There actually IS a technical reason why DSD may sound better than PCM, even though it is technically inferior to hi-res PCM: lack of digital filters. I have done extensive study on this and have come to the conclusion that ALL DAC chips which have internal digital filters have not correctly implemented those filters. Making the filter mathematically correct talkes a fair amount of compute horsepower, particularly for 44.1. None of the chip makers want to include that cost in their chips, so they take shortcuts in the implementations. They are all compromised to some degree.
I have tested this with several chips that have the ability to turn off their internal filter and use an external filter. I implemented my own filter in an FPGA, doing it right with proper bit dpeths and no compromises. The results sound quite a bit better than the internal filters. I have had several people do blind tests on this and they all can hear the difference. In regards to DSD, a simple implementation doesn't use a digital filter, just a simple analog filter. All the complex filtering has been done in software in the DSD mastering where the filters can be a much closer match to being mathematically correct. Of course all this is highly implementation dependant. So DSD may actually sound better in some circumstances, but IMO the correct thing to do is implement PCM DACs correctly rather than trying to productize DSD at the consumer level. John S. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97545 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
