I find it odd that the DS DAC can play 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 and … stops at 352.8. What about 384?
Not that I have any DXD files of 384, but it would be nice to have from a spec sheet point of view.
The software changes in the FPGA of the DS required to support 384k without doing something rude like downsampling it somewhere in the process are prohibitive. Right now everything is upsampled to 640 x 441.k (which is also 147 x 192k) then down to double DSD’s rate. To come from 384k would naïvely require doubling the upsampling resources in the FPGA - doing it smarter would still require significant work and would probably lead to worse sound quality overall for the DS.
From the other side:
DXD files aren’t ever 384k (they are 32 bits at 8 x 44.1k)
That isn’t to say that no files at 384k exist, but most of the people/systems that release in 24/96 (and 24/192) don’t feel a need for 384k and 384k isn’t a natural sample rate for anything DSD related.
There are ADC and DAC chips out there that support 384k but that sample rate isn’t really used commercially.
If I were designing the DS from scratch I’d consider targeting quad rate DSD which would also allow easier use of 384k - but that might also require some more costly hardware.
Thanks ted, very informative