Hi-Rez Highway

Posted by Tony Lauck (A) on January 15, 2009 at 20:56:15

In Reply to: RE: PCM via BluRay is a step backwards not forward from DSD. Perhaps in the future DSD downloads? Who knows? posted by Jim F. on January 12, 2009 at 04:10:44

If you just want to rip SACDs to DSD and play them back from files stored in a computer or server, it is possible to do this today. It requires expensive pro equipment or a certain amount of D.I.Y. expertise. If you want to do DSP processing on DSD files, this won't be possible without first converting them to PCM. This is a technical limitation of DSD, not a restriction imposed by Sony based on its technology licensing strategy.

It's not clear that hi-res PCM is a step backwards from DSD. It's more like a small step backwards from DSD to 96/24 PCM and a step more-or-less sideways to 192/24. At some higher rate, PCM could well be a step upwards.

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar