PS Audio DirectStream Memory Player Stereophile 2019 Class A+

Stereophile Class A+ 2019 recommended SACD, DVD-A, CD player, Transport, & Media Player  
One-owner, purchased from factory in Nov of 2016, PS Audio DirectStream Memory Player in very good condition.  Aside from some minor scuffs <see photos> on top gloss-black lid from normal dusting, unit functions as it did when new, very conservatively rated 8/10.  Fully tested with PS Audio DAC Sr / D'Agostino Momentum electronics / Magico S7 speakers for several days.  This player's sound and functionality are both excellent.  Includes the original power cord, remote, batteries, owner's manual, and original factory double box, with air spring suspension inner box system.  This sale also includes the PS Audio I2S cable, a $459 cable when new!  Also included are a set of four A/V RoomService Equipment Vibration Protectors, $159 new.  Price includes PayPal and/or AudioGon Express Checkout fees, shipping, insurance - everything to your door.  I have over a decade and hundreds of 100% positive feedback and ship the same day I receive payment.  Herndon Audio can accept AudioGon Express Checkout, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, check in the mail, etc.

<from Stereophile recommend components 2019 Class A+>
PS Audio DirectStream Memory Player: $5999
PS Audio's DirectStream Memory Player retains the Digital Lens RAM of its predecessor, the PerfectWave Transport—but here it buffers the digital throughput only enough to stay ahead of the bitstream. (The PerfectWave delayed the music signal by as much as 30 seconds.) As with other contemporary PSA products, the DirectStream Memory Player uses proprietary code on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Its mechanical-drive innards are based on those of an Oppo universal disc player, a result of which is the new transport's ability to play Blu-ray discs—without video output—and, when used with PS Audio's own DirectStream DAC, the DSD layers of SACDs. (A proprietary PS Audio handshake protocol had to be developed to prevent the DirectStream Memory player from outputting DSD, which would violate Sony's copyrights.) In comparing the sound of the DirectStream Memory Player to that of his PerfectWave Transport, RD noted an improvement in CD playback that, ironically or not, reduced "the margin of superiority of DSD over CD." He concluded that "there's life in the ol' CD yet." 

PS Audio DirectStream Memory Player universal transport

Robert Deutsch  |  Sep 26, 2017 

The first time I heard a CD player in my own system was in 1983, the first year of the format's introduction in the West. CD players were generally hard to come by, but I had a friend who worked for Sony, and he came over with his new toy: Sony's next-to-top-of-the-line CD player. (I think it was a CDP-501.) We connected it to my system—at the time, Quad ESLs driven by a Luxman tube amplifier, with a Linn turntable—and listened to some Sony demo CDs.

My friend was delighted with the results. "There's no noise! No clicks, no pops, no rumble!" I had to agree—the lack of noise was impressive. As for the music—well, less so. The sound was bright and harsh, especially massed strings. Piano was better, crisp and dynamic, but voices had more of an edge. I didn't want to spoil his enjoyment, but I wasn't convinced. However, I was intrigued, and determined to find out if CDs could be made to sound better.

So began a long journey. In the more than three decades since, I've owned CD players and DACs made by Arcam, Audio Alchemy, Ayre Acoustics, Mission, Perpetual Technologies, Philips, PS Audio, and Sony. (I don't stream or download.) What encouraged me was that while the Compact Disc itself is a closed system with 16-bit resolution and a 44.1kHz sampling rate, the sound quality of CD playback continued to improve. For me, the greatest improvement came with PS Audio's PerfectWave transport and PerfectWave DirectStream DAC. The combination sounded really good right off the bat, with upgrades of the DAC's firmware (or, as PS Audio calls it, Operating System) producing further improvements.

Can you improve on perfection?
By perfection I don't mean Perfect Sound Forever, Philips and Sony's much-ridiculed claim for the Compact Disc, but PS Audio's name for their first transport: the PerfectWave Transport (PWT). The PWT used what PS Audio called the Digital Lens—a massive RAM buffer that isolates the digital data from the optical drive and laser mechanism, sending the buffered output with a low-jitter clock to the DAC. It's then up to the DAC to turn the resulting bitstream into music. Sounds good—and it did—but can you improve on perfection?

In fact, according to PS Audio's Paul McGowan and Bob Stadtherr—respectively the company's CEO and the chief engineer in charge of the DirectStream Memory Player (DMP) project—the PWT was so good that they doubted whether significant improvement was even possible. However, it's been eight years since the introduction of the PWT, and, for marketing reasons if nothing else, it was due for an update or replacement. In an interview about the development of the DMP, Stadtherr noted, "it's easy to put new chips in there; it's easy to put new features in; it's easy to use the latest, greatest whatever the manufacturers are coming out with," but that "making it sound better is difficult, because sometimes it's difficult to know what makes it sound better in the first place."

I've owned a PWT for about three years, and though it's had some mechanical problems (among other things, its drawer, once opened, would sometimes close prematurely), I've had no complaints about its sound. During a period when the PWT wasn't working, I pressed into service my Ayre Acoustics CX-7e CD player (using its digital output), and the Ayre—whose computer drive had been replaced, but was generally a fine player—was clearly not as good. So when PS Audio announced that it had a new transport in the works that not only could play CDs with higher sound quality, but SACDs as well (the PWT could play only the CD layer of SACD/CDs), I asked Bill Leebens, PSA's genial director of marketing, to put me on the list. "I know your interests," Leebens said. "I already have you down for a review sample."

Design
The PerfectWave Transport's most distinctive design element was that RAM buffer, which could temporarily store as much as 30 seconds' worth of music—you could eject a disc while it was playing, and the music would continue for that long. So I was surprised to learn that while the new DirectStream Memory Player uses the Digital Lens circuit as a "core technology," it no longer has a big buffer: Eject a disc and the music stops almost immediately. Apparently, while the new Digital Lens includes a buffer, it's only just large enough to stay ahead of the bitstream. The DMP's design takes advantage of advances in semiconductor architecture found in large-scale field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), also used in the DirectStream DAC.

The PWT's main mechanical component was a computer CD/DVD drive made by LG, which had the advantage of being easily available and replaceable in the field. One of the times my PWT malfunctioned, this drive had to be replaced. Rather than shipping the transport to PS Audio, I bought a replacement LG drive at a computer store, and Wallace Poon, the technician at Toronto Home of Audiophile, a nearby PSA dealer, replaced it in about 30 minutes. After that, the PWT worked well. The DMP is based on an Oppo universal Blu-ray player, and operates more smoothly than the LG, as befits a higher-end product. But the DMP is not just a rebadged Oppo: PS Audio uses only the mechanical drive innards; everything else is their own design and manufacture.

In addition to CDs and SACDs, the DMP can play a vast array of recording formats—some I hadn't heard of—on disc or USB flash drive. The DMP will even play BDs, but has no video output, which PS Audio considers detrimental to sound quality. The setup menus include control of a feature called Pure Audio, which turns the Oppo's video engine on and off. (There is no video output in either case.) The recommended position is for Pure Audio to be enabled, which is now the factory default. However, early samples of the DMP, including mine, were shipped with Pure Audio disabled. My early casual listening to the DMP was with Pure Audio disabled, but I can't say I noticed anything amiss. However, when I found out about Pure Audio and enabled it, the sound indeed became more clear. All my "serious" listening was with Pure Audio enabled. As far as I can tell, Pure Audio seems to be part of the Blu-ray standard. I've got an audio-only BD, released by Farao, marked "Pure Audio Blu-ray Disc" (with BD logo), with Kent Nagano conducting Bruckner's Symphonies 4, 7, and 8—four hours of music on a single BD in 24/96 LPCM (two-channel) and 24/96 DTS-HD MA (5.0 multichannel).

A major feature that distinguishes the DMP from the PWT is the former's ability to play the DSD layer on SACDs. As mandated by Sony, the DSD bitstream on an SACD layer is encrypted, to prevent illegal copying; to allow the DSD bitstream to be sent to the DAC, PS Audio developed a proprietary handshake protocol between the DMP and their DirectStream DACs, using the I2S interface implemented with HDMI connections. This keeps both Sony and PSA happy: the handshake protocol prevents copyright violations, and gives PSA DACs access to SACD's DSD bitstream. If a DAC other than a DirectStream is used, or if the DMP–DirectStream connection is not made with I2S, the playback will be of the PCM-CD layer.

Staying up to date with the times, the DMP includes a network connection, to download cover art and song titles from PS Audio's GlobalNet server so that the DMP can display this metadata on its touchscreen, and store it on the included SD card. My audio system has no computer or Internet connection, so I didn't use this feature. The DMP also has a front-panel USB port for a flash drive. This I did try, with a 24/44.1 recording of Bélanger & Bisson's Conversations (Camilio CAM2-5022). It worked fine.

As well as having a Stereo/Two-Channel digital output through its I2S/HDMI connection, the DMP can also accommodate multichannel SACD via two additional I2S/HDMI connections. But before multichannel fans get too excited, they should keep in mind that getting high-resolution multichannel playback requires three DirectStream DACs—two channels per DAC—with no convenient way of adjusting channel balances.

Listening
In comparing the sound of a new audio component with that of a familiar reference, there are three possibilities:

1) The sounds of the two products may be extremely close, the difference, if any, being so subtle that multiple A/B comparisons are needed to get a handle on it.

2) The difference is fairly easy to hear, but it's hard to know whether the sound of the new product represents a) an improvement, b) just a change, or even c) a degradation in the sound.

3) Without extensive comparisons, the new product immediately impresses as sounding not merely different but better, an impression reinforced by further listening.

The DirectStream Memory Player fell into that third category. I played the same CDs in the DMP and the PerfectWave Transport, using the same HDMI cable, and the improvement wrought by the DMP was akin to the one produced by cleaning an LP with the Audiodesksysteme Gläss ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner—not in noise level as such (the CD format has that under control), but in overall clarity. My copy of the Chesky Records Jazz Sampler & Audiophile Test Compact Disc, Vol.1 (Chesky JD37) has seen a lot of use—despite my best efforts to handle it with care, many tiny scratches are visible on its playing surface. Played in the PWT, it gave no indication that these scratches had any detrimental effect on the sound (no dropouts); but played in the DMP, the same disc sounded somehow fresher, cleaner. I heard the same effect with CDs that had hardly been played before, and whose surfaces were pristine. It seems that there's more information hidden in those bits, information that the DMP somehow retrieves. Yes, I know: bits are bits, and a technical examination of the two players' bitstreams would almost certainly show that the patterns of zeros and ones put out by their transports are identical, with any differences in retrieval of information handled by error correction. Perhaps the differences in sound are due to the timing of the bits. This is, in fact, what PS Audio claims is the benefit of the latest iteration of their Digital Lens circuit. But whatever the cause, the result was obvious—and once I'd heard it, it was hard to go back to the PWT.

HDMI Interconnects
The DMP has three types of digital outputs: I2S, XLR (AES/EBU), and RCA coax (S/PDIF), with the recommended I2S connection made through the HDMI connector/cable. As the owner's manual points out, the data at the HDMI output are I2S data, not HDMI, as with home-theater components. Included with the DMP is a 1m-long HDMI link with the PS Audio logo. PSA notes that the quality of the HDMI link, as well as its length, can significantly affect the sound: shorter is better, but whatever the cable's length, "make certain that you install the highest quality HDMI cable you can afford."

My initial listening to the DMP was with its stock HDMI cable, and the sound was very good indeed. But I had to hear what the DMP would sound like with something better. For this, I chose 1m lengths of Nordost Heimdall 2 4K UHD and AudioQuest Coffee. Various technical claims are made for both HDMI cables, but they deal mostly with the transmission of Ultra High Definition video signals, not audio. (The exception is the minimization of jitter, claimed by both makers.) Each costs about $600, or 10% of the DMP's price—a not-unreasonable price for an upgrade. (Nordost and AudioQuest also make far more expensive HDMI links.)

I did a series of comparisons: First, I switched back and forth between the PS Audio and Nordost HDMIs until I felt I had a handle on any sonic differences. Then I switched repeatedly between the PSA and AudioQuest, and finally between Nordost and AQ. The recordings used were constants: the Chesky Records Jazz Sampler & Audiophile Test Compact Disc, Vol.1, and track 1 of Tutti! An Orchestral Sampler: Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra performing Rimsky-Korsakov's Dance of the Tumblers (HDCD, Reference RR-906 CD). I used no SACDs.

Compared to the PS Audio link, the Nordost and AudioQuest HDMIs were more detailed, with better soundstage definition. In a shoot-out between the Nordost and AQ, however, my preference was for the Nordost. The AQ was more laid-back, the Nordost more lively and dynamic, with a greater sense of transparency. My system is wired with Nordost Valhalla 2, so the perceived superiority of Nordost's Heimdall 2 4K may represent what some audiophiles consider to be an advantage of wiring an entire system with the same brand of cable. The magnitude of improvement with the Nordost or AQ cables wasn't great—much less than between the PWT and DMP—but it was definitely worthwhile.

SACD Sound
Prior to getting the DMP for review, I owned about a dozen SACD/CDs. None was in my Frequently Played category, so I didn't feel unduly deprived by being able to play only their "Red Book" (PCM) CD layers. However, given that the DMP's claim to fame is its ability to read SACDs' high-resolution DSD layer using the DirectStream DAC, I felt it incumbent on me to evaluate the claimed sonic superiority of SACD/DSD to PCM, using recordings known for their sound quality. I got hold of some recordings of a variety of contemporary artists from Blue Coast Records, some Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissues of albums by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin—and One, a collection of performances recorded in DSD, and the first release on PS Audio's own Sonoma Music label.

Using the DMP to compare the sounds of these discs' CD and SACD layers wasn't as straightforward as I'd hoped. The simplest thing would have been a button on the remote control that toggles the playback between CD and SACD layers while the disc is playing—but the technical differences between the two formats prevent such an arrangement. With a hybrid disc, the DMP defaults to two-channel SACD. To play the CD layer, you have to access the setup menu on the touch-sensitive display and select CD. However, this works only if there is no disc loaded. If a Hybrid disc has been loaded and you try to change the playback from Stereo SACD to CD playback, it still plays the SACD layer. You have to eject the disc, then switch the DMP to CD playback. If you then play another SACD/CD, it will retain the instruction to play the CD layer. If you want to switch back to SACD, you have to select Stereo SACD playback on the menu—again without a disc being loaded. This somewhat cumbersome procedure is needed only if you want to compare SACD with CD, as in a review.

If I was disappointed in any aspect of the DMP's performance, it was in its playback of SACDs. Don't get me wrong—in every comparison I made, the DSD layer sounded better than the CD layer. The trumpets in Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!! (SACD/CD, Capitol/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2110) were sweeter, more like the real thing; and on his While She Sleeps: Piano Lullabies, Art Lande's closely miked solo piano had a more precisely defined image (SACD/CD, Blue Coast BCRSA 2012a). But the differences, while not negligible, were also not that great. Given a choice, I'd always play the DSD layer, but without direct comparison to the DSD, the CD layer still sounded excellent. On one occasion, I was listening to and admiring what I thought was DSD, only to look at the display and find out that I was actually playing the CD layer. Switching to DSD did produce an improvement; that being said, it seems that, in the DMP, PS Audio has also produced a marked improvement in CD playback, thus reducing the margin of superiority of DSD over CD. For someone like me, who has a lot of CDs but few SACDs, this is not a bad outcome. In fact, if the DMP provided superior DSD playback but had no effect on CD playback, I wouldn't consider buying one—which I ultimately did.

After wrapping up my formal audition of the DMP, I installed a set of IsoAcoustics Gaia speaker isolators (footers) in the plinths of my Monitor Audio Platinum PL300 II speakers (see review elsewhere in this issue). This produced an across-the-board improvement in focus and transparency.

Conclusions
PS Audio's website describes the DirectStream Memory Player as "the last transport you'll ever need."3 But describing an audio product as "the last," "the ultimate," or "perfect" is a chancy business. Like the DirectStream DAC, the DMP's use of FPGAs makes its firmware upgradable, so I suppose they can make the claim of "future-proof" as well as anyone. PS Audio's position on MQA is still unfolding, but the DMP will almost certainly play any MQA-encoded disc as a "Red Book" CD. The latest firmware version, Huron, which was released in June, prepares the PS Audio DACs for a forthcoming update to PS Audio's Network Bridge II cards that will add support for MQA and Tidal. A report on Huron and the Bridge II update appears elsewhere in this issue.

However, from my perspective, whether or not to what extent the DirectStream Memory Player will handle future digital audio formats is of little importance, as any such recordings are unlikely to form a significant part of my listening diet. What's important to me is playback of the CDs in my collection. Played through the DMP and the DirectStream DAC, my CDs sound better than I'd thought possible.

There's life in the ol' CD yet.

<from PS Audio>  

In 2009, the high-end audio world was shaken with the introduction of the world’s first high resolution memory player, the PerfectWave Transport. Nearly eight years later PS Audio engineering has taken another giant leap forward with the introduction of the PWT’s replacement, the DirectStream Memory Player, the last transport you’ll ever need.

DMP is a universal transport, capable of playing multiple types of optical discs including, DVD-Audio, AVCHD, SACD, HRx, CD, CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW, DVD±R DL, BD-R/RE, as well as stored data through its USB digital input.

CD performance of DMP has been enhanced to a degree once thought unobtainable, narrowing the gap between Red Book CD reproduction and high resolution PCM and DSD. Played through DMP, ordinary CDs take on new life, with improved dimensionality, soundstage width and depth, improved dynamics (both micro and macro), increased low level harmonic information, and richer tonal balance.

Plus, hear SACD for the first time

The protected DSD layer of SACD has long been available only through D/A converters built in to players and a few receivers and surround processors. These internal D/A processors, while adequate, were never capable of playing back stored music at the quality and performance levels enjoyed by mastering engineers. Now, with the introduction of PS Audio’s revolutionary new memory player, DMP, owners of our DirectStream series of DACs can uncover all that they have been missing. Based on a proprietary handshake protocol between DMP and PS Audio DACs, through our advanced I²S interface, pure DSD is streamed to, and processed in, the same reference quality DAC used by mastering engineers.

At the heart of DMP is an advanced version of core PS Audio technology, the Digital Lens. Invented in 1993 by PS Audio founder Paul McGowan and chief engineer, Bob Stadtherr, the Digital Lens focuses digital data into a perfect stream, unaffected by the transport’s mechanical and electrical properties.

In digital audio, timing is everything. Jitter, noise, and a lack of isolation have major impacts on sound quality, especially affecting lower resolution media such as CD.  DMP’s advanced Digital Lens technology solves timing, noise and isolation problems through a unique combination of buffer memory and FPGA based digital processing.

Up until DMP’s advanced Lens technology was introduced, the internal Digital Lens found in the older PerfectWave Transport, relied on an intelligent RAM buffer to isolate digital data from the mechanical optical drive and laser mechanism. Separated from the CD reading device, data accumulated in the Len’s buffer until output through a fixed low jitter clock to the DAC.

After eight years of research and two years of development, PS engineering has been able to shorten the memory requirements and improve the timing of digital audio data. The new Lens takes advantage of advances in semiconductor architecture, found in FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array). Using a single large scale integrated FPGA, PS chief DMP architect, Bob Stadtherr, devised a segmented structure including intelligent RAM, two-way isolated communication with the drive, and near-field output latches controlled by an ultra-low jitter fixed clock. The results are extraordinary.

DMP’s advanced Digital Lens and low-jitter fixed clock perfectly focuses the isolated datastream to the I²S, coax, or AES/EBU outputs directly to your DAC. The results of this fine, perfectly timed data stream must be heard to fully appreciate its full implications.

New life to Red Book CD

The Compact Disc was first introduced in 1982, nearly 35 years ago, as of this writing. Over the years, steady progress has been made improving its musicality. But retrieving all that is possible from this optical medium has remained somewhat elusive until the introduction of the DMP.

Most engineers in our field, including our own, failed to recognize the critical need for timing perfection to appreciate all that is available on CD. Not until 2009, with the introduction of the PerfectWave Transport, did we begin to understand that there was more to CD than we had ever imagined.  The PWT demonstrated that careful extraction of data, coupled with isolation of the output clock, yielded unexpected benefits: more information than we knew existed.

Our next uncovering of what treasures lay hidden in the CD was even bigger. DirectStream DAC. DirectStream DAC’s inventor, Ted Smith, opened our eyes to what was possible to render (playback) from the original optical storage method—once believed to be so lacking that only higher resolution upgrades could salvage the sound.

The PWT opened our eyes to what could be extracted, the DirectStream DAC turned the lights on for what could be rendered, and the DMP has finally opened wide the door to what is possible when extraction and timing are near-perfect.

Cover art and song titles

DMP enjoys a new user interface that includes song titles and tracks that can be read from a distance. Like its predecessor, the PWT, album art can be automatically downloaded when DMP is connected to the internet.

Every time you play a disc (and are connected to the internet) a copy of the cover art and song titles are kept for you on your own private library page, accessed through our website. From your personal page it is a simple matter to correct any of the CD’s information, change cover art and polish your CD collection.

SACD extraction

Sony and Philips corporations introduced the CD’s successor, the SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) in 1999, 17 years after the original launch. Instead of downsampled PCM from higher resolution original recordings, which many Red Book CDs are based upon, SACD held the promise of access to the original master tape or recording through a new format, PDM (Pulse Density Modulation) that Sony and Philips rebranded as DSD (Direct Stream Digital).

Because this new high resolution digital format was essentially identical to the master tape, strict copyright protections were put in place to protect the rights of artists and recording labels. Those protections remain in place today, as well they should. Most collections of SACD have only been heard through Sony/Philips authorized DACs, internal to the players, unavailable as a separate digital audio datastream to external DACs.

PS Audio’s DMP is one of the first transports to provide external access to the pure DSD layer on SACD. DMP can do this, legally, because the raw data stream cannot be copied. DMP owners with PS Audio’s DirectStream DAC, or DirectStream Junior, can access this encrypted layer through our unique I²S interface. Once connected, DMP authenticates the presence of a PS Audio authorized DAC and, for the first time, listeners can get closer to master tapes than ever thought possible.

DirectStream DACs are pure DSD based and nothing sounds quite as magical as DSD copies of master tapes processed into exquisite analog through DirectStream DACs.

I2S through HDMI output

There are three ways to get digital audio data out of the DMP: S/PDIF, AES/EBU or I2S HDMI. I2S is the preferred method if you have a PS Audio DAC or any manufacturer’s DAC that can receive it. Three such I²S interface are provided, allowing for 6-channel high resolution audio to be streamed from DMP.

S/PDIF (and AES/EBU) are the standard delivery methods found on all transports and, while excellent, remain a compromised format.

Standard digital outputs take three separate internal clocks along with the raw music data and combine them into one stream to the DAC. This mashup of music and clocks causes the audio to sound flat and harsh compared to I2S.

A much better way of delivering the music is what I2S does, by transferring the clocks and data on separate wires within the HDMI cable, and the audible results are impressive. Simply use any HDMI cable between the DMP and appropriate DAC and you are transferring data perfectly, through I2S.

A growing number of DACS and devices are adopting the PS Audio HDMI standard for digital audio transmission because of its superior audio quality.

Powerful analog discrete power supply

Clean and well-regulated power is essential for a high-performance universal disc player like the DirectStream Transport. Instead of the typical switch mode power supply, a fully analog approach is taken with DMP.

Three separate and isolated analog power sections make up DMP’s power supply. Fed from a large toroidal power transformer with three galvanically isolated windings, each of the three power stages utilizes discrete full wave rectification based on high-speed low-loss diodes. Energy storage for the three sections comes from a bank of low ESR high-value capacitors bypassed by non-inductive film capacitors.

Each of the three power storage banks are then double regulated by discrete, linear, voltage regulators which reduce ripple to the microvolt level and lower impedance to well below an Ohm.

Playback of stored data

The front panel USB input on DMP is available for small music collections stored on USB drives. Plug in a USB thumb drive and its contents can be accessed and played back through DMP. While the instrument itself is capable of handling large numbers of tracks, selection can become cumbersome if there are too many.

Tracks from the data drive are displayed in small groups on DMP’s touch screen, and navigating larger libraries can be time consuming. PS engineering added this input as a courtesy port offering quick access to a friend’s favorite album or track. We imagine being at a consumer audio show and customers wishing to hear music stored on their thumb drives will find this input convenient and excellent sounding.

Many high-end audio music lovers still have large CD collections as well as small to medium sized SACD and high resolution PCM (like HRx) libraries. Few of us are eager to unload the hundreds, often thousands, of discs we’ve collected over the years. But we know there’s far more to be gotten off those discs than most of us now enjoy.

The DirectStream Memory Player changes all that, disrupting the status quo, changing what’s possible in the digital audio landscape.

Owning the DMP is an investment, one that will pay off in a rich musical experience for years to come.

DMP offers the chance to hear what you’ve been missing on your discs, whether Red Book CD, CDR’s from downloads, HRx, or the master DSD layer on SACD. You’ve invested much in accumulating your music library. Now, it’s time to really hear what’s been locked inside for so long.

DMP is the finest transport mechanism we know how to build.

We trust you’ll enjoy the new DirectStream Memory Player as much as we do.

Ready to Take One Home?

Choose colorChoose an optionSilverBlack Silver

$5,999 ADD TO CART

Free shipping, 30-day in-home audition

Perhaps the last great transport ever made

The chassis of the DMP is a metal sculpture of aluminum and steel, weighing in at 20 pounds of elegance and beauty. The top cover is a hand painted, hand polished piano black cover that has been lavished over for hours.

The DirectStream Memory Player has been a work of passion; a quest for perfection in musical excellence. The instrument is assembled, programmed and tested at our production facility in Boulder Colorado by skilled craftspeople. There is a measure of pride of workmanship that goes into every one of these products and it shows from the moment you open the unit up and plug it in.

PS Audio has been building products of passion, elegance and engineering excellence for more than 40 years. Family owned and cared for, PS Audio believes in our products and our customers. Those are not just empty marketing terms so often bandied about in brochures and websites.

Call us, email us, come by and visit our family and enjoy some time in Music Room One.

For the love of music, we’re here for you.

Physical

Unit Weight22 lbs [9.97 kg]Unit Dimensions14” x 17” x 4” [ 36cm x 43cm x 10cm]Shipping Weight31 lbs [14 kg]Shipping Dimensions20.5”x 24” x 10” [52cm x 61cm x 25cm]

Power requirements

Input PowerModel specific 100VAC, 120VAC, or 230VAC 50 or 60HzPower Consumption30W

Input sources

I2S(2), Coax, XLR Balanced, TOSLINK, USB, Network Bridge slotOptical discsCD Standard Digital Audio
CD-R/RW CD Data Discs with audio files
HDCD High Definition CDs
SACD Super Audio CD Stereo or Multi-Channel
DVD-R/RW DVD Data Discs with audio filesUSB DriveUSB Flash Drive with audio filesFile FormatAAC FLAC OGG
ALAC M4A OGM
AVI M4V WAV
DFF MP3 WMA
DSF MP4

Outputs

I2S3 (Front, Rear, Center/Sub)
Connector HDMI Type A
(Uses HDMI connector but not compatible with HDMI inputs)
PCM output 44.1KHz to 192KHz
DSD output 2.8MHzCoax3 (Front, Rear, Center/Sub)
Connector RCA
PCM output 44.1KHz to 192KHz
DSD output DSD over PCM 2.8MHz (176.4KHz)Balanced1 (Front only)
Connector XLR Male
PCM output 44.1KHz to 192KHz
DSD output DSD over PCM 2.8MHz (176.4KHz)