Can a Dac really play 768 kHz?

Probably as a publicity stunt the little Amsterdam based recording label
Sound Liaison
has released an album in 768khz and for a limited time period they have made one track available as a free download.
But it is actually interesting to get the track in order to see if your DAC can really opperate at full speed.

Blockquote

*The RME has a maximum sample rate of 768kHz. To really see what the RME ADI-2 is capable off, we created a 768kHz/24bit file straight from our Studer A80 tape recorder playing the ÂĽ" reel to reel master tape from our latest release. *
Listening and A/B comparing with the Studer the result is quite convincing. In our opinion the sound is very close to the analog master tape.

We would like to share the results with you.
Therefore we have made one 768kHz track from the album available for free for a limited time period.
The only favor we ask in return, is that you give us a bit of feedback; Is this a way forward?
Do you also hear an even greater sense of realism compared to the lower formats or are you perfectly happy with the formats you have been using so far?

Blockquote

Carmen 768 kHz 200shadowDXD200-768v2
-ray-carmen-gomes-inc

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My DAC plays it. But why?

Mine also plays it.

Make more money.

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The original recording is

Original recording format DXD 352,8 kHz

I would get the DXD 352.8 and upsample with other software.

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Or, you can get 44.1, then up-sample to 352.8 and store it - if real-time 44.1-768 up-sampling is too laggy.

Not with an mscaler.

My DAC can play it, if I used Windows for playback. But that won’t happen.

I guess the idea is that time-domain behavior might be better with some DACs at max sampling rates. In my experience, the benefits drop off dramatically after 192 kHz. Think of it as a playback optimization that has nothing to do with conveying useful information from the expanded bandwidth.

But there’s no need to buy this album to test the limits of your DAC. If your Core is up to the task, you can upsample everything to Max PCM rate or Max PCM rate (power of 2) using Roon’s Sample rate conversion DSP.

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I wanted to get the free track to see what’s in the spectrum between 20kHz and 384kHz, but I had to register first, so I passed.

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If you want to use a linear phase filter, the delay depends on the number of taps, regardless of computing power.

My understanding is that the purpose is to bypass the DAC’s internal up-sampling filter, so that you can use the wide variety of software filters available, regardless of the model. However, delta-sigma DACs still up-sample the signal further before doing the D/A conversion, so I’m not convinced the differences are audible when using a good DAC.

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Mine too.
Music Scope can’t completely analyze it but it’ll “play” about half the file showing spectral content.
I guess 96kHz would probably suffice to capture all there is…

That sounds like a good explanation.
But is it the future?
I guess that’s what they want to know so they can master their albums in that format.

Therefore we have made one 768kHz track from the album available for free for a limited time period.
The only favor we ask in return, is that you give us a bit of feedback; Is this a way forward? https://www.soundliaison.com/

Unless we’re talking about the future evolution of human hearing, I don’t see how ever increasing the sampling rate is the future. Finding a reason to ever increase the price of music and get people to buy their music again and again, that I can understand.

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Well, after reading the fineprint, it seems that they did their mixing and mastering for this album using an analog signal path.

I guess by, “Original recording format DXD 352,8 kHz”, they mean that after analog mixing and mastering, they made a DXD recording of the analog tape.

For that reason, I purchased the 32-bit DXD download rather than the upsampled 768 kHz version. Both formats are ridiculous overkill to accurately represent the dynamic range and bandwidth captured by the Studer A80 tape recorder. But, I guess the A80 gives the recording a flavor and color that it would not have from a straight 32-bit DXD recording of the mixer’s output.

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Well said. Even no-noise-shaped CD format can easily capture the tape’s 75dB or so SNR. At 352.8kHz, you can even capture the bias signal.

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Her previous album I got in DXD 352.8 WAV and it sounds really nice, lots of atmosphere and ambiance. It would have probably sounded just as fine in 24/192, but, I since my DAC can do the resolution, I wanted to try it.

image

Catalog Number: SL-1043A

Original recording format DXD 352,8 kHz - Premium
All other formats are converted versions of the original.
This is a One Mic + recording

Does not make mention of an analog stage. It just mentions the Merging Horus as the Micpre, so maybe it was recorded and mixed using Merging equipment and completely digital.

Here’s track 1’s spectral analysis (Audition).

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They recorded everything in DXD, but the mixing and mastering is done with analog equipment, to tape. (according to their site)
So, it’s not an upsampled DXD, but rather a 768Khz AD-conversion.

Edit: I see this was discussed, but another assumption was made.

This is what master engineer Frans De rond writes:

"The 2 most important engineers in Ray Charles’ oeuvre were Tom Dowd and his protégé Al Schmitt. The story goes that before Ray Charles, Tom Dowd and Al Schmitt started working together, tape recording levels were kept safely way below the limit. But Charles, Dowd and Schmitt realized that by carefully getting close to the limit, a beautiful light colorization of the upper harmonics took place. In tribute to the 2 engineers I decided to use an analog signal chain to master the DXD recording to a Studer A80 reel to reel tape recorder in order to get that little bit of “tape saturation” that Ray Charles liked so much,

So how I understand it the 768 is made from the Tape played into the RME ADI. so not a up sampling