DACS that don't do DSD - obsolete?

KR4 - I don't believe it accepts DSD, it has to have DSD converted to PCM in advance (I'll double check that). If that's the case, it would at the very least hurt its potential resale value in the next couple years?

It may be a feature I never care about but OTOH if music is moving increasingly to hi res it's not something I want to miss out on.

DoggieHouser - So basically a better dad that didn't do DSD was outperformed by up sampling to a lesser dad that DOES DSD? Interesting.

Mitch4T - I've been thinking about the Wyred 4 Sound DAC as well. Have you heard it? Also the newest Benchmark does DSD. Any opinions on the Wyred VS Benchmark?

I'm probably way off base since I'm just now looking into this stuff. But it seems that impressive results are being had up-rezzing PCM to DSD like with the Sony HAPZ1, J-river - what Mitch4t is describing.

If this is true, a DAC without DSD capability could be a liability.

Personally I've always preferred SACD / DSD sound. It's always sounded to me like 90% of the way to Vinyl SQ with none of the downsides. But that's besides the point.

Even if I never play a DSD disc for the rest of my life, it seems like with the new PSAUDIO DirectStream, the Chord, The Sony HAPZ1 etc - the new performance frontier is moving to DSD up conversion from PCM etc and the use of gate array's instead of off the (quickly obsoleting) shelf chipsets.

If you have a DSD capable DAC even in a humble version its inevitable that some kind of stand alone device that could do the up-coverting ahead of it and pass through to the DAC would be available in the near future.

Your choice of original media or file type would be irrelevant.

Thanks for the input. I'm new to the DAC world and trying to get my head around the new technology given the apparent success of the HAPZ1 etc.

Doesn't the Lumin also use DSD upscaling?

I wonder if DSD preference is largely age related? For those of us that grew up with Vinyl we were used to the rolled off highs (especially growing up without expensive equipment).

Thos growing up in the digital age are used to the greater extension that we boomers spent big bucks trying to get rid of. Thinking back to my old Cal Audio gear.