DSD coming to Qobuz streaming?

PS Audio has a small but interesting downloadable library of DSD albums on their Octave Records label. All these titles were mastered in DSD so you get the full benefit of what DSD has to offer

It is mostly smoke and mirrors. Your statement can’t be correct because it is impossible to master in DSD, so if it is recorded as DSD, and very little is, then it has to be converted to PCM for mastering, then back to DSD. Almost everything released as DSD was recorded as analog or PCM then converted to DSD. Even if recorded as DSD it was almost certainly DSD64 so anything released at a higher rate was converted.

Most DACs then take these DSD files and convert them even further either to high rate PCM (Mola Tambaqui) or upsample them to higher DSD rates (EMM, PS Audio, DCS, and others)

notice the pattern? These DSD files which so many covet are almost always converted from something else when produced and often multiple times, and then converted even further when you play them back, So the idea that DSD is somehow inherently superior is mostly smoke and mirrors since you are very rarely listening to something that hasn’t been processed and converted multiple times.

And of course, the Boston DSD referenced by the OP, like most DSD available,  had to be converted to DSD because DSD didn't exist back then. 

@herman I read that NativeDSD found a way without conversion in DSD 256.

@herman I read that NativeDSD found a way without conversion in DSD 256.

interesting.... read where?

I suppose you mean mastering in DSD 256? If so, where do they get the DSD 256 files? My educated guess is that they are converted from some other format.

I just looked at their new release page and out of the 8 DSD that I checked only one was recorded as DSD and it was DSD 64, the rest were analog, PCM 96, or DXD 384 , which is a also PCM.

I think my point is still valid.... it is extremely rare for us to get a DSD file that has not been converted from something else. That said, most everything we get in any format (analog or digital) has been manipulated in some way so not saying there is something evil or devious about it, just that DSD is not the holy grail some think it is.

I see no reason to pay a premium for a DSD file when it was converted from something else since the software to do the conversions yourself is readily available, like HQplayer and others. Or the player does it, like DCS, EMM, etc.

IMHO how the player handles the file, how it does the digital to analog conversion, and the analog stages that follow are much more important than the format of the file.

https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/mixing-in-pure-dsd-no-pcm-allowed/

Well I just stumbled across something I haven’t seen before: a Qobuz album (via Roon or LMS squeezelite) where each track states "DSD Mastering". I am not saying it is better or worse, I don’t have a clue, but just pointing out it is the first time I have seen it. I have seen other descriptions in brackets, like "album version" or "digitally remastered" Maybe more will be processed this way? Maybe many have but they just didn’t specify that in the brackets? Maybe they are just adding this information to make some feel better? Unlike many albums I don’t see another version option for this one so can’t compare its sound quality to another.

They are 16/44 files, so someone will go and DSD remaster it but not convert it to a hi-res file? Sounds decent enough regardless. 

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto: Life album

Universal 0044007961728