DSD coming to Qobuz streaming?


It looks like DSD files will soon stream on Qobuz - this may take some of the wind out of the sails of HDTracks and MQA. Some DSD recordings are already available for download, such as this classic from Boston.

I checked with Qobuz directly and was told there will be "an official announcement soon."

Ag insider logo xs@2xcleeds

Streaming dsd64 will not be a problem, but most "audiophiles" will be disappointed with that.

Just a naive question. Is there an advantage to DSD over high res PCM?  I can see the advantage of DSD if the original recording is in DSD (there are very few recording masters done in DSD … Boston included). However, if the original recording (the master) was in red book or high res PCM what does DSD bring to the party?  DSD can not add musical information to what is not already there in the original recording. Finally, does your DAC not covert your music files to PCM before doing analog conversion? I love the idea of DSD recordings but taking old PCM masters and converting them to DSD does not seem to offer much.  What am I missing?

What am I missing?

My perception has been that DSD has a slightly different character from PCM.  Much of this could be expectation bias.  And I don't mean to say it is necessarily better.  It would just be fun to have access to more DSD-originated and streamed recordings to understand if there is a difference. 

Part of this depends on how "deep" one wants to get into DSD. Correct that the number of native DSD is small in comparison (still a lot available though) even more so with the style/genre you like.

However, the vast majority of users? at least in what I see/experience, is upsampling PCM > DSD (128-512+) AND using HQPlayer with its fantastic modulaters/sampling.

So this workflow is where things get either a bit more involved, but not crazy complicated, to fairly in-depth / involved chain - but with great results. Using HQP along with some of the well known players (mainly used for library mgmt) and an HQP NAA endpoint > DAC (USB or I2s).

There are many threads on HQP + NAA that going beyond the scope here, but offer a lot of info. The advantages are solely personal preference and the ones doing PCM > DSD obviously prefer that "method" and SQ.  One has to experience it with the right setup/DAC.  It is very good, but again a little more "techy" involved. 

Streaming DSD or more DSD downloads made available to many in the DSD camp would be a very welcome addition