DSD-2-PCM -- proof of concept, test sample and source code here Options

[SebastianG]

The ZIP contains 4 files:
- dsd2pcm.jar (the converter written in Java, outputs raw 24/88 PCM, intel byte order)
- info.txt (contains some infos)
- test2822k.dsd (14 seconds, mono DSD, 5 megs)
- test44k.mp3 (conversion result)

have fun,
Sebi

Edit-2011: For the latest C/C++ source code see https://code.google.com/p/dsd2pcm/ It is released under the new BSD license. The attatchment to this post is still the first Java release.



This post has been edited by SebastianG: Dec 4 2011, 17:45

Attached File(s)

 dsd2pcm.zip ( 3.56MB ) Number of downloads: 2485

 

[LukeS]

The problem with the "most accurate capture" is that DSD players do 'know' that terrible amounts of noise are there and their analog low-pass probably reaches far enough down to compensate somewhat. PCM doesn't have this problem, a good 96 kHz DAC will roughly output at least 40 kHz of perfect analog bandwidth. This would be a capture of the full digital DSD signal, but probably not an accurate capture of the equivalent DSD low passed 'experience'.

My Denon player has a setting labled "SACD Filter" which can be set to 50kHz or 100kHz. I do not know what it is set to because I just got the player used a few days ago and it doesn't have a remote so I do not have access to the menu. I have ordered a remote and once it comes I will go through and turn off any audio post processing options I can. It the option is set to 50kHz, changing it to 100kHz may help with some of the noise I am getting.

I am very new to the SACD format but I am interested in picking up a second hand SACD player that outputs DSD over HDMI and trying to grab the DSD signals before they get encrypted and sent over HDMI, it may offer a less altered signal.

I'd suggest keeping the originals as un-converted DSD and just decode to PCM on the fly using a foobar2000 component or something. I'm not sure that one exists currently, but having a library of lossless DSD material is probably preferable to the same material in PCM-decoded form. One less source of loss...

My plan exactly, I will keep the originals for archival purposes and make a copy that is converted it to a lossless PCM format like FLAC if a good conversion becomes available.

Raw DSD means saving about 3 GB per 70 minute stereo album. Kind of a waste when you can save 48kHz files, that should perfectly* preserve the 0-22 kHz band, and only need about 475 MB (FLAC). That's over 2.5 GB wasted, not for discarded but inaudible recorded information but plain quantization distortion, added by an inferior form of digitalization. Why save 2.5 GB of garbage per album? Has there ever been just one solid positive blind test for DSD?

* talk about differences of -110db or lower

A couple things here...
48kHz files do not preserve 0-22kHz band perfectly, the brick wall effect means that the high pass filters have to cut into much lower frequencies for seamless playback.

Storage is cheap nowadays and will keep getting cheaper, I keep all my music on a NAS server. You can buy a 1.5TB drives for less then $100 each which is about 500 SACD albums depending how many tracks they have one them and over then next few years it will cost even less to store.

There is one important feature of SACDs that CD's do not offer, multi channel audio. Many albums do not have any other multichannel format like DVD-A, blu-ray so SACD is the only option.

Also the storage could be greatly reduced is a loss less container format was made to store the raw DSD channels.

This post has been edited by LukeS: Nov 24 2009, 21:50