I tried playing the Tedeschi Trucks album with DSD64 using SDM Type D (best of the available Foobar2000 DSD converters) from its native 96 kHz PCM and I ended up hearing what sounded like clicking coming from random locations. I tried both DSD128/48 and DSD128, I didn’t experience this artifact using these settings and the overall sound signature seemed livelier. I will need to do further testing of PCM to DSD (on multiple DACs), to confirm this.
I am listening to more of the same Tedeschi Trucks album in DSD128 and it truly sounds remarkable. “Don’t Drift Away” in particular draws emotion out of you like Otis Redding can in songs such as “Cigarettes and Coffee” or even “Chain Gang”. Perhaps you are more into Aretha doing “The House that Jack Built”? Anyone who enjoys those tracks will enjoy this live Tedeschi Trucks album in my opinion, it’s definitely worth checking out. The jam out track “Ali” brings in a lot of brass instruments that really help to open this album up to a huge audience, between the excellent trumpet work and the always groovy playing of Trucks, you are in for a treat!
Just for the sake of pointing it out, I switched back to DSD64 on a track that was clear during DSD128 and sure enough, the clicking had returned. As soon as I switched over to DSD128, before even hitting apply, the clicking was gone! So there must be a limitation of DSD64 with this up conversion that still needs to be ironed out with foobar2000. For now if you are going to convert PCM into DSD on foobar2000, stick to DSD128 or DSD128/48.
Table of Contents:
- Review Main Page
- Competition Hardware Descriptions:
- Review Hardware Info v2.0 vs. v1.6 Burson Audio Play:
- Digital Noise/Mouse Distortion + Solution: (USB Ground Headaches)
- Opening Thoughts on Voicing of Burson “Play” vs. ES9038Pro:
- Listening Tests Streaming: ES9038 on Coax + RCA out
- A Closer Look at Oversampling & Noise Filtering: (It’s Not Magic!)
- Listening Test Music (Pt 1): (Adele with ES9038P on I2S)
- Listening Test Music (Pt 2): (Tedeschi Trucks Band with ES9038P on Coax)
- A note on Converting PCM to DSD with Foobar2000: (DSD64 Clicking)
- Balanced vs. Unbalanced: (Understanding the ES9038’s Performance)
- Adding I2S Input To ES9038 DAC: (Power Tools and Soldering Irons)
- Measurements/Technical Page
- Closing Remarks: (The Verdict)