[eio]

take ES9018S for example, it uses 6bit DAC internally, how does it really "natively" playback a 1bit DSD stream? doesn't it have to convert 1bit to 6bit to get the best result?

 

[spruce music]

You'll find it isn't even possible to get a consensus definition of what direct DSD is. Not all DSD is one bit anymore. Some of it is. Natively with DSD will have several interpretations.

 

[spruce music]

To further answer your question, some information indicates in particular that the ESS9018 does switchable digital filtering of DSD input at 50,60 or 70 khz. Digitally filtering requires multiplying bits which results in more than 1 bit results.  The ESS9018 runs at native rates at least to DSD128.  So it filters the one bit inputs at native rates by converting to 6 bit sigma-delta at those rates.  So it wouldn't be the purist version of DSD as one bit all the way thru, but it isn't PCM at the output either.  Its 6 bit sigma-delta.

 

[eio]

thanks for pointing directions and the explaination!
 
according to this benchmark article:
https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/inside-the-dac2-part-2-digital-processing
 
running at native dsd rate and use 6bit for volume control looks interesting. and as you said it will resample 1bit to multi-bits at higher dsd rates if i understand correctly?