DSD 128 DoP vs DSD 256

[ffk (Doctors Practice. Plumbers Perform.)]

@jbar2797

Do you think it’s worth getting a NAA like Raspberry Pi to connect to the FiiO K13 R2R DAC?

YES. I think NAA should always be used. I feel incorporating NAA through a low powered device is a must and it is the best way to connect anything to hqplayer.

@jbar2797

That way I could bypass DoP and play DSD256 instead of the DSD128 directly from the Mac Mini.

I think YES for this one too. If you’re going down the DSD rabbit hole and have a dac and an hqplayer machine that can process DSD256, start there.

The sound of DSD

DSD64 is not necessarily bad, but it puts extra demands on the DAC side. Just like 44.1k PCM puts more demand on the DAC than hires. In many cases DSD256 is the sweet spot, but some DACs perform nice at DSD512 and DSD1024 rates too. Some older DACs are limited to DSD128 which can be pretty good too. Biggest step in performance is DSD64 → DSD128 and then not quite, but almost as big DSD128 → DSD256. Then smaller steps to DSD512 and DSD1024. DSD64 as content delivery format is still better than…