New Respect for DSD

mg8 · « **on:** 14 Dec 2022, 01:11 am »

I am mainly vinyl listener but have an Aurender (mainly for Grateful Dead concerts), thousands of CD's in binder folios and a handful of SACDs. When the recent MFSL DSD archiving confusion erupted, I started to look into DSD with more interest. Having been a longtime Berkeley Audio Designs owner, I quietly viewed DSD as pointless and pretty much stuck with high quality 44.1/16 or other WAV rip. FLAC only when WAV is not available.

Well that's changed! The sonic comparisons aside, I find DSD to be far from pointless. I actually see it as the ideal archiving tool. High sample rate, analogue sourced masters are securely and forever captured like a blockchain. It can't be edited. Yes, it can be dropped to DXD or PCM for editing and then recorded back to DSD. As long as this is disclosed, fine (but no longer an archive master). If it remains Pure DSD transfer from Analogue Tape, it is a perfect capture of the event. To me this is a practical application for aging tapes that will be unavailable for pure analog dupes in the future.

I feel good about learning a little more in the hobby and expanding the media horizon. AND Still can't wait any longer for the Van Halen One-Step releases!

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #1 on:** 14 Dec 2022, 02:01 am »

All studio engineers I have talked called PCM 16/44 today 24/44 high quality, I wonder how they would call 24/192 and DXD, the truth is that they donot want to spend in better equips. Currently PCM 24/44 is the lowest grade commercial digital recording format available, the cheapest that what count $$ in pro-audio.

rbbert · « **Reply #2 on:** 14 Dec 2022, 12:57 pm »

What DSD sample rate are you using for this opinion? 64f, 128f, 256f? Or even 512f (although I don’t know how many commercial recordings are available at this sample rate)? 64f (SACD) is probably sonically inferior to well-done PCM at 24/192 and higher; many listeners do feel 256f DSD (e.g., the source for MFSL vinyl, also for a few analog transfers and some native DSD albums) is the best sounding currently available format.

newzooreview · « **Reply #3 on:** 15 Dec 2022, 03:37 pm »

NativeDSD has some DSD transfers from analogue tapes that sound terrific. The Louis Armstrong albums that they have are the best sounding recordings of him I've heard.

The DAC likely makes a difference as well. The Holo May has a dedicated DSD converter, separate from the PCM ladder DAC. A lot of other DACs, such as the Denafrips DACs, convert the DSD signal to PCM and then convert it to analogue, so I'm not sure that they preserve the potential advantages of DSD.

Some of the improvement from NativeDSD and likely Mobile Fidelity SACD come from the care in making the transfer.

I need to revisit how to pull the DSD tracks from an SACD now that I'm using the May DAC and Roon to play files over my network.

Mobile Fidelity is releasing some interesting new SACDs, and I have a number of the old ones, but they still only sell the discs, not the files.

Kw6 · « **Reply #4 on:** 25 Dec 2022, 03:03 am »

I don't know quite how to get quad DSD but have heard it's closest to the original recording.

WGH · « **Reply #5 on:** 26 Dec 2022, 07:03 pm »

Quote from: Kw6 on 25 Dec 2022, 03:03 am

I don't know quite how to get quad DSD but have heard it's closest to the original recording.

There are a few ways to try out DSD256

Sound Liason records in DXD, I have "Ray!" by Carmen Gomes in DXD768 the sound is as real as it gets. "Ray!" is also one of the best albums of 2022.

"The RME has a maximum sample rate of 768kHz. To really see what the RME ADI-2 is capable off, we created a 768kHz/24bit file straight from our Studer A80 tape recorder playing the ¼" reel to reel master tape from our latest release [Ray!]. Listening and A/B comparing with the Studer the result is quite convincing. In our opinion the sound is very close to the analog master tape."

Our DSD masters are not original studio masters.
We record in PCM (DXD), so if you want a native one to one copy of the original studio master,
without any kind of conversion, choose the PCM (DXD) download.
https://www.soundliaison.com/index.php

AudioPhile Music has a couple of DSD256 sampler albums for $7.89 and $10.90. These two albums are available at other hi-res sites too.
https://audiophilemusic.io/dsd256-quad-rate-dsd/

2L has DSD256 albums that are beautifully recorded and unique. Their DSD256 free sampler page is temporarily off line which is a shame, I wouldn't be surprised that because DSD files are so big the bandwidth was killing them. I have the complete selection of their DSD sample tracks and the file size is 7.23 GB.
https://shop.2l.no/en-us

I was listening to the most excellent Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Live at the Fillmore,1997 (2022 release) in glorious DSD256 while making Christmas dinner. 72 tracks, over 4 hours of one of the best concerts ever recorded.

I have the 24bit/96kHz recording from HD Tracks and upsample to DSD256 using HQPlayer.
https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/637d48547d51080f5ffe4c5b

HQPlayer has so many sampling options and filters that each month I try out a new setting, this month it's DSD256.

Kw6 · « **Reply #6 on:** 26 Dec 2022, 10:49 pm »

Nice post Wayne!👍

mg8 · « **Reply #7 on:** 27 Dec 2022, 12:16 am »

I founds some great DSD sources on another AC thread. www.highdeftapetransfers.ca, www.nativedsd.com, and bluecoastmusic.com. plenty of Pure DSD on these sites (no PCM editing) up to 512X and 1024X. My DAC only does 256X max and it does sound really good!