Schiit/DSD Question

I have long thought DSD is a great format. You can take that incredibly high sample-rate one-bit stream, filter it, and you have an analog waveform. Doing this with discrete components or FPGAs gives wonderful results in my experience.

In addition to a lot of nativedsd.com downloads, I have my entire vinyl collection ripped to DSD128 by a Korg pro unit. (No listener was able to reliably distinguish the recordings from the live vinyl, on a ~$20K analog setup.)

But, it turns out, DSD is largely dead as a format. It was never big, of course, but streaming killed it, as it can't be compressed.

I have now a PS DirectStream and Schiit Yggdrasil. Both are truly stupendous DA converters in their own right, both, IMHO within - say - "10%" of the best you can get at any price.

And I discovered this recently: Feeding my DSD128 files to the DirectStream natively, or allowing my Innuos server to convert them to FLAC and send them to the DAC - which then converts them to DSD as it does all input - results in only the most subtle differences.

So it doesn't really matter. DSD->PCM conversion is not lossless but it doesn't necessary sound worse either.

And then there's this: With PCM material, which is the vast amount of what is available today, including high-quality recording, the Schiit DAC has a naturalness of timbre and pace that takes the cake. IME.

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Aside: How cool is this? Schiit has a linestage preamp on Stereophile's Class A list. Preamps on that list go to $30K and beyond. The Schiit Freya+ price? $900!

Why would anyone spend $30,000 on a preamp?

Schiit is about the coolest firm in high-end audio, maybe ever.

PlayBack Designs (guy involved in early DSD) uses a very high DSD sampling on their DACs. I think everything is done in DSD, including PCM data. The designer invented the first FPGA DAC, so it is some complex software implementation to do all of this DSD.

The new Schiit Yggdrasil+ Less Is More is my best DAC. The Schitt Mjolnir v3 (own it) is a good preamp and I think better than the Freya+ (sold it). I do not listen to the Mjolnir v3 all the time but when I do it is very enjoyable.

To add some color to my comments above:

I'm listening now to Blakey's classic "Keystone 3" on my Yggdrasil (+ Kara). I listened first to the Redbook version - it's a textbook example of the horrid mastering (likely dropping bits and creating nasty jaggies) that gave 16/44 its undeserved bad rep. Yuck. It's crap.

I'm listening now to the SACD version. Its sublime in comparison: horns are silky-smooth, with decay trails fading into blackness, and dynamic as heck as well, with snare hits that startle.

Only I'm not listening to DSD, but to the DSD64 transcoded to 4X PCM by my Innuos server and fed to the DA converter.

I must admit that I've forgotten what algo/process the Innuos uses for DSD->FLAC conversion. But the lesson is this: Recording quality/mastering is what matters most.