Recommendations on portable DSD/DXD stack

[Leo-]

Hi all

I've been enjoying my new stereo setup and having lots of fun with hi-res albums, especially with DSD, DXD and upsampling with Roon. It would be just cool to be able to listen to the same files natively without conversion to lower PCM rates since my current player can't handle them. I have spent a good three or four evenings looking for a good source to be used as a transport but no definitive conclusions. My idea is to upgrade the DAC for a DSD capable later (perhaps an iFi DSD or Mojo). My requirements are:

- native DSD256 and DXD would be great, however I'd be happy with DSD64 over DOP and 24/192 if there is a price/battery life advantage;
- internal amp doesn't matter;
- good or very good internal clock (asynchronous DAC would do it);
- best battery life possible (at least 12 hours would be great);
- one SD card (must have) or two;
- charge and play simultaneously.

I don't think I'd need a top of the line DAP - their battery lives are not outstanding anyways. From the other side, it seems that many budget players would fit the minimum bill, including Shanling M2, Hifiman Megamini, Fiio X3 Mark iii, Cayin N3, Lotoo PAW5000. Sony and Cowon have great battery life, however no DSD output. Any other recommendations/additional info?

 

[cossix]

Without going into it fully, playing DSD64 using DoP is exactly the same as native DSD as long as your DAC can do 24/192. I think DSD 128+ with DoP requires 32/whatever. Long story short, native DSD and DoP will sound the same (provided the dac is good) because the analog signal after unpacking the data is bit for bit exactly the same.

That being said, I've heard good things about the newest X7, perhaps check that out!

 

[Leo-]

Hi, thanks for replying. As I wrote out, DOP would be ok however native would be more elegant. I have already experimented extensively with DOP and native modes with Foobar. We can save this discussion for another time, for me as long as the signal is not processed by the Dap I'm fine with DOP.

Regarding the X7, I don't really see what the advantage would be over the X5 for use as a transport? On the contrary, battery life may be worse in the x7. But oerhaps I'm overlooking something.