Dsd Native Problem

[terrys99]

I've searched for ''DSD DAC'' in the FAQ section and got no results.
Apologies, must be being a bit slow, can you give us a link to your list please?

Cheers,

Jim.

Here's the link
http://blog.nativedsd.com/the-nativity-of-native/

[JimC]

Thanks.

J.

[Spectral Morn]

Yes. Asio.
Everything's working fine,
It's sending native.
I also used jriver,
It's definitely streaming native.
Iam beginning to think that sacd is naturally bland.

I suspect the Cambridge cxn is altering the sq.
Hrmmm sort of adding bells and whistles to the tracks.

Most definitely not. I don't play DSD files but my experience with SACD is absolutely to the contrary of what you are hearing.

[struth]

Think it depends on the dac on the player. Ive heard some cronic ones tbf.

[Spectral Morn]

Think it depends on the dac on the player. Ive heard some cronic ones tbf.

As does everything Grant, but SACD, and DSD files should not be described as bland. Something defo not right.

[terrys99]

I acquired another irdac from a friend who's selling.

I thought I would do more tests.

Now has I earlier explained.
Playing dsd through cxn to the cxa 80, The sound seemed more open, richer detail.
Mid range is prominent.


Now when playing dsd from laptop using usb, not sure if bland was the right word, I would say much calmer, not as bright. Midrange was not as prominent .
pcm is identical with cxn cxa when playing though USB,it seems to be just dsd that's different.

Iam sure it's do do with the cxn Upsampling , giving false representation.

Now there are some sacds that are just the opposite. They sound amazing.

Blues in orbit, the carpenters, to name a few.
I given around 700 sacd isos to date .
Iam assuming that some sacds are badly recorded,
At least 70% are reissue. Not sure if that would be good or bad.


You have to remember guys, iam pretty new to hifi.

[terrys99]

After extensive playing. I have now reached a conclusion.
The irdac 2 sounds bad, in USB mode , playing dsd

Playing on the cxn, gives superb sound stage, you can hear every breath, every note is there.

Playing dsd on the arcam through USB , is really night and day.
Midrange is recessed, numbed down, hardly audible.

People have told me the difference should be small. But to me its huge.

Would anyone know if the cxn is playing dsd using dop?
Cambridge say that the cxn down samples to 192, while others say the cxn uses Dop.

A lot of sites selling Cambridge cxn are saying how good it sounds because it plays dsd dop.

It would be great to know for sure, Cambridge can't seem to make up their minds.

[TimCurtis]

Hi Terry,

A quick check of the data sheet for WM8740 DAC chip thats used in CXN shows that its a PCM-only DAC. If the chip had DSD decode support it would be clearly stated in the data sheet. This means that CXN device would not support DoP protocol.
https://www.cirrus.com/products/wm8740/

The video below from Cambridge mentions that all input is resampled to 24/384k using an asynchronus sample rate converter (ASRC).
https://youtu.be/OG97I2NagvY
https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/technology/atf

Enjoy this great thread on ASRC from the Werewolf
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digit...onversion.html

-Tim

[terrys99]

Thank you Tim.
Your the only person that has helped me. Thank you again.

Can I ask, in your opinion do you think the sound difference is due to the irdac playing the dsd natively? And that's what it truly sounds like?

[TimCurtis]

Hi Terry,

Its hard to say because our audio preferences are partly due to what we like, believe and can actually hear, and partly due to good science and engineering. DSD and PCM are both good audio formats and they both have their own particular set of issues and constraints. IMO if either format is processed with well engineered gear, good sound will result.

Although there is a lot of attention given to the DAC chip used in an audio device, the board design, power supply and analog output circuit probably contribute more to the overall sound signature. There are a lot of junk designs using great chips.

-Tim