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False advertising

Any dacs out there that actually perform to specs? I’m looking for a dac that can do 512 dsd natively eg no dop . Many dacs claim > 128 dsd but there’s always an asterisk.  My d1100 specs include 256 dsd but only plays 64-128 dop . According to mcintosh 256 is achieved only via usb on windows asio driver. As such I’m limited to 128 dop but not higher. If I don’t set dsd dop I get white noise/hiss. 
 

i stream using auralic g2.1 and have some 256 files. 
 

thoughts will be appreciated. 
 

thanks. 

tee_dee
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,693 posts
 

There are DACs that can do 512 but, you are right, there are often caveats. Clearly, you cannot load a Win/ASIO driver into the Auralic but Mac docs say "supports DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256" without any qualification. Sad.

However, if you are using DoP, you can only get half the bandwidth that you get with native DSD. So, in fact, you are getting DSD128 because that’s all you can fit through the DoP connection to a 256-specified DAC.

jwpstayman
404 posts
 

I have a T+A DAC 200 and the specs show  

T+A-True-1Bit DSD D/A converter, up to DSD 1024 (49,2 MHz), native bitstream

I hope that helps.

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,603 posts
 

“I’m looking for a dac that can do 512 dsd natively eg no dop”

FYI, There are no 512dsd ‘native’ files…the pro studio recording standard is resolution upto 256dsd. Anything above 256dsd is upsampled. 

There are many DAC’s that will do native DSD upto 256dsd, unfortunately your current DAC isn’t one of them. 

verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio
1,500 posts
 

There are lots of DACs that handle DSD 512.  That said, certainly not every DAC supports it.  Audiobyte HydraVox has a DSD 512 mode that is quite good and I have others.  Playback designs at a higher end certainly does.  

tee_dee OP
41 posts
 

The d1100 specs claim DSD up to 256. It will playback up to 128 DoP.

In my experience, it can only do DSD 64 natively, unfortunately. The dac is unable to playback higher DSD. 

I found a posting from Innuos related to native DSD playback.

 

https://innuos.com/kb/known-compatible-native-dsd-dacs/

 

 

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