PS Audio has announced its all-new PMG Signature Series of top-of-the-line ultimate-performance audio components. The four models in the series include the PMG Signature Preamplifier, PMG Signature 512 PureStream DAC, PMG Signature Phono Preamplifier and PMG Signature SACD Transport. All are designed from the ground up.
PMG Signature components feature a stunning new appearance, with 1-1/2-inch thick machined aluminum front panels accented by a sweeping curved design. The front panel indicators are also touch-sensitive controllers, offering immediate control of all functions from an intuitive menu system. All PMG Signature models can also be operated by a newly-designed remote. Available in silver or black, the chassis have an elegant textured finish that complements any system and living environment. All models feature a chassis-within-a-chassis design for maximum isolation, premium internal parts, multi-layer circuit boards, and other refinements.
PMG Signature Preamplifier.
PMG Signature Preamplifier
The Paul McGowan Signature Preamplifier is PS Audio’s new flagship. With a vanishingly low noise and distortion floor of -150dB, the preamplifier uncovers musical truth with explosive dynamics, infinite depth, and holographic imaging. Designed by acclaimed engineer Darren Myers, it’s fully balanced from input to output.
Its revolutionary power supply eliminates traditional electrolytic capacitors, replacing them with long-life, sonically superior film capacitors. The results are lightning-fast transient response, deeper silence, and greater dynamic swings. The preamp housed in a double chassis construction that shields against noise and interference.
The PMG Signature Preamplifier incorporates a completely reimagined gain stage. The design blends FET (field effect transistor) and BJT (bipolar junction transistor) technologies, combining the finesse and linearity of FETs with the dynamic control and drive of BJTs. Fully complementary from input to output, the gain stage operates in pure Class A, direct-coupled and servo-controlled for absolute signal integrity.
What sets this circuit apart is its innovative take on folded cascode topology. Traditional cascodes use stacked transistors to improve gain and bandwidth, but the folded version "bends" the signal path, allowing high voltage swings, low noise, and wide bandwidth without the instability or harshness of conventional designs.
PMG Signature 512 DAC.
PMG Signature 512 DAC
At the core of the PMG Signature 512 DAC is the new PureStream DSD512 engine, converting any form of digital audio into a pure 8X-DSD stream – there are no PCM circuitry, no decimation filters, and no engineering compromises. The 8X-DSD stream feeds a newly-designed SpectraWave 64-tap sequencer, a digital filter that lowers noise and distortion while perfectly time-aligning the signal. From there, it flows into a direct-coupled analog output stage. This is a radical departure not only from traditional PCM-based architectures but also from conventional DSD implementations and off-the-shelf chip solutions.
The PMG Signature 512 incorporates PS Audio’s Digital Lens technology, ensuring that incoming digital data is perfectly reorganized and re-clocked before ever reaching the PureStream engine. With a fully-balanced, direct-coupled analog output stage, galvanically isolated inputs, a built-in high-performance music streamer, and precision analog volume control, the PMG Signature 512 is not just a DAC; it can serve as the centerpiece of a no-compromise reference system.
PMG Signature Phono Preamplifier.
PMG Signature Phono Preamplifier
The PMG Signature Phono Preamplifier was designed from the ground up by Darren Myers. It features a cutting-edge transimpedance input and a zero-feedback topology that strips away distortion, coloration, and noise. With dual inputs for both moving coil and moving magnet cartridges, and remote-controlled loading and gain options, the PMG Signature Phono Preamplifier adapts effortlessly to any system.
Its fully-discrete FET design delivers massive headroom, ultra-low noise, and explosive dynamics. From the beginning, this was going to be a no-compromise design. There’s not a single op-amp or integrated circuit in the signal path. Instead, every stage is constructed from hand-selected, discrete FETs and BJTs, operating in pure Class A.
The topology is fully complementary and direct-coupled – chosen not for cost considerations, but for its ability to deliver the lowest distortion, the highest resolution, and a complete absence of a sonic fingerprint. The result is astonishing headroom, ultra-low noise, and lightning-fast transient response, capable of reproducing the most delicate nuances and the most explosive dynamics with equal ease.
The Signature Phono Preamplifier’s transimpedance input gives cartridges a direct, uncolored path to amplification, eliminating loading concerns and revealing unmatched detail, texture, and space. For a more traditional approach, the voltage input offers adjustable gain and loading, all controlled remotely.
At the heart of PMG Signature Phono Preamplifier lies a bold and uncompromising design decision: the complete elimination of global feedback. Using high-voltage discrete FETs and hand-selected bipolar transistors in a fully complementary topology, this phono preamp achieves something few engineers have dared attempt – a true zero-feedback phono stage with vanishingly low noise and distortion.
PMG Signature SACD Transport.
PMG Signature SACD Transport
The PMG Signature SACD Transport connects a DAC to the hidden magic of pure DSD that’s been locked away in SACD discs. With galvanically isolated outputs and an ultra-low jitter design, it breathes new life into a CD collection when paired with any DAC. When connected via I²S, it unlocks the raw DSD layer of SACDs, delivering what was once hidden to external DACs.
New to this model, and for that matter, any disc player ever made, is the inclusion of PS Audio’s galvanically isolated output stage. By coupling the output of the drive mechanism to the transport’s internal Digital Lens by a pulse of energy across space, any hints of noise or ground contamination are eliminated. The results of this complete electronic isolation is a previously unheard level of image separation, openness, and effortless reproduction.
PS Audio PMG Signature components will be available at a suggested US retail price of $8,499 each. Availability will be in the third quarter of 2025.
Header image: PMG Signature Series Signature 512 DAC.
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