dynamics , I don’t know what to make of this recording, why does it sound so realistic and natural and the real kicker it’s red book ,
People are going to have to rethink what is possible using 44 16 ,.truly astonishing to say the least, Gotta keep an eye on Tonian Labs 
JoeCasey your welcome , isn’t it uncanny , just remarkable how realistic sounding it is .
 I have since compared it to other superb percussion  recordings by Sheffield Labs and Chesky Records however as good as these recordings are the Tonian Labs recording is clearly better, ,...uncanny .
Merry Christmas and happy listening everyone,.