DSD and Femto Clocks The New Standard?


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Would it be safe to say that going forward, any new DAC coming out that wants to be taken seriously has to be able to do DSD and have a femto clock?
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128x128mitch4t

I would say the answer is a resounding no!

There is a new dac out of Italy that doesn't do DSD or use a Femto clock and it is getting absolute raves by everyone who has heard it.

I read about the company on Six Moons and then in a review by Jon Darko which he rated the dac as an entire class above the Auralic Vega, which does do DSD and does have Femto clock.

The Vega is a $3,500.00 dac while the Aqua is a $7k+ dac so it should sound better.

There are some designers that feed that DSD is inferior to PCM as there can be noise and bit errors injected into the data stream as a by product of DSD processing, while other designers feel DSD is a simpler decode/encode process which can sound better so it is a controversial issue such as the tube vs solid state discussion.

There is very little real DSD software out there, and I have heard great sounding dacs in both PCM and DSD for some people DSD sounds too warm and may appear to round out extreme treble and transients.

I have a friend with a $22k Esoteric D02 which can do both PCM and DSD and we both prefer PCM to the DSD, and that DAC doesn't have a femto clock and it sounds incredible.

Also the very well though of Meitner and EMM Dacs do not have Femto clocks either. So there are many ways of reducing or mitigating jitters effects on a signal.

Go read the two published reviews on the Aqua La Scala MK II which were both absolute raves and that dac does only 24/192
and Mr. Darko prefered that dac over another dac which does all the wild and non existent sampling frequencies.

So I would say after really listening and looking over the market it comes down to way more important things than does your dac use x or y ship or have this or that clock but cleaver engineering and a great set of ears by the designer.

Many people prefer the technically inferior devices called tube amplifiers while solid state devices are inherently superior in the case of the dac wars go into it without looking for features but opening up your mind to the concept of which dac sounds like real music which dac makes me want to listen to and rediscover my music collection.
I guess it depends on the architecture.

The designer of the new PS Audio DirectStream DAC has spoken a fair bit on the choice of clocks in his new design and he argues that the criteria for a good clock in his system isn't the same spec used in Femto Clocks etc.

As for DSD, implementation varies so as usual, an audition is worth more than paper specs. I personally find DSD to sound more analog and I like the effect.