I've used these files to do a group listening with a bunch of people at a recent headphone meeting.
Although everyone noticed the marked differences between the files, it was quite surprising that there was almost a 50/50 divide in the preference of PCM vs. DSD.
A lot of people said the high res PCM version sounded better because the bass feels more solid and direct. Others thought the DSD256 sounded better because it has so much more air and atmosphere information that creates the whole soundscape.
It reminded me of the ancient CD player war between multi-bit and one-bit DACs.
In any case, it's good to be able to demo these high quality recordings, because it definitely debunks the general myth that higher sample rate is a waste of time (which quite often is true in many albums...).
FYI we used Chord Mojo and iFi micro iDAC2 / micro iDSD for the demo, so the opinions may change if other DAC is used.
I think the fact that DSD256 has no noise hump all the way down to 96kHz, -96dB is a great thing. There will be very little stress to the subsequent amp and it doesn't have to be too picky about the LPF. We can simply let the music do its own thing.
One big issue with DSD256 is that it's reaching the limit of USB2.0 DAC throughput. I've been having many issues with pop noise caused by bad PC USB bus or poor USB cable deteriorating the data. This is where high quality USB cable really helps.
When it works, it sounds great.
