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why dsd

Until a few days ago, i had never heard of dsd. Apparently it was developed thru sony/philips and used as the foundation for super audio. Why is everyone so hyped on this. I have had a sony 9100es for several years and have a handful of discs. Big deal. I am selling the damn thing and will toss in the discs if anyone is interested. I get the waive stuff bla bla bla. Yes- digital can sometimes sound bad, but have you ever listened to a poorly engineered record. Ugh. Less to do with the medium and more to do with the recording

My MAc mini into my C2 sounds good and upgraded spotify is great.

We are so caught up in hype. We split hairs over everything and talk about stuff that only an electrical engineer gets. We call 4k budget gear! Are you kidding me???

Music is something that touches your soul, and we don't listen in a perfect room with a lab coat on. If my foot taps then I'm happy.

I am trying to buy a dac with pre and HT pass, not because I am going to squeeze an additional drop of shimmer out of my system, but because I need something easier for my family to use.

Stop buying into hype! Records sound great but digital is more convenient and has opened the door to a world of music that should blow you away. If you are more concerned with being sold than just enjoying the music then you are missing the point.

Any thoughts on a dac/pre combo with bypass :-)
128x128famoej
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kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Famoej, Absolutely - if you're satisfied then don't spend money. On the other hand 16/44.1 processing has its own problems and that's why engineers introduced new schemes. SACD is DSD and carries more info. Whole thing started with new types of DACs that perform Delta-Sigma modulation. Today a lot of DACs use Delta-Sigma D/A converter. It is converting digital data into stream of pulses with varying duty cycle. It is followed by lowpass filter that returns average value of the stream. DSD/SACD is this stream recorded and CDP adds only lowpass filter. Delta-Sigma converter allows to get better resolution by means of dithering and lower noise by pushing quantization noise above audible range. A/D converters that produce DSD stream, have most likely single pole low pass filters set high above audio band, resulting in better pulse response.

As for DSD being only for engineers and "more concerned with being sold than just enjoying the music then you are missing the point" - this is an audio forum concerned with achieving the best possible sound. Music is just only one area of discussion here.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Kijanki ... admittedly I don't understand anything about Delta-Sigma DACs or Alpha-Pi-Omega D/As configureed in quad mono mode, or this or that. But I have a thread running about redbook CD not being a dead medium. I maintain that redbook CD can still provide a meaningful, engaging and enjoyable musical experience if the source material is well engineered and recorded.

My contention about redbook CD is validated, at least to me, when I listen to "Gold" quality CDs, e.g., from Mobile Fidelity. I also bought a pot pourrie box of used classical CDs from a vender here on A'gon. I'm listening to a surprise CD out of the box right now: Stravinsky's Rites of Spring. Excellent!!

There's also a couple of technical articles I've read which make a convincing case, at least to this non-techie, that the redbook CD format is quite capable of rendering an exellent musical experience. The author of one article credibly maintains that the so-called "problem" with the medium isn't its technical foundation. Rather, it's the crummy quality of engineering, mastering and recording. My personal experiences anecdotally support that view.

DSD ... sure. I'll bite, or at least take nibble, if the industry settles on a standard format and I am convinced there's as much attention paid to engineering and recording quality as there is to "quality electrons." :)

Cheers,
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Most of the excitement is due to the limited quantities of really well-recorded tracks and the fact that it is hi-res compared to CD sample-rate. If they took this kind of care to record CD tracks, they would be even better than DSD IMO.

I have compared a number of dual-layer PCM/DSD disks and I always find the PCM layer of the same recording to sound even better than the DSD layer.

Even with this result, I must offer some DSD capability in my products in order to compete in the current computer audio market. Its what the customers want and expect.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,388 posts
 
DSD is not a big concern to me. I have a Wyred Dac1 which was all of 999.00. I have had it for 2 years and am more than satisfied and I get 192K from my dedicated laptop going through a Musical V-Link 192 usb/spdif converter. I rip all my sacd's using the Sony PS2 method into flac.

So why would I need DSD?
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