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Question about DSD DACs

Apologies if this has been asked before (it probably has), but I'm a little confused about how DSD is decoded in the newer DSD capable DACs. My current disc spinner is a Cambridge Audio 751BD universal player which, according to the owner's manual, can output native DSD only through its HDMI output. Since my DAC (Bryston BDA1) has no HDMI input, playing SACDs can only be done through an analog (RCA) connection to my integrated. With this connection, as I understand it, the signal is output as PCM, though what its resolution is I can't quite tell. What I CAN tell is that the resulting sound is rather shrill.

At some point I'm thinking that I'll want to upgrade my DAC to a DSD capable one, but I'm not sure how these newer DACs process SACDs. Will I hear the signal decoded as DSD without conversion to PCM? Some DACs (like the PS Audio PWD MK II or Bryston's BDA3) boast HDMI inputs but I couldn't tell from their literature whether it's even possible to use this connection to a disc spinner to play SACDs in 2-channel, or how the signal is processed through such a connection.

Thanks for your help with this--it will assist greatly in making choices when I decide to do this upgrade.
cooper52

Showing 2 responses by gigi

gigi
20 posts
 
DSD capable DACs are able to decode DSD file formats (such as DSF, DFF or DSD ISO) to analog without conversion to PCM. One must feed these files to a DSD DAC using a computer running appropriate software (JRIVER, HQPLAYER…) thru USB, firewire or LAN connections. These music files can be obtained either by buying from music download sites or ripping from your own SACDs with a special version of a PS3 loaded with SACD ripping software.
Some who prefer their music decoded with a DSD DAC also upsample their PCM music library (wav, flac, ape…) to 2xDSD or even 4xDSD (if they have a 4xDSD capable DAC) although one would need a powerful computer to do the 4xDSD upsampling.
Personally, I have an 8 year old computer that can do PCM upsampling to 2xDSD without sweat.
Check out this article with lot more infomation: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-abcs-of-dsd-downloads/

Best, Gigi

gigi
20 posts
 
Bryston's BDA3 is the answer in your case I believe. There is NO conversion according to their brochure (http://bryston.com/PDF/brochures/BDA3_BROCHURE.pdf): "

Separate signal paths were engineered specifically for high resolution PCM and native DSD. Audio is processed in their native format with no conversion ensuring each song is totally bit perfect—an exact replica of the master recording."



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