The "DSD Revolution" Still Coming, or a Bust?

Ok, I ask sincerely, it has been a year since the "big" announcement of the forming of Superhirez.com. At last count as of today, there a total of 268 DSD titles.

With all the marketing buzz about DSD DACs and the format, that is rather paltry...we were told Sony would open up the floodgates and release a torrent of Real Deal DSD files sitting in the "vaults"

I especially welcome comments from the those information on where things are going.

 

It seems like those files are being brought to market in phases by Acoustic Sounds.

 

Some free DSD64/128/256 (and DXD) samples in stereo (& some also in multichannel) courtesy of NativeDSD.com...

 

Phases? 268 titles, in a year?

 

Thanks. Of course this is very nice.

But the truth is a few esoteric classical DSD recordings are not a revolution in the making.

 

I'm not sure I'm following you. The Sony titles have only been available on the Acoustic Sounds site since March 2014 (?). It takes time to find the master tapes, restore the files, check them to ensure no issues, and prepare them for hosting.

 

Are you sure it's only been since march?

 

Certainly for the block of titles that I (along with Gus Skinas) was involved in discussing with Acoustic Sounds.

 

"The "DSD Revolution" Still Coming, or a Bust?"

BUST
DSD doesn't offer any advantage cost wise. The public or business has no reason to adopt DSD when it is still questionable if it even offers any benefits over Hi Rez PCM. And after listening to a Chord Hugo for some time, I no longer see much of an advantage in Hi Rez in either PCM or DSD when a DAC can finally bring out the fantasic quality of Redbook. Double Bust

 

I hate to break the news to Mr Caprice but Sony says its new DAC (HAP Z1ES) can finally bring out the fantastic quality of .......... MP3.

As you can see, people from Sony down to thousands of members here are perfectly happy listening to MP3. Sony has regularly sabotaged anyone trying to make something out of SACD. Remember the Rolling Stones hybrids put out by Abkco? Sony not only didn't support them, they pulled the plug on them. I am one of those who doesn't think DSD is good enough (albeit a promising approach) but people who think as I do could fill a small room. I suppose people can continue to use DSD or even better 2xDSD but they will get no support and I assume without more investment in mastering tools that we will have nothing more than upsampled DSD. (TEAC/Esoteric SACDs were revealed to be upsampled PCM so if the premier SACD player maker is willing to do that ...) Of course J River will upsample to DSD for free but maybe there are thousands willing to pay $50 for someone else to do it for them.

 

I've never heard someone from the business side talk about a "DSD revolution". It's clear to everyone that DSD downloads will remain a small niche.

So far, almost all of the DSD downloads are byproducts from SACD projects (sometimes made 10 years ago). Without a SACD release in mind, it's not certain that recording and mastering engineers will use DSD instead of PCM.

 

Too much trouble, not enough reward. I'll pass.

 

I for one would be willing to pay a little more for the recent Audio Fidelity hybrid SACDs if they came with a DSD download. I would very much like to rip the 20 or so SACDs that I have but not enough to buy the certain fat PS3 on ebay with the certain firmware. If SACDs were easily rip-able, would they be more popular?

 

I'm really not up to speed on SACD ripping but I've just started to rip my CD collection and I'm wondering what I'm going to do with my SACDs. Is using a certain version of a PS3 the only way to rip SACDs? If so, why is that?

 

This thread over at Computer Audiophile should get you started. The advice over there is based on ripping your own collection for archive/portability and they're thankfully pretty intolerant of discussions of piracy.

 

Audiophile DAC makers and Superhirez are SURELY talking about a DSD Revolution.

Forget recording engineers, no pop or rock projects are going to be recorded in DSD. I know of one artist, David Alias.

Archiving analog tape and mastering it with DSD is the only real possibility, so it is really all about legacy recordings.

 

In general I agree with you...but two points..

First, I think pure DSD is excellent when done right.

Secondly, about those TEAC/Esoteric SACDs...nothing was "revealed", they made it clear as day in the PR releases
and in the liner notes the SACDs were produced from 96/24 tape archives since they needed to do a lot of restoration. So
they did not look to fool anyone.

I do however, totally disagree with this approach. Creating SACDs from 96/24 masters is a bad method. They could have used
DXD or even 176.4, an even multiple. I think the BEST way is to do your mastering in the analog domain, THEN capture to DSD,
so it never sees the PCM domain.

 

There is also professional harware & software (used to generate some HDTracks titles), but it's expensive. I don't know details.

 

Or just do DSD start to finish for new product (e.g., Channel Classics), although that's likely to be practical only for non-pop/rock recordings.

 

Yes, that's what I meant by referring to mastering engineers (remastering of old recordings). I don't know of any analogue-sourced DSD download so far that does not come from a SACD mastering session.

Once SACD releases dry out, it's not certain DSD will survive as a release format.

 

Yes, agree. But 99% of the market is non classical. It is a non starter for pop music.

 

Sony released information that they have DSD files of releases that were never produced on SACD.
Superhirez DOES have a few titles where I have never seen an SACD..like the R.E.M. titles and few others.

 

Didn't Analogue Productions begin offering DSD downloads on their back catalog? I'm not sure if those are also sold by superhirez.com.

 

Just a handful of titles like Norah Jones and a bunch of jazz stuff. I don't think they have the Doors for download.

Also, a lot of the George Marino mastered SACD titles were done from PCM...

 

Jason Stoddard, co-owner of Schiit, has discussed DSD's prospect in his ongoing history of the company over at Head-Fi:

My opinion on DSD? Let me put on my pragmatic hat first. If it ever becomes a significant part of the library of available recordings, sure, you bet, we'll support it across the line, or create a device that makes supporting it seamless--and we'll do it right, with no SDM-PCM conversion amalgamation.

That said, in my marketing opinion, DSD only fuels the perception that "us audiophiles are a weird bunch, might as well stick with what iTunes is selling." Fighting over formats is really silly. All I want is good music, I don't care so much about the format. And there won't be any large-scale adoption of high-res until we make it (a) simple, and (b) understandable. This is what Neil Young is trying to do, and it's rumored that Apple may also get in with their own combination of black/white, low-res/high-res simplicity which could make for widespread adoption, or at least awareness. Which could change the rules entirely.

Also, when we talk DSD, we need to temper our enthusiasm by considering the large storage requirements, the fact that its filtering is drastically different than PCM (and therefore may create a DAC that is good at one thing, but not another, or at least increase cost considerably) and that no non-standard audio format has ever reached critical mass in terms of the number of recordings available, to become a viable, long-term competitor to the mainstream. As Mike [Stoddard's partner] says, "How are your HDCDs doing today?"

Again, not a popular position to take. But it does fuel additional discussion, right?​