DSD-Guide - Are DSD and PCM the same?
Welcome to our new DSD-Guide newsletter!
Its seems we’ve got a lot of new people coming to the “art of listening” and asking the question — “Are DSD and PCM the same”. Well, yes, they are both audio formats that we record to and listen to… so is tape. Yes, they are both digital adio formats (and I should point out a geek fact that early digital recording and playback was done on tape… remember the Sony F-1? probably not, but I do because we did mix to the format in the 80’s.)
So how are DSD and PCM different?
A simple answer is that DSD is ONE bit with millions of samples per second. DSD 256 has 11.2 million parts per sample. In the early days of digital - 1970’s or so - the file size was just TOO big to handle for the general public to consume.
Technologists figured out a way to “decimate” the one bit into 16 bit and later 24 bit files and fewer samples per second. The sound was “close enough” for the mainstream audience of the times. And the Compact Disc was born.
The CD is a PCM format that is 16 bit and 44.1 thousand samples per second. Marketing efforts pushed sales of the CD that vinyl almost vanished.
Fast forward to High Definition listening today and you’ll find services like Qobuz offering 24bit and 96 thousand samples per second. Shortened, we call it 9624. And marketing efforts have now pushed vinyl sales ahead of CDs. Best you listen and decide for yourselves.
What gets lost decimating a DSD file to 9624 are the dynamics.
Of course, this depends on who mixed and mastered the file, but without effects, this is the big difference. For another day we’ll go into detail how to listen and experience those differences.
In the meantime.. here’s an article from Positive-Feedback on the challenges recording to DSD.
https://dsd-guide.com/positive-feedback-pure-dsd256-what-we-hear
And if you’d like to test your hearing…. here are FREE test files of one song in 10 different formats. It’s great for testing whether your DAC can playback DSD or other formats.
https://bluecoastmusic.com/free-downloads
Thanks all for reading and enjoy your music!
Cookie Marenco
Founder, Producer and Audio Engineer
Today’s Featured DSD Album
Mutineer - Available in DSD256
https://bluecoastmusic.com/jenna-mammina/mutineer
Jenna Mammina and Matt Rollings - Jazz vocals and piano
Recorded by Cookie Marenco for Blue Coast Records using Extended Sound Environment (E.S.E.) proprietary sound.