Quote:
Many players convert from DSD before decoding. Wadia will. DCS does*. I'm sure there are others. |
Doesn't this defeat the whole purpose of SACD? Taking the DSD signal, sampling it, decimating it, and converting it to PCM? Don't you lose a lot of the data *and* add to various kinds of distortion through any conversion process? Wouldn't you just be better off with a 24/96 DVD-Audio disc on a machine that did that, so it doesn't have to go through that conversion at all, it could stay native 24/96?
Complicating this factor is that I've also read that the vast majority of today's DAC chips are not really multi-bit, but start the process as a bitstream, reading the PCM data off the CD in a single-bit manner a la DSD (SACD), *then* convert it to multi-bit PCM. Ed Meitner contends that DSD is superior because it keeps the data in a single-bit form throughout the process without this conversion. (I'm not an engineer so bear with me, I'm paraphrasing from memory). Quote:
I guarantee that in the recoring studio, all DSD releases were PCM at some point in their lives before being put on a disc. The A/D chips just don't exist yet. |
Yes, here's one of the chief "complaints" about SACD that is fodder over at aa. However, this really only comes into play for modern recordings made in a modern studio, not to old analog tapes from analog studio equipment. This is a definite "problem" for SACD on music that was recorded or mixed in PCM. Most studios have 24/96 gear in them, not DSD. No way to "add back" information in a DSD conversion that was never recorded in the first place via PCM. That music will never sound "better" than 24/96 data will allow.
Also, I've read that SACD is not as manipulatable as PCM in the studio, much harder to edit with or to process. It seems to be a combination of lack of equipment combined with technical problems with trying to process a DSD signal.
Even die-hard DSD/SACD people have to admit that the best use for the process is in the re-mastering of analog masters, as DSD with its insane sampling rate is much closer to an analog signal than any 24/96 PCM approximation. Actually Sony developed SACD as a means of protecting its most valuable asset-- namely aging master tapes that were crumbling before their very eyes. The idea was to create a "perfect" digital scheme that would allow for permanent capture and storage of their old analog master tapes, to be "dumbed down" later at any time to whatever the prevailing PCM scheme of the day was for consumer products (16/44.1, 24/96, 32/192, etc.). Ultimately they decided to release it as a commercial product.
Mark