"Farrell8882" wrote in message
news:ddeQb.104704$Rc4.713016@attbi_s54...
I found this article on another newsgroup:

http://www.diamondcenter.net/digitalstress.html

Here are (to me) the most significant paragraphs:

"With the advent of Direct Stream Digital (DSD) recording, it is
now
possible to conclude that the negative effects I have stated above are due
not
to the digital process per se but to the mode of achieving it, Pulse Code
Modulation (PCM). For DSD recordings do not have these negative effects.

"Although it was suggested, unfortunately the record industry did
not
make analog backups of their digital (PCM) sessions. So now there is a
(very
expensive) twenty year hiatus. Hence some SACDs (the CD format for DSD)
are
being released which have gone through the PCM process and are as negative
as
regular CDs."

I have two questions:

I wonder whether it is possible to find pure DSD recordings, and how to
recognize them.


Look carefully at the recording notes on the back of the SACD's. Most
SACD's that were recorded in DSD mention this fact somewhere on the back
cover. Not there? Assume it is high bit rate, high res pcm...probably
96/20 or better...most recently 192/24.

Also, are DSD CDs -- as opposed to DSD SACDs -- as likely to be free of
the
negative artifacts Diamond cites?

In my experience most irritation is as a result of the filters used in
decoding...thus SACD avoids the problem at the consumer level. A lot
depends on what equipment/how carefully the transfer from PCM to SACD was
done at the mastering level.