2. digital
  3. 1391614689

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
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,589 posts
 
SACD or DSD Hi-Res files can sound better than cd. They don't always, but they should and frequently do.

We have not yet reached the pinnacle of sound reproduction. The sound quality of recordings continues to improve as time goes on. DSD is part of this improvement. It can be a major improvement.

If you don't care about sound quality, what are you doing here? You could save a lot of money shopping at BestBuy or ebay.
gz3827
232 posts
 
+Tomcy6

I don't know yet to what extent I will jump on the DSD "flavor of the day" bandwagon, but I certainly want to at least check it out for grins and giggles.
davt's avatar
davt
500 posts
 
If you have the beatles white album on original vinyl you needed at some time the original MFSL vinyl. then the cassette, then the CD. Once we all bought the CD there was nothing else to buy, until we were told that vinyl was better again so we needed the new "audiophile" vinyl reissue. then the 45 rpm reissue. somewhere along the way we also needed SACD. Then we were told we really needed to download it cause everything prior sucked. Add a re-re-reissue super quality 33 rpm vinyl somewhere along the way. Wow, finally, we can enjoy an album. Nope, we were wrong all along, to really enjoy it we need DSD download. In the future it will be DSDx4, DSDx8 etc. Then LMNOP then QRST. See, the biggest reason to go DSD is so we can keep buying the same thing over and over again. Isn't' that fun!
bhobba's avatar
bhobba
303 posts
 
Mate - its simple - utterly simple.

Go out and listen to gear and make up your own mind.

Until a while ago the best DAC I had heard was a Playback Designs via DSD. But recently I have heard two PCM DAC's that best it - a Killer and Phasure - and I prefer the Killer which uses an old Phillips Double Crown 44.1 16 bit chip. This modern stuff isn't the be all and end all by a long shot - let your ears decide.

Thanks
Bill
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
"many reviewers who praised SACD playback claim at the same time that CD layer playback performance of these players was substandard"

This is not so surprising. I believe it is actually easier to design a good DSD DAC/SACD player than a good CD player/DAC. As a result the quality of the SACD hardware will probably beat the CD hardware in most players.

When I made these comparisons it was with a top-end SACD player that I had highly modified, both SACD and CD sections. They were both terrific, but it really showed that the CD layer was more live and accurate than the SACD layer in most recordings. Particularly obvious in classical recordings.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
More to discover