As an early adopter of SACD, I remain intrigued with the concept of hi-rez DSD playback on my BDP-2 and BDA-2. Could somebody with knowledge please answer some very basic DSD questions:
1. Can downloads from online sources such as Acoustic Sounds be placed and read from an external HD alongside with my other downloads?
2. Do I need a USB interface to send the files to the DAC?
3. Is the Magic Moose interface being beta'd the only one available for Bryston (I'm currently using Max).
4. Are there any firmware updates needed on the components themselves?
Any more questions (and of course, answers) that explore the basics of DSD playback appreciated..
1. Factory firmware won't allow DSD downloads to be played back on the BDP. The Manic Moose edition of the firmware currently in beta will. Sometime late winter, early spring is the current target for general release of Manic Moose, so until then, expect changes, general instability, etc associated with pre-release software of any kind.
2. Max is simply an interface that allows you to control the firmware. The new beta firmware replaces MAX with a new dashboard that looks quite different, but works similarly in many respects. If you use mPad, or any other iDevice or android software to control your BDP, it won't feel any different to you at all.
3. The firmware will update the BDP itself. It's worth noting that even though the BDP will playback DSD music, it can only output the digital audio in DSD format over USB, so you'll still need a USB DAC capable of converting DSD to analog.
Let me know if it doesn't make sense.
-Gary
