What gives you this impression ?
Well, the main thing is my own impression of every delta-sigma DAC I've ever heard. They sound 'dead' to me. And I'm not hearing people reporting this nowadays when they write about modern DACs. But as I said, I haven't heard many (any?) high-end ones for years now.
PS: For fun read the PS Audio page... and reflect.
Just read the PSAudio page. In the 'Features' they say:
Most of today’s sophisticated DACs are IC based instruments using off-the-shelf-chips that are Multi-bit Sigma Delta based designs. While these are relatively simple to design and produce, they don’t often give the best results sonically. Because they are one-chip systems compromises are made in their architecture that found in DirectStream’s custom based architecture.
I added the italics because I don't understand this sentence at all. Anyone care to help me?
Then in the 'Specs' they say:
Analog Conversion method: Delta Sigma (DSD) Single-bit double rate
So, the unique selling point of this DAC is single-bit delta sigma conversion??? I have an old KORG MR1000 ADC/DAC here which uses the CS4398 DAC chip - a single-bit double rate DAC chip. Presumably, this old unit does exactly what the PSAudio does when converting PCM to analogue. So what's new in the PSAudio? The fact that everything is converted to DSD? Isn't this exactly what the CS4398 DAC chip does? I mean, isn't DSD the marketing name for single-bit delta sigma?
For me, the really crucial thing is that there is still a digital conversion stage going on in the PSAudio in getting from PCM to analogue, and this can
never be a good thing.
Someone please... what am I missing?
Mani.