Good evening,
there is a feature request asking Android developers to implement native DSD output (https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/73956275) (stereo and multichannel) for Android devices with a HDMI connector.
Back in the days of the last audio format war (SACD vs. DVD-Audio), every decent SACD or Universal DVD player was able to transport DSD via HDMI to a mid or high range audio receiver which could handle the signal.
Maybe this topic can raise the interest of DSD or SACD enthusiasts here. 8)
DSD does not support mixing, unless you convert to PCM, sum the signals, then convert back to DSD. Android outputs a mixed signal.
Hello kode54,
yes at the moment Android devices (just as any other PC-based HDMI device) can "only" output the regular PCM based audio format flavours.
The goal of this feature request though, is to get support for one bit audio transmission over HDMI - as defined in the specs v1.2 and above (https://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/specification.aspx).
Channel mixing or any alteration to the DSD stream is not desired - the amplifier or receiver should handle this.
If you actually have a device with an HDMI transceiver that supports DSD, you could just hack up support for it without official Android support.
I doubt you'll ever see that added to AOSP though. Too little hardware would support it, and the use cases you're thinking of aren't ones Google is going to want to support.
What's the point though? With overwhelming probability, it won't improve the audio quality. (compared to PCM)
What's the point though? With overwhelming probability, it won't improve the audio quality. (compared to PCM)
Indeed. I personally have tried to hear difference between a 24/176 file and a downsampled to 16/44 back to 24/176 file and I cannot hear any difference whatsoever. Never seen proof of anyone that can, and now there suddenly is demand for DSD on a android device?
At this moment all hires audio I have I convert to 44/16 or 48/16, because I cannot hear any difference and that will not get any better with ageing :)