DSD (again)

Alex

I wish Lenbrook companies would stop ignoring DSD. Requests for DSD support go back years in these forums and yet there's still no movement (no, the conversion workaround doesn't count). There have been a few new products announced by NAD in recent times and still no DSD support. Same with Bluesound. Virtually every other brand/platform supports this. I don't get why the anti DSD stance?! Understand you wouldn't want to stream it at scale due to greater bandwidth requirements but for local playback it's a must feature.

 

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Comments

11 comments

Date Votes
  • Alex

    From the product description:

    "the MDC USB DSD enables the playback of DSD files up to DSD256 by converting to 24-bit/192kHz hi-resolution PCM audio."

    So pretty much the same as running the conversion utility in BluOS.

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  • Invenio

    I would not be so dismissive of DSD.  The format has merit on its own and there is a reason why many high end DACs support it.  Also, simply having a DSD to PCM converter is not the same as having actual native support for the format.  For example, some DACs, including my Holo Audio May DAC, will run DSD native on a discreate resistor ladder DAC.  So really handled completely separately from PCM audio streams.

    It's a requested feature.  Hopefully bluesound listens to their users.  If they can put resources into supporting that garbage MQA, perhaps they can consider supporting an actual audiophile format.

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  • woodie
    • Edited

    It's a requested feature.  Hopefully bluesound listens to their users.  If they can put resources into supporting that garbage MQA, perhaps they can consider supporting an actual audiophile format.

    All available resources are currently applying lipstick to the aforementioned porcine.

    It's why the cadence of new SW releases has slowed.

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  • Matt S.
    Brand Manager

    Hi Alex and all,

    Stay tuned, there should be some news on this front before the end of August.

    Thanks,
    Matt

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  • Jonathan Woodbury

    I just tried playing back some DSF files over CIFS on my Node 2i and while it now shows the files as a playable option now, when I select them for playback the song doesn't start. The play icon never switches to a pause icon and there's a circular blue progress indicator around the play icon continuously.

    Is native DSD playback supposed to work on the Node 2i?

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  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Is native DSD playback supposed to work on the Node 2i?

    No. The NODE 2i does not support DOP playback of DSD. You can rather than a real time DOP playback, you may do a one time conversion using the BluOS App for Windows or macOS. Here's how; https://support.bluos.net/hc/en-us/articles/360019447014-Playing-DSD-Files-in-BluOS

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  • Jonathan Woodbury

    Which Node models do support native DSD playback? Is native DSD playback only supported with DOP or can the built-in DAC do native DSD playback?

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  • Invenio

    There are no Node models that support native DSD playback.

    The entire "convert DSD to FLAC" for playback seems odd to me.  It's not a lossless conversion and if you are just looking for a lossy conversion you can do that with any conversion utility.

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  • Jonathan Woodbury

    https://www.bluesound.com/products/node-nano/ has "DSD playback*" listed under features with the asterisk indicating "*Available via future software update".

    Also, on my Node 2i, when it was running older versions of BluOS, it wouldn't even let me try to playback DSF files on my file server. Now it will try, but it doesn't work.

    A lot of DAC chips support both PCM and DSD playback, so I was hoping that a software update could enable native DSD playback support on the older models too.

    I'm doing the conversion process detailed in the article linked above, but I'd rather not.

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  • Tijmen Krijnen

    Is there any update on this?

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  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Hi Tijmen

    With this week's release of BluOS 4.8.7, DSD playback of local content from your Local Library or USB drive is possible on the newer NODE Family of the NODE NANO, NODE (N132) and (soon to be shipped) NODE ICON. Only these models will support it but old models grouped with these models as the primary player in the group will play the decoded content.

    Models introduced into the market prior to September of this year still do not have DSD capability and require using the DSD to PCM conversion tool that is built into the BluOS App for Windows and macOS.

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