[Spirit]

My knowledge of the current,modern dacs is very limited, as I have not been keeping up the last few years.
I am intrigued by the possiblility of playing native dsd files because I have heard a demo of a dsd file and it was very, very good.
By total coincidence I am about to receive a brand new Home Theater receiver: Pioneer SC-68.
According to a review that I just read this receiver has a few intriguing benfits that I was totally unaware of:
1:  Quote from review: "the SC-68 is the world's first receiver with an asynchronous DAC... a pair of Texas Instruments Aureus chips with resolution of 32 bits and 192 khz
2:  it has DSD DFF capability.  Apparently it can decode DSD natively or convert to PCM - I read this comment on another forum while googling
I would appreciate if one of the Hirez Circle experts expalin to me what this all means and if I will be able to download dsd files from sites like
Blue Coat and 2L.
I have never seen this Pioneer unit mentioned as part of the dsd family. 

[firedog]

My knowledge of the current,modern dacs is very limited, as I have not been keeping up the last few years.
I am intrigued by the possiblility of playing native dsd files because I have heard a demo of a dsd file and it was very, very good.
By total coincidence I am about to receive a brand new Home Theater receiver: Pioneer SC-68.
According to a review that I just read this receiver has a few intriguing benfits that I was totally unaware of:
1:  Quote from review: "the SC-68 is the world's first receiver with an asynchronous DAC... a pair of Texas Instruments Aureus chips with resolution of 32 bits and 192 khz
2:  it has DSD DFF capability.  Apparently it can decode DSD natively or convert to PCM - I read this comment on another forum while googling
I would appreciate if one of the Hirez Circle experts expalin to me what this all means and if I will be able to download dsd files from sites like
Blue Coat and 2L.
I have never seen this Pioneer unit mentioned as part of the dsd family.

Got me curious, so I downloaded the manual. DSD is just barely mentioned in the manual. However, it does say the the panel has signal lights to show when "DSD to PCM" playback is taking place, and also when DSD playback is taking place.  In a later section on "playable formats" it specifically states that DSD - dsf and dff - are playable formats over USB in 2 channel. So it sounds like you will be able to download DSD files and play them back. Fortunately Blue Coast, 2L, and Channel Classics all have free samples you can download to try.  Let us know how you do.

Very intriguing. If Pioneer is enabling DSD playback on an HT receiver, it bodes well for the future of the medium, even though  this is a pretty high end receiver.

[Spirit]

Got me curious, so I downloaded the manual. DSD is just barely mentioned in the manual. However, it does say the the panel has signal lights to show when "DSD to PCM" playback is taking place, and also when DSD playback is taking place.  In a later section on "playable formats" it specifically states that DSD - dsf and dff - are playable formats over USB in 2 channel. So it sounds like you will be able to download DSD files and play them back. Fortunately Blue Coast, 2L, and Channel Classics all have free samples you can download to try.  Let us know how you do.

Very intriguing. If Pioneer is enabling DSD playback on an HT receiver, it bodes well for the future of the medium, even though  this is a pretty high end receiver.

Well = did a little further digging and found this post on the AVS Forum:

"The only item which is not clearly spelled out and never really has been, is your confusion on DSD direct. Both models (67 and 68) will either accept DSD direct or convert to PCM. IF you select Pure Direct mode, you will get straight DSD. Although you will lose all MCACC calibration if you do this....no processor in the world can apply room correction or any processing for that matter to a DSD signal, it has to be converted to PCM first, and you will get the PCM sampling of 88.2 or 176.4 depending on what is on the SACD"

So, does this mean that this Pioneer model can be added to list of native DSD capable players?  I am actually pretty proud that I have discovered this! 

[ted_b]

Well = did a little further digging and found this post on the AVS Forum:

"The only item which is not clearly spelled out and never really has been, is your confusion on DSD direct. Both models (67 and 68) will either accept DSD direct or convert to PCM. IF you select Pure Direct mode, you will get straight DSD. Although you will lose all MCACC calibration if you do this....no processor in the world can apply room correction or any processing for that matter to a DSD signal, it has to be converted to PCM first, and you will get the PCM sampling of 88.2 or 176.4 depending on what is on the SACD"

So, does this mean that this Pioneer model can be added to list of native DSD capable players?  I am actually pretty proud that I have discovered this!

First off, although DSP needs to be in PCM mode for these recivers, the statement "no processor in the world can apply room...to DSD.." is wrong.  Sonoma and plugins can; HQplayer and plugins can, etc.  but it requires some knowledge.

DSD Direct is normal for DSD-capable receivers for some time now.  You set the SACD/universal player for either PCM or SACD (DSD)via its HDMI output.  However, if this Pio receiver can also do DSF and DFF files via DoP then this is indeed a first for the AVR category.  I think we need more investigation.  But this sounds interesting.

(NOTE:  I am moving these last few posts to a new thread, as they don't really deal with the OP subject except tangentially..and this new tangent is worthy of its own)

[Spirit]

First off, although DSP needs to be in PCM mode for these recivers, the statement "no processor in the world can apply room...to DSD.." is wrong.  Sonoma and plugins can; HQplayer and plugins can, etc.  but it requires some knowledge.

DSD Direct is normal for DSD-capable receivers for some time now.  You set the SACD/universal player for either PCM or SACD (DSD)via its HDMI output.  However, if this Pio receiver can also do DSF and DFF files via DoP then this is indeed a first for the AVR category.  I think we need more investigation.  But this sounds interesting.

(NOTE:  I am moving these last few posts to a new thread, as they don't really deal with the OP subject except tangentially..and this new tangent is worthy of its own)

Thanks for creating this new thread Ted.
So - how do I/we/you go about determining if this is indeed a worthy AVR breakthrough?  I don't have the receiver as yet so I have no way of checking.  I have a feeling that contacting Pioneer directly will not provide any useful answers since most of the time their marketing people have no idea.  It would be wonderful to get to the facts.