Its not Placebo. I can hear a difference and my ears are by no means golden. But i think DSD is obsolete. Websites like HDtracks.com are offering music with higher bit depth and frequency. I can tell a difference there. Also CD’s sound way better than mp3. Thats obvious. And remastered CD’s are better than original sound wise.
I think the thing is people have to be taught to listen and pick up the higher quality. I think they are used to a level of quality, usually quite low like radio, spotify, mp3’s, low quality gear, and the higher end stuff just goes over their head. A lot of times its attitude, people dont want higher quality cause they will have to pay more lol.
But higher quality files, formats and gear can be appreciated. I think DSD isnt as good as hi res files from a site like HDtracks or Qobuz like services. But there were albums that were remastered and mixed for the format that are valuable.
Edit: Nvm, Amazon sets the internal volume halfway for some dumb reason. Tidal did that too. Tidal at least doesn’t hide the volume slider so you can actually tell.
It really depends on the track tbh. DSD is not as popular as PCM audio but it’s not obsolete (at least technology wise), it’s just always been a more niche format
Some do, some don’t it depends on the design of the dac. Some dacs have better dsd implementation than others too, so dsd performance can vary more at times. I mainly have alot of sacd’s because they have better masters of older tracks that I can’t get from places like hdtracks
Edit: actually listening to some Miles Davis in DSD right now lol
Since my original post, I’ve delved deeper into hifi.
My stereo system consists of SA Pandion 2 Speakers, the A&K kann cube and CA Azur 651W.
Since getting my entry to hifi system, I noticed that where DSD stands out is with analogue transfers with analogue remastering.
Of the DSD albums I now own (close to 30) I found that any of the modern releases e.g. The New York EP by Gayle Skidmore sounded identical to PCM. Researching into this, there are very few studios out there currently that are fully DSD so with these modern recordings its just an upsample to DSD, fooling the buyer.
I did some tests:
I could not perceive a difference between DSD64 and DSD256 when down-sampled with audirvana.
I could perceive a difference between DSD64 and DSD256 when listening to the files obtained from different ADCs upsampled to DSD256 with audirvana. Can’t comment on which was better, only that there was a slight difference.
I could perceive a difference between 320kbps MP3 and CD Quality flac on a classical track.
I could perceive a difference between CD Quality and 96/24 on Abbey Road’s bluray audio.
Above 96/24 there was no sonic difference to my ears, listened to mainly vocal jazz.
It’s very hard to edit in dsd, so many studios convert to DXD to edit and convert back to DSD. As you say it’s hard to find a studio that is all dsd throughout the chain
DXD is just high rate PCM though, which defeats the purpose.
I remember Paul talking about the program they’re using in their studio that is fully DSD.
They have gus skinnas so I’m confident it will be pure dsd the whole chain.
when you say you DO perceive differences, are they actual practical, notable differences? Or the type of differences you would only really register ABing the two tracks and really working hard to listen for differences?
I would love to get one for my studio, but that’s pricey lol. Also I’m not experienced enough to master in dsd. I do want to pick up a reel to reel to master to tape (which I will do in the future lol)
From the PCM to the SACD the difference was there, though not night and day, but the other differences within DSD were literally trying to find a tiny specific part of a track to base your comparisons. Realistically no difference when just listening.
Differences within PCM are definitely noticeable depending on the recording up to 96/24.
Neutron has an all to dsd option you can turn on and it’s been awhile since I messed with it, but I remember disliking the way it made my music sound, so I’ve not tried it again or gone looking for dsd.
I agree that, especially in the case of dsd, the main benefit comes from the extra care taken in mastering. In the same way that remastered albums sound better that originals, in some cases but not all. I’m not too positive about the real differences beyond that, although I do believe that lossless sounds better than mp3, but again I think that this is even more so when it comes to remastered albums.
“But what do I know? I’m just a bear, I bite the heads off fish”
I’ll be honest, I don’t do particularly well on this test… I can pick out the low bit rate file… but pretty hard to tell teh difference between the 320 and FLAC for the most part…
but IMO the chosen songs aren’t anywhere near the best recordings I’ve heard either… so maybe not the best blind test.