MD x Airist x Sosolar: RDAC design mysteries

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by bimmer100, Jun 5, 2018.

  1. sosolar

    sosolar Hibiki DAC Designer

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    As a marketing point, it is still need to be implemented.
    I do agree with your point, DSD is crap....
     
  2. sosolar

    sosolar Hibiki DAC Designer

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    customers always want DSD, although they done even use it once....If you dont have one, they just bypass your product. I guess you convert DSD into PCM to decode? I just reuse r2r ladder a a filter.
     
  3. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Do PCM as best you can and people will come. Enabling and pandering to DSD just for marketing's sake will compromise your product and complicate things for yourself, as they already are.
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Vocal dumb customers say they want DSD, but won't necessarily buy your DSD product anyway. In 2019, the DSD trend has passed, at least in the USA.

    DSD was all the rage a few years ago (second life after the demise of SACD.) But 99.9% of people found out DSD was dumb:
    1. Little content - unless you listen to DSD for the sake of DSD - Yak fart symphonies, etc.
    2. Not any better than 2496 PCM.
    3. A better DAC playing DSD converted to PCM still sounded better than a lesser DAC playing DSD natively.
    4. Better recordings / mixes / masters mattered x1000 more regardless of format.
    5. Since music must be mixed and mastered in PCM, PCM versions are usually also available.
    You will lose 1-3% of customers, actual paying ones, if your DAC does not support DSD. The kind of customers you don't want because of complex setup issues, unnecessary software plug-ins, Mutec chains, i2s gadgets plugged in improperly, modifications like cardboard under transformers causing a fire, etc.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2018
  5. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

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    It is not 2019 yet...unless Marv is from the future...anyway..I would have to agree above and will continue through 2019.

    I think it comes down to #1 and convenience factor. Kind of like MQA right now...gotta have MQA source and then MQA DAC, but then also for DSD there were many hoops to jump through for DoP trickery to cloak the bitstream through USB and then to the decoding chip. Unless you had a DAP that played things natively, you were just surprised you got all of it to work and had sound. Was there also mention the huge file sizes?
     
  6. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    And you know how much $$$ you have to spend on DSD? It's like you have to be a baller. I didn't see anything I wanted on the format, but it didn't stop my Classical/Jazz friends into the format (the same folks who have 100s of SACDs of just Classical and Jazz in their collection, since that's what they want to listen to). Used SACD prices are crack, and $25-$30 for DSD Albums is dumb.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    The boutique DSD labels for classical and jazz sound good because they pay attention during the audio engineering process. It's not DSD that is inherently superior, and in most cases PCM versions are offered.

    DSD is a schtick. I'd go back on the prior statement a little and say that some of that boutique DSD sucks, lowish resolution, overly smoothed and flat, because of the use of cheap AD DSD converters or inferior microphone preamps.

    I listen to classical too. There is a wealth of material from 50-60 years ago that I have not explored yet. The great conductors who are dead. I'd rather listen to a scratched record of dead dudes than modern boutique jazz and classical artists who make me want to take their eboes and shove up down their throats.
     
  8. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Most classical DSD is over smoothed. Very little is well done. The standouts like Universal Japan SHM-SACD Argerich 1965 Chopin recording are ungodly expensive.

    US classical audiophiles for some reason want a lot of stuff like the second chair oboist farting out of the recording/they're too f'ing old to know they're listening to horrible masters and so we end up with random ass quality across the board.
     
  9. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    aside: at what point are we all going to finally realize things like MQA, DSD, 1.69Ghz upsampling, WATT Puppies v.clownpenis.fart, all exist to keep rich baby boomers spending their money on stupid audio shit to replay mediocre music made by girls with "breathy" vocals and big breasts?
     
  10. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    Not that I disagree with your guys' sentiments, but at the same time it should be reiterated that no one is forcing you buy the things you're ranting about.
     
  11. Baten

    Baten Friend

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