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DSD from a Server to dCS Delius via Firewire?

I've been looking at the dCS Delius, which has firewire as an option and is DSD compatible. Since I'm in the process of ripping all of my CDs to hard drive (again, last time to make mp3s, this time to make wavs). I started wondering... If you have a firewire out, could you run firewire from the computer to the Delius and theoretically get jitter-free playback?

I realize there isn't (or at least I don't know of any) software to upsample 16/44.1 to DSD on a WinXP box, but some bright bulb will do that eventually, right? Is there enough processing firepower in a generic (or even higher end) WinXP box to do that kind of upsampling? You know, kind of a software dCS Purcell?

On that note, but on a more practical theme, any dCS Delius owners able to comment on whether you can run firewire from a music server directly into the Delius? Is the firewire port DSD only? I'm guessing the firewire version of the Purcell is a firewire output only to connect to the Delius?
edesilva

Showing 1 response by jareko

jareko
5 posts
 
The DSD stream is always in encoded format, so you cannot mix equipment from different manufactures. Another misunderstanding is firewire port. Physically this is the same port in PC and DAC, but on a computer it is used for another purpose than on dacs. So, summing things up, it is not possible to connect ANY dac equipped with firewire port to any PC based server with firewire port no matter what you do.

I suggest going out from your PC with digital PCM signal thru AES (the best) to the dac. You can also use wordclock feature if you use Lynx or similar card, which will make jitter lower. Also, you can use upsampler (like dCS Purcell 2nd generation, or Paganini or Scarlatti) and upsample from PCM to DSD format and then route this via firewire cable to dCS DAC (Delius, Elgar Plus, Paganini or Scarlatti). This is the best for the moment in my opinion.
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