I have read a lot of par4ken's posts over the years. He's a pretty straight shooter when it comes to describing what he hears. When he first stated his DSD vs PCM remarks in the original "Holy Cow" thread, I too thought there might be some bias afoot, especially since there was no true A/B testing involved, and in view of my experience with comparing DSD and DSD converted to PCM not agreeing with his observations.
I'm coming to the conclusion that he may well be describing the reality of the situation correctly. He is speaking about an audible difference when using an on the fly conversion of DSD to PCM within his Oppo player. Something that would be harder to evaluate A/B style.
Early on in my SACD ripping education, I tried to test for audible differences in DSD vs DSD converted to PCM. I wanted some reasonable A/B method. I ended up comparing the following:
Optical SACD playback through my Oppo BDP-83 SE using its internal DAC and inputting analog audio to my pre pro
VS.
A 24/88.2kHz PCM conversion of the same tracks played via Kodi on my HTPC with the HDMI sent to the same pre/pro and using its internal DACs for decoding.
I tried to use predominately 4.0 SACDs to eliminate any issue with LFE level settings.
This way I could set the two sources to start playing at more or less the same time. I like to have a 3-5 second delay between them so I can hear a passage and then quickly re-play the same passage from the other source. I could set levels for each source separately and switch between the sources at will. This is the same setup I have used in the past to compare vinyl to digital, CD to Hi-Res, etc.
Result: I could not reliably perceive a difference in sound. Nor could the much younger ears of my son when he tried it. I know it wasn't a blind test. I know the levels were set subjectively. But it was enough for me to go ahead and feel good about converting all my DSD rips to PCM. (I kept all the DSD rips just in case).
What par4ken is talking about is different. He is referring to his Oppo using its internal DAC to convert SACD to PCM. This is not something I tested. It may well be that this process is flawed in some way. Hence, I cant refute it, and I'm willing to believe it until it is proven wrong.
I do want to get to the bottom of it though. And I also want to know I'm doing all i can to get the best PCM conversion from DSD sources possible.
I'm coming to the conclusion that he may well be describing the reality of the situation correctly. He is speaking about an audible difference when using an on the fly conversion of DSD to PCM within his Oppo player. Something that would be harder to evaluate A/B style.
Early on in my SACD ripping education, I tried to test for audible differences in DSD vs DSD converted to PCM. I wanted some reasonable A/B method. I ended up comparing the following:
Optical SACD playback through my Oppo BDP-83 SE using its internal DAC and inputting analog audio to my pre pro
VS.
A 24/88.2kHz PCM conversion of the same tracks played via Kodi on my HTPC with the HDMI sent to the same pre/pro and using its internal DACs for decoding.
I tried to use predominately 4.0 SACDs to eliminate any issue with LFE level settings.
This way I could set the two sources to start playing at more or less the same time. I like to have a 3-5 second delay between them so I can hear a passage and then quickly re-play the same passage from the other source. I could set levels for each source separately and switch between the sources at will. This is the same setup I have used in the past to compare vinyl to digital, CD to Hi-Res, etc.
Result: I could not reliably perceive a difference in sound. Nor could the much younger ears of my son when he tried it. I know it wasn't a blind test. I know the levels were set subjectively. But it was enough for me to go ahead and feel good about converting all my DSD rips to PCM. (I kept all the DSD rips just in case).
What par4ken is talking about is different. He is referring to his Oppo using its internal DAC to convert SACD to PCM. This is not something I tested. It may well be that this process is flawed in some way. Hence, I cant refute it, and I'm willing to believe it until it is proven wrong.
I do want to get to the bottom of it though. And I also want to know I'm doing all i can to get the best PCM conversion from DSD sources possible.