Thats a complicated question as there are many issues to consider.
For example - in our DAC's the sample rate converter on the input is used with all PCM digital signals and it reduces jitter quite effectively. So you are faced with having DSD capability in your DAC but degrading PCM performance because you have to bypass the sample rate converter. Plus we have found that most DSD circuits upsample all the PCM digital signals coming in and do not play the file in its Native resolution.
Given that most digital music is PCM and will continue to be so you are almost faced with the dilemma of requiring two different types of circuit paths in one DAC or two separate DAC's that optimizes both PCM and DSD options independently.
james
James, regarding DSD,
it might be worth taking a look at the PS Audio DirectStream DAC. It converts all input data, either DSD or PCM, into 10x the rate of standard DSD. It then applies a filter in the output to convert the signal to analog. No IC DACs are used.
DSD is a matter of advertisement. It is important to have the feature but what good does it really bring apart from sheer compatibility with but a handful of music albums? Isn't it apparent that problems regarding DSD aren't associated just with the wide acceptance factor for masses? The problems are of a mechanical nature and this is the main reason why very few are using it. Editing DSD files is difficult to say the least. Workstations that can handle real-time editing apart from cut, move, delete etc. are few, not to mention those that can apply different effects. This is the reason why most DSD files are basically DSD-PCM-DSD files. Meaning the event was captured in DSD but was then transcoded to PCM for editing and was then again transcoded to DSD to be played in DSD-capable machines. Isn't that a bit nutty? Can we honestly say that this is better than pure PCM?
I am glad that Bryston is taking the time to think about it and not just „surfing the waves“. I can see that Berkeley design is doing the same thing. For those who want DSD, a PC application is supplied to convert DSD to PCM to be used with their Alpha DAC. But hey, if Bryston decides to make a DSD-only DAC, then it might be a welcome addition.
Cheers!
Antun