DXD

November 27, 2021 by Paul McGowan

DXD is a digital audio format that has a lot of people excited. From Wikipedia:

"Digital eXtreme Definition (DXD) is a digital audio format that originally was developed by Philips and Merging Technologies for editing high-resolution recordings recorded in Direct Stream Digital (DSD), the audio standard used on Super Audio CD (SACD). As the 1-bit DSD format used on SACD is not suitable for editing, alternative formats such as DXD or DSD-Wide must be used during the mastering stage."

Who wouldn't get excited about a format known as Digital eXtreme Definition? Makes me titter all over. Only, the excitement's all in the name. In reality, it is nothing more than PCM running at 352.8kHz 24 bit (or 8 times faster than CD quality). If we call it high-resolution PCM it's far less appealing. DXD has an allure that's hard to beat, but it is, after all, just a name. And here is what's missing. Converting DSD to PCM is not without its issues. Like any conversion process, there are good-sounding ones and bad-sounding ones. So, when we hear the term DXD we cannot assume a good or a bad conversion process has been employed. All DXD does not sound the same. This conversion process and its ramifications are at the heart of what we're moving forward with at Octave Records. I will keep you in the loop as we have more to unfold.