Would you like to compare on your system a DXD edit master file to a Pure DSD256 edit master file mixed from the identical DSD64 tracking channels? I have it available for you to download and compare. Read on…
Tom Peeters is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of his founding of Cobra Records with the release of a Producer’s Choice Vol.1 sampler album. Working with Tom Caulfield at NativeDSD, Tom Peeters is going back to the original DSD64 tracking channels stored in his archives, and remastering them in DXD on Pyramix. He is then sending those original DSD64 tracking channels to Tom Caulfield who will remaster them in HQPlayer Pro in Pure DSD256 (with no PCM) using the identical settings used in the Pyramix remastering.
I have permission to share both edit master files with readers of Positive Feedback. Go to this article for a more complete explanation of the process used and then use the link provided in the article to download the comparison sample files:
In this article, I will tell you what Ann and I hear. But you should listen for yourself first. Then, please, comment below the article and also come back to this thread and tell us what you hear.
I hope you enjoy the opportunity to hear this. It will be as controlled a comparison as I think your will find between the sound of a first generation edit master created in DXD versus a first generation edit master created in Pure DSD256. I assure you, they do sound different even though the source tracking channels, levels, channel panning, and EQ are identical.
Thanks. However, I’m afraid I’ll not hear much difference on my system in my current room. But is maybe is a good reason to connect al laptop and try this out when I have a bit of time
In the What’s Spinning thread today I added a post (HERE) about listening to an edit master file and then being able to listen to the results of three different format conversion programs as they converted that edit master into a different file format of equivalently high resolution. Well… that reaffirmed my long held belief that, in my system, I am always going to get the best quality sound from the edit master of a given album.
This is why Tom Caulfield and I agreed these samples needed to both be first generation edit master files of the same source tracking channels. This gave each mastering process (DXD mixing versus Pure DSD mixing) the best opportunity to sound as good as it was going to sound. In both cases you get to hear a first generation edit master from the original DSD tracking channels. Is there a format conversion when mixed in DXD? Of course there is. And that is the problem with the DXD mixed edit master of DSD tracking channels. It has to convert from the original DSD to PCM, and, in the process, the DSD source is degraded by the decimation required in PCM.
Will you hear it? I don’t know. Ann and I do. But you may not. So, this is a listening/learning experience. It’s why we’ve done it.
Well what about the DSD256 output from the DXD edit master? Wouldn’t it sound as good? No, sorry. The edit master doesn’t sound as good any longer. There is no way the DSD256 file that is converted from that DXD edit master can sound any better. In such a case, the DXD edit master will be the best sound you can hear from that DXD mixing/mastering process. Make sense? Unfortunately, 99.8% of albums you can obtain that may have original recording tracking channels in DSD will have been mastered in DXD. We’re toast.
Well, what about DXD tracking channels mastered in DXD? Fine. Absolutely – the DXD mastered results heard in the DXD edit master will be the best that that album can sound.
