Consolidation of information on DSD playback pathways

[Saidera]

Perhaps DSD playback as an audiophile practice should be made more transparent, because DSD remains with us and most DACs will support it, even very affordable phone adaptors. What exactly can be achieved by outputting DSD to the DAC, and what will the DAC do to the DSD.

Many people using HQPlayer by Jussi/Miska appear to find that upscaling to DSD256 benefits DACs using AKM or Cirrus or other chips or custom DACs with a dedicated pathway.

Elsewhere there have been explanations put forward that ESS has a 6 bit method, AKM has ‘Direct DSD’, and Cirrus is equated with AKM. But is the delta sigma modulator really bypassed? Do filters and modulators done in software really help change sound for the better?

About HQPlayer: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/02/measurements-look-at-hqplayer-325.html

Examples of partial discussion from ASR include:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/choosing-a-dac-for-dsd-playback.7701/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ements-of-holo-audio-cyan-dsd-dac.6992/page-2

 

[Saidera]

There may be a problem with the 8x oversampling in the first stage. The processing, calculation method, and accuracy of the 8x oversampling is not disclosed, but it seems to vary from chip to chip. If the chip has a large amount of computing power, the conversion will be ideal , but depending on the circumstances of the manufacturer, such as lowering the chip production budget or making the chip smaller, there is a high possibility that the calculation will only be done with low precision.

If you are using a DAC with low arithmetic precision, the sound quality may improve if you do high precision upsampling beforehand, but if it is high precision to begin with, the result will not be that different.

 

[Saidera]

Follow up. Archimago's DSD tests on DX3 Pro with AK4493. Noise floor remains the same in PCM and DSD below 20kHz.
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2020/06/measurements-topping-dx3-pro-v2-ldac.html

On UDP-205 with ES9038 Pro:
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/01/measurements-oppo-udp-205-dsd-playback.html

Miska liked to show improvements in some specific products with DSD upsampling but Archimago also showed you how DSD upsampling can degrade things.

For the new AKM chipsets, if they can further improve measurements so that Miska can no longer show visible advantages in his 2MHz range measurements, and if they can improve jitter with SPDIF input like what ESS chips can do, and if the price is competitive, then it can be an attractive offer for some people.

I trust Archimago.