Are there any shortcomings about DSD Masters?

There's a difference between DSD masters and DSD re-masters.

In the case of the re-masters, some of them may well be made from old and degraded analogue tape, though on the plus side and depending on the quality of the remastering engineer, the mix may be improved.

If you listen to the SACD remaster of Dark Side of the Moon for example you can hear very clearly the problems with tape - print through, wow and flutter and hiss, all hiresolution! 

A true DSD master is completely different - there aren't actually that many, but the ones I have on SACD such as Murray Perahias Goldberg Variations are superb.

Note that you can't download DSD masters or re-masters - they have to be transcoded to PCM.

Thanks for the reply. I still find this confusing.

Bob Ludwig obtained the original tapes, I believe, in regards to the Stones. So would what he created be called a DSD master, or a re-master? If there are limitations to the DSD process, I can't find out anywhere on the internet what they are. I'm still hoping at some point Frank Abela will come along and provide more info. Why would Ludwig go through this whole process if there are limitations to the method. He's extremely good at what he does, what other process or choice did he have?

"Note that you can't download DSD masters or re-masters - they have to be transcoded to PCM". Okay, but the point is that the HD selections I've heard are based on, and derived from DSD masters (or maybe those are called re-masters).

Dave

The Stones release is (in my view) a re-master because it wasn't recorded on DSD in the first place - it was recorded on analogue tape, and the original analogue tape master was made from that. And however good Bob Ludwig is, he can't restore the lost magnetic oxide or fix the stretched tape or undo the print-through or crosstalk. But it still may be that DSD re-mastering of 40 year old tape by a great engineer delivers more music to you than an original vinyl pressing from the original vinyl master. I believe that one of the reasons DSD was not widely adopted is the difficulty of editing and mixing with it, which is perhaps why it has found it's niche as an archival process. Ludwig probably used DSD because the Stones re-masters were originally issued on SACD which is a DSD format. If you google Bob Ludwig SACD (or DSD) you'll find several articles.

By the way, there's an article in this months Hi Fi News suggesting that not all HD tracks hi-res downloads are hi-res.

The Hawk,

This is a thread exploring DSD-vs-PCM, I found it interesting reading:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board...0858-dsd-vs-pcm.html

M

likesmusic, I greatly appreciate your response. I was beginning to feel my post was falling on deaf ears. Thank you for giving me more food for thought.

Likewise, Mr. Underhill, a tip of my hat to you, I appreciate any more information on this subject that I can find.

At the end of the day, you would agree, the most important thing is listening to music and enjoying it. I've been listening to a 96/24 of Tommy, and it's superb. Tonight I'm going to listen to 'Nights In White Satin', and a couple of cuts from Paul Simon.

So I'm leaving it up to my ears, and whether or not everything I've listened to is actually hi-res, it sounds pretty damn fine on my Naim kit. Moving Pictures, Let It Bleed, and Tommy are sounding better than they ever have, at least to my 53 year old ears.

My apologies to members of the forum if I've seemed impatient lately. Being relatively shut-in with my illness limits me to my home pretty much 24/7, so I love my house and my yard and my life and my beautiful wife, but my social life is somewhat limited so this forum means a lot to me, it's pretty much one of the few opportunities I have to exchange ideas and make contact with people.

I like this new forum and I'm making the best of it, but I miss the old forum and I don't think there was anything wrong with it. I wish the old forum were a Nait 3 and that one could just snap it up and enjoy it again.

Dave