I am using my dCS Scarlatti system (Transport, DAC, Upsampler, Word-Clock plus separate Atomic Clock) for quite some time. I remember how difficult it was to interconnect these units in the correct way, also using the appropriate cables (Dual XLR for dual AES operation, very special 1394 cables transporting the DSD signal, digital XLR, special BNC clock-wire cables etc.). See also on this blog „Does Atomic Digital Make Happy“.

Nevertheless I am very happy with the DSD and upsampling sound. Now I got to know that there might be a technological „bridgebuilder“ using DoP (DSD over PCM) which dCS came up with this basic idea in 2011 as a convenient way to transmit DSD data. It is not true that DoP involves converting DSD data to PCM (the CD standard). DoP maintains the data as DSD but re-packages it for convenience in a 24/176.4 data stream. After decoding it, the original DSD data is retrieved bit-perfect – nothing is lost or changed.

With a HDMI Audio extractor the new machine from Eric Geer found a way to translate the DSD64 bitstream signal into a common DoP format which will be read out from modern DACs as a DSD signal. Using a modern SACD/Blue-ray player the signal would be imported via the HDMI input to the D.Bob and then feeded to an appropriate DAC via coaxial connection. This way it would be possible for me to „copy“ my SACDs as DSD generated data on my Mini-SD cards into my TASCAM recorder, using it for the Astell & Kern headphone system.

Eric Geer´s D.Bob

My Tascam recorder.

So far I am using my excellent master tape copies to be transferred into 5.6 DSD data on the TASCAM recorder. I do enjoy this quality and will inform you about the next steps on this fantastic expedition…