“might be a few years before we see DSD take over.  but mark my words… it will.”

as i wrote this to you guys from Canada, the Acoustic Sounds (the de-facto standard in quality music content, including vinyl) catalog was sitting in my mail box here on Maui.

And… guess what it’s all about?…  DSD downloads and DSD DACs.  I knew it would play out this way, simply cause DSD sounds better.  The difference is immediately evident even on my medium-fidelity 5.1 HT system at my Pookela rental.  I’ve got numerous titles on both SACD and DVD-A (which runs PCM at 192k/24 bit) and have compared the two extensively. I’ve also compared them to vinyl and SACD comes far closer, and Acoustic Sounds says exactly the same thing as does every other audiophile I’ve met who loves vinyl like I do (the guy in Calgary even shared my love for the very fussy Denon 103R LOMC phono cartridge).

I’ve attached a scan from the opening page.  Then it was followed by numerous (overpriced) USB DSD DACs.  They are charging a premium for what they should have been providing all along, but PCM had a great deal of momentum since that was the format used for CDs at 44.1K/16 bit.  DACs (even USB DSD ones) are extraordinary simple devices since they operate primarily in the digital domain.  A few chip sets, an accurate word clock (important to reduce jitter, although “word clock” only applies to the PCM word, just plain “clock”, and a very fast one, for DSD), and a descent line stage output buffer are all they require to produce top-of-the-line (digi) sound quality.

Next… they will be trying to sell us all these titles we already own on SACD (in my case anyway) as DSD downloads for $25/album.  This is just plain wrong IMHO.  We gotta get our hands on a hackable PS3 to rip SACDs to DSD files soon before they are all gone!!!  I’m gonna run another want ad here on Maui but the chances are slim.  Dave…  you’ve got the specs for one a want ad the Bay Area  Andrew, LMK if you want the specs…

I will eventually rip my entire music collection, including vinyl, to DSD so I can easily travel with it.  There are 5.6k DSD recorders out there and one is in my future.  I should be able to get equivalent or better results recording records to DSD files as I did with a reel-to-reel tape recorder back in the 70s. And, a hard drive is a lot easier to travel with than a bunch of reel-to reel tapes 🙂

Aloha,

Mark

P.S. The Acoustic Sounds catalog is an excellent resource for modern, quality music content.  They offer 2 LP 45 RPM vinyl titles on 180g and 200g, as well as every digi format you could ask for (including PCM to support digi customers still on that format, which is most everyone).  I suggest subscribing, it’s free of course.  I often find the titles cheaper elsewhere, but they are leading this parade and were the one’s who put out Pink Floyd’s WYWH on 5.1 SACD and they have re-mastered many, many titles on both vinyl and SACD and even have their own vinyl production facility.  They not only sell quality music for the modern age, they create it!

Begin forwarded message:

careful… you might get the vinyl bug! 😉

i’ve got some big ideas in regard to music servers.  but…  we’ve gotta wait for the industry to catch up.  they are still in the PCM world and unfortunately that’s where most of the momentum is.  might be a few years before we see DSD take over.  but mark my words… it will.

if i have high end systems in Canmore, Maui, and maybe Utah down the road it’s gonna be necessary – i.e. carrying an external hard drive rather than duplicating my entire high def music collection (including vinyl) in two or even three places…

i’ll still continue to collect vinyl, but i’ll get a DSD recorder so i can sample it at 5.6 MHz and travel with it easily.  it will likely sound as good (or possibly even better) than very high quality reel-to-reel recordings i used to make.