DSD sample files

Four one-bit streams for proving out a DSD chain end to end. Drop them into Decaud (or any player that speaks DSF), watch the format badge, open the signal path, and see what your DAC actually negotiates: native DSD over PCM on capable hardware (a Direct Mac edition capability), honest decimation everywhere else.

The files

Variatio 5 is the same performance at three modulator rates, so you can hear (and measure) exactly what changes when only the rate does. Tags and cover art are embedded. Files are large; that is the format.

Also published as shasums.txt.

Where they come from

Kimiko Ishizaka, The Open Goldberg Variations. Bach's BWV 988, recorded on a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial at Teldex Studio Berlin in 2012 and given to the public domain under CC0. No rights reserved, by anyone, anywhere. It is the rare recording you can copy, host, convert, and share without asking.

We modulated the 24-bit/96 kHz studio master to one bit with an 8th-order delta-sigma modulator (the open-source sox-dsd). So these are true DSD bitstreams with a PCM past: perfect for exercising a transport, not for arguing about provenance. Decaud's own TrueHz analysis will tell you the same story, because that is the point of it.

What to try

• The badge: each file shows its true rate (DSD64, DSD128, DSD256) in the Songs list and now-playing.
• Native DSD (Direct Mac edition): with a DSD-capable DAC and Exclusive mode on, the signal path shows DSD over PCM with no conversion. Exclusive mode and DoP exist only in the Direct Mac edition; on any other output or edition Decaud decimates to PCM and says so.
• The rate ladder: play the three Variatio 5 files back to back; the signal path and your DAC's display should step 2.8 → 5.6 → 11.3 MHz.
• Casting honesty: AirPlay, DLNA, and Chromecast cannot carry DSD; Decaud converts and labels it rather than pretending.

Where is DSD512?

Decaud imports, badges, TrueHz-checks, and plays DSD512 files. What it will not do is call the output native, because on a Mac it cannot be: macOS has no ASIO, so native DSD travels as DSD over PCM (DoP), and DoP carries 16 DSD bits per 24-bit frame. DSD256 already needs the 705.6 kHz carrier that good USB DACs expose. DSD512 would need 1.4112 MHz, which USB audio DACs do not offer to CoreAudio. So DSD512 plays through precise decimation, labeled as exactly that in the signal path, and the same physics applies to every macOS player no matter what the box copy says. If DACs start exposing a 1.4 MHz carrier, the ceiling lifts with a software update.

Native DSD, recorded as DSD

Nothing recorded natively in DSD is old enough to be public domain, so the files above are conversions by necessity. These labels host free native-DSD samples on their own sites, under their own terms: