Dsd downloads vs 96/24

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timm

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Hi all. Wondering if there were any opinions on dsd downloads vs hi res PCM ? Thinking about DACs and whether a non dsd dac with a lower price tag would be a better choice. I currently have a sacd player and do like sacd. Any thoughts ? Thanks Tim
 
Hi all. Wondering if there were any opinions on dsd downloads vs hi res PCM ? Thinking about DACs and whether a non dsd dac with a lower price tag would be a better choice. I currently have a sacd player and do like sacd. Any thoughts ? Thanks Tim

Tough call, but I'd be inclined to go with something DSD capable.

As for quality, it is really hard to judge when so much DSD source material comes from PCM anyway. But that may change in the future.

And if DSD becomes more common in the future, at least you won't have to convert DSD to PCM.
 
I have a couple of DSD tracks and they are nice and smooth but dont have the pcm counter parts to A/B. Go for a sony HAP Z1ES for around $1600 and you will fall in love with its convenience and external user interface.
 
You should go for a dsd dac. Dsd is smoother, sounds more organic, and more easy flow. There seems to be quite some unanimity that Lampi is doing the best dsd. You can obviously consider me biased and say there is nothing like 'the best', but at least you should get a dem. Lampi makes a dsd only.dac as well that you can complement your pcm dac/CD with. This should come in used at attractive rates.

There are people who prefer their dsd to both analog and their sacd.

In dsd, you can get native dsd, and some sites like nativedsd are coming up where you can download these.

You can also do dsd upsampling, but as this is a digital processing, it's best done outside the dac by a software. HQPlayer seems to be preferred upsampling software, and costs only 100 dollars. It will upsample everything and play through the dsd dac. So you can have a choice of playing native pcm and dsd, or playing everything in dsd
 
Yes. I think I agree. But I was thinking possibly a ps audio perfect wave mkii which can be had at very nice prices. However since I too really like my sacd my problem becomes the need to consider that and I don't like buying when I know I will all ready be thinking about the next big thing. Grrrr. And not being able to rip my sacd unless I get and hack an old ps3 equals double grrrr. Wondering if it would be worth it. I've got about 50 sacd or so.
 
Yeah, there is a SACD ripping service. There are some reporting that native DSD downloads are sounding better than SACD. Haven't check, but you can.

The last Lampi DSD dac I saw listed used was 2350 USD.

Here's Bruce Brown's review on the Lampi DSD, he is a DSD only reviewer "So what’s the verdict? The Lampi is the best DSD I’ve heard. Picking apart the music, it betters the Playback in the bass transient dept. and is better or equal to it in everything else. Will I replace my Playback with the Lampizator DSD? No, and here is why. The Playback gives me the capability of spinning a SACD/CD, has ST-optical in/out to integrate with my Sonoma system and has balanced outputs. If you don’t need these aforementioned features, then the Lampi DSD is the ONLY DAC you should be looking at, and at a third of the cost of the Playback, it’s a no brainer!"

I haven't seen a conflicting opinion yet, at least, on Computer Audiophile or Whatsbestforum on DSD dac. And this DSD dac is the lower version of the dac, our Big 7 has DSD with Direct Heated Triode Tech and NOS valve rollability, but that's more expensive
 
So taking this a step further. I also have quite a few DVD-a. How do you extract the content to the hard drive? I.e only the 96/24 or 192/24 stereo layer? I think I am starting to catch up!! :)
 
Awesome. Thanks Tch. Where r u in michigan ?
 
I used dvdadecoder to rip one DVD-A - How the west was won, Led Zep
 
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