GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Didital Things
In the Thread: The BSO and Digital Music.

Post Subject: Shedding some lightPosted by manisandher on: 4/22/2009

I've just received a really interesting email from
Mark Donahu,

Chief Mastering Engineer at Soundmirror. I really appreciate his taking time to reply to my query - they're obviously a decent bunch of guys there...

PS. Sorry if this post is full of smileys - don't know why these are here.

-----Original Message-----
> From: "Mani Sandher" <mani@the2ndtier.com>
>

Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:49:25
> To: <info@soundmirror.com>
> Subject: BSO AIFF 88.2/24 files
>
> Hi,

> I've recently downloaded a number of these files from the BSO website. They
> sound fantastic!

> However, the HDCD indicator on my DAC appears when I play them. Of course,
> 88.2/24 files don't need to be HDCD-encoded, so I'm assuming that you have
> used a Pacific Microsonics ADC to record and that this is applying a certain
> 'code' to the LSB which is fooling my DAC.

> Could you shed some light on this?

> Mani.

Mani,
Yes, the files were created using the HDCD Model 1 AD converter and you
will actually get improved audio if your DA converter properly decodes
the HDCD (Even at 88.2 kHz /24 bit!)
There is information about the filtering and dithering used in the AD
conversion process encoded into the master that allow the DA converter
to optimize its own reconstruction filter. If you can turn off the HDCD
decoding you will find a significant decrease in the spatial imaging and
overall imaging acuity.
After extensive listening tests to all the available DSD sample rate
converters and many of the top tier AD converters (Meitner, dCS, Prism,
Lavery and Mytek) we concluded that the Pacific Microsonics conversion
was the best available means of converting the DSD source material to
88.2 PCM.
We're glad you're enjoying the new releases.

All the best,
Mark Donahue

PPS by Romy: I just reformatted you post. In the right corner of editor there is “W” button that remove all “style” formatting from coped and pasted text.

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