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.