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> “These people who claim they have golden ears and can hear the difference between analog and digital, well, it turns out you couldn’t.” But was there an albu

by thih9 4y ago

> “These people who claim they have golden ears and can hear the difference between analog and digital, well, it turns out you couldn’t.” But was there an album without DSD to compare to and hear the difference? I guess most people heard just the album with DSD (that admittedly sounded great). What would happen if there was also a One Press version without DSD? Would people with “golden ears” be able to recognize it in a blind test?

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
Almost nothing has ever been recorded and released using only DSD. Why not? Most fundamentally because you can't edit DSD data, it has to be converted to PCM format first. This means it can only be used for live takes, with nothing done except topping & tailing the recording. There are are few "ultra-audiophile" recordings that have been made this way, but so few of them that the question of whether it's better or audibly different is almsot irrelevant.
- thih9 4y ago
  > Almost nothing has ever been recorded and released using only DSD. I don’t understand; I was talking about an album without DSD. Why are you referring to albums produced with only DSD?
  - PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
    My point was tha an album with DSD (only) is so rare that asking about a comparison to album without DSD is a little strange. Almost all albums are produced with digital technology that is not DSD, even the ones that include DSD.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - thih9 4y ago
      I still don’t get it. Why does it matter here whether DSD is rare or not?
      - PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
        The "distress" from the audiophile community in this case was that DSD formed a part of the signal chain from the original analog (magnetic tape) masters to their newly printed vinyl. They wanted a signal chain that was completely analog. Then, alongside that, is the belief by a slightly different set of audiophiles that DSD is the best digital format there is, and that recordings made only with DSD is as good as you can get (possibly, for some of them, better than pure analog). The difficulty with the 2nd group's belief is that there are very few recordings that exist which are pure DSD, and their beliefs about PCM mean that a DSD+PCM process is inherently flawed. Consequently, establishing the superiority of pure DSD is somewhat irrelevant, when there's almost nothing you can listen to that is produced that way.

by thih9 4y ago

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago

Almost nothing has ever been recorded and released using only DSD. Why not? Most fundamentally because you can't edit DSD data, it has to be converted to PCM format first. This means it can only be used for live takes, with nothing done except topping & tailing the recording. There are are few "ultra-audiophile" recordings that have been made this way, but so few of them that the question of whether it's better or audibly different is almsot irrelevant.

thih9 4y ago
> Almost nothing has ever been recorded and released using only DSD. I don’t understand; I was talking about an album without DSD. Why are you referring to albums produced with only DSD?
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  My point was tha an album with DSD (only) is so rare that asking about a comparison to album without DSD is a little strange. Almost all albums are produced with digital technology that is not DSD, even the ones that include DSD.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - thih9 4y ago
    I still don’t get it. Why does it matter here whether DSD is rare or not?
    - PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
      The "distress" from the audiophile community in this case was that DSD formed a part of the signal chain from the original analog (magnetic tape) masters to their newly printed vinyl. They wanted a signal chain that was completely analog. Then, alongside that, is the belief by a slightly different set of audiophiles that DSD is the best digital format there is, and that recordings made only with DSD is as good as you can get (possibly, for some of them, better than pure analog). The difficulty with the 2nd group's belief is that there are very few recordings that exist which are pure DSD, and their beliefs about PCM mean that a DSD+PCM process is inherently flawed. Consequently, establishing the superiority of pure DSD is somewhat irrelevant, when there's almost nothing you can listen to that is produced that way.