nicolashodges

Hi there Just trying to do some ISO-DSF conversion. I've used ISO2DSD a little and have not heard clicks, but now I'm neurotic about it and trying to find the most perfect solution so I don't have to do it twice. I've got as far as the new non-clicking version of sacd_extract. It runs, and looks like it's working, but then Windows (8.1) immediately says "sacd_extract has stopped working". The programme in command line doesn't get further than trying to do the first track, and Windows offers to close it down. Any idea what could be causing this? (It's a classical album probably with long metadata fields.)

If a 384kHz master encoded as MQA 24/96 gives your brain more psychoacoustically relevant information than a 384kHz master down-sampled to 24/96, which would you rather have? I think the "A" part - the encoded file is signed and approved by the mastering engineer/artist - is just as important. We know what we are getting.

Has anyone seen a DSD download of the Smetana Quartet Beethoven Quartets recording on Supraphon? They were released as SHM SACD and I just bought two out of three as discs. (The one with quartets 12 & 14 is no longer available.) Would be great to get the missing one as a DSD download if it is available somewhere.

I have always used DVDA Explorer (Windows) to rip DVD-A. It worked fine. However, now I am using Sooloos and the system won't accept the rips. So I tried DVDAudioExtractor (Mac) and now Sooloos accepts the rips. I also had a look at the files in Wavelab and there is an amplitude difference. The files are stereo WAV, mix down from the multichannel content (there is no native Stereo on this particular DVD-A). Anyone know what is going on here? Is there a subtle difference in the file format between the two rippers? Why the difference in amplitude? Can post links to the files if that's of interest.

I am very tempted to get a DAC7 but am very disappointed at the 16/48 USB limitation. The ability to rip DVD-As and play them through USB is a very attractive one, but this seems to have been ruled out by Audio Research. I wonder if the fact they quote a frequency range up to 20kHz (in contrast to Stax for example) suggests that they believe higher sample rates and ultra-high frequencies offer no advantages? I also wonder if they will update it at a later date... Anyone have inside knowledge? best Nic