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Topic: foobar2000 and DSD track - shows "lossy" (Read 1440 times) previous topic - next topic
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foobar2000 and DSD track - shows "lossy"

Hi all, first post here. Tried to do a bit of search but to no avail.

So, I stumbled last night on DSD ... I am still listening to only one track, but I am blown away by the difference. Still cannot believe my ears.
I have one question tho - I installed the plugin as per this article - https://help.nativedsd.com/en/articles/94982-foobar-2000-and-playing-dsf-audio-files

foobar2000 plays the file, reports 11k kbps, sounds amazing, HOWEVER I get the "lossy" rectangular lit up instead of "loseless". When I play regular flac, I get "loseless". Do I miss something or it is just the way foobar2000 interprets based on the file type/codec?

Re: foobar2000 and DSD track - shows "lossy"

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Tuscany on
am blown away by the difference. Still cannot believe my ears.
Listening test, please. Read term #8 at https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,3974.html
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if they sound different, for the wrong (or even "dishonest") reasons:
* someone wants to market high resolution, and
* makes masters that genuinely sound different, and downmix the "less impressive one" to standard resolution
All to make you believe it is the format, when it isn't. (Too bad if the good sounding version is not available in anything else.)

DSD is a nonsense format. It makes for lots of noise that must be filtered away. Your ears don't hear the rightmost parts of the charts at https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,123597.msg1021726.html#msg1021726 , but that is not anything desired - at best it is going away in the playback chain, at worst it could burn your tweeters.

If you want to keep DSDs - I do keep those I downloaded for testing purposes, hoarding habits die hard: WavPack can losslessly compress DSD as long as it isn't already DTS-compressed.
 

Re: foobar2000 and DSD track - shows "lossy"

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Tuscany on
I get the "lossy" rectangular lit up instead of "loseless".
What "lossy rectangular" are you talking about? A foobar theme or is that your DAC?

What output device are you using in Preferences > Playback > Output? What output type did you use in Preferences > Tools > SACD? - ("PCM" will be lossy)

Re: foobar2000 and DSD track - shows "lossy"

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Porcus on
Listening test, please. Read term #8 at https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,3974.html

I am listening to Dream Theater - Surrounded. I compared DSD 128 (whatever this exactly is) to FLAC and Tidal MQA. Piano at the beginning has a lot more body and vibrance to the sound on DSD as apposed to FLAC and Tidal MQA. I do own the CD, but I don't have means to play it outside my car.

Quote from: Porcus on
DSD is a nonsense format.

I can't agree or disagree. Subjectively the song sounded the best form the DSD source. That being said - what would be the universal "this is the right sound" source? If it is not MQA, according to some, and not DSD, according to some, what would that be then? I am not trying to be passive aggressive - I search the truth.

Quote from: anamorphic on
What "lossy rectangular" are you talking about? A foobar theme or is that your DAC?
What output device are you using in Preferences > Playback > Output? What output type did you use in Preferences > Tools > SACD? - ("PCM" will be lossy)

I am talking foobar theme:

Another song does show loseless.

My output is ASIO+DSD to my Ifi Zen DAC v2. As for the type - it was PCM, but switched it to DSD.


Re: foobar2000 and DSD track - shows "lossy"

Reply #4 –
Well with ASIO+DSD out you can be sure the audio stream is "bit-perfect" direct to the DAC. I'm not sure why your theme says "lossy" - as far as I know, a theme would have no knowledge of the audio path (any resampling or such done by components) so it can only get that information from the file being played. If you look at right-click track > Properties > Details tab > under General, the 'Encoding' field should say "lossless" for DSD, I would presume. (?)

Perhaps whoever made the theme is using %codec% or %__bitspersample% or something to determine encoding, incorrectly.

Re: foobar2000 and DSD track - shows "lossy"

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Tuscany on
I am talking foobar theme:
Another song does show loseless.
My output is ASIO+DSD to my Ifi Zen DAC v2. As for the type - it was PCM, but switched it to DSD.
To clarify,  does the other song show lossless AFTER you "switched it to DSD"?  Are you sure the SACD output is set to just "DSD" and not "DSD+PCM"?  My understanding is the latter sends the signal through both ways so things like spectrum visualizations still work, in which case maybe the DAC is confused (or theme?).  What Foobar theme are you actually using?