Last night, I visited a good friend who just got his PMG Preamp and DAC; he was eager for me to hear them in his system because he was extremely pleased with their performance. By the time I arrived, they had been used for approximately 10 hours each. My friend has an excellent system and a terrific room dedicated to listening to music. His power amps are McIntosh MC125.KWs; his speakers are PS Audio FR30s; his subwoofers are SVS PB17s (two); his power conditioning is a PowerPlant 20; and his cables are a mix of high-end Audioquests and Kimber Kables. His new DAC replaced a PS Audio DirectStream Mk2, and his new preamp replaced a McIntosh C2800.
Heretofore, I really had not been overwhelmed by his system as it was, in my opinion, inferior to mine (which, in fairness, cost me a great deal more money and has been carefully assembled over the past few years). Last night was a totally different experience.
We listened for about 2-1/2 hours to music with which I was very familiar. Almost all of it had been downloaded onto his hard drive from SACDs and "best version" CDs. A few selections were streamed from Qobuz, using the internal streamer (an upgraded Digital Lens) in the PMG DAC.
I was awestruck. Stability, imaging, clarity, soundstage width and depth, silence between notes, dynamic range, bass reproduction, and "musicality" were consistently outstanding. Some of what we listened to were: London Grammar/Hey Now; Gershwin by Grofe/Rhapsody in Blue; Beethoven's 9th (4th movement)/London Symphony Orchestra; Chris Isaak/Wicked Game; Alex Parks/Mad World; Dave Brubeck Quartet/Take Five; Fanfare for the Common Man/Atlanta Symphony; Give Me One Reason/Traci Chapman; Elvis Presley/Are You Lonsome Tonight/ and many more. My wife loves Taylor Swift's new album; I have listened to it almost ad nauseam (particularly, "Champagne Problems"). Last night, he played the standard CD version, which had been loaded previously onto his hard drive. It was gob-smackingly terrific.
My opinion is that the improvement in his system was overwhelmingly due to his new DAC. I do not attribute much at all to his new preamp, as the McIntosh C2800 is a very good preamp.
I own a very good DAC -- the Bricasti Designs' M21. I would say the new PS Audio PMG DAC is at least its match and perhaps even its better. For sure, this PMG is in the same category as my M21, the dCS Rossini Apex, the Grimm MU2, and a very few others. I cannot say if it is an actual competitor to DACs like the MSB Cascade and its ilk because I am skeptical that his amp/speaker/cable configuration would be able to demonstrate that level of quality.
Bottom line: if you are in the market for a new DAC and have a budget limitation between $10,000 and $25,000, you must seriously consider the PS Audio PMG DAC -- even though it is less expensive than any of those.