Laptop Test

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Saturday, 6 April 2013

MEASUREMENTS: Oppo BDP-105 does DSD.

Posted on 12:37 by Unknown
Well, it's out...  The March 26, 2013 BETA firmware for the BDP-105 that allows native DSD playback from this unit's USB ports as DFF and DSF files on a USB stick. As far as I know, there are no plans currently to allow computer playback connected to the USB port as a DSD DAC.

With this recent development, I headed back to Phil's place to run a few more tests...

Here's the basic premise of what I did...

Using the freely available KORG AudioGate 2.3.1, synthetic 24/192 test signals from RightMark 6.2.5 were converted over to DSD64 (2.8MHz sampling) and DSD128 (5.6MHz) for testing. We soon found out that the DSD128 files created could not be played back properly by the Oppo (it would play but the DSD128 files had timing issues - played too slow). Presumably there is a bug here somewhere with the beta firmware or the AudioGate converter. As such, I was only able to test DSD64 playback.

The first thing done was to go through the Oppo's settings menu making sure there were no volume settings, bass management, etc. active. I believe if any of these are turned on, the DSD will get converted to PCM.

The hardware setup is similar to what I did with the original BDP-105 tests (only difference being use of the front USB connector):
Patriot Rage XT USB2 memory stick 16GB with test files --> front USB port of BDP-105 --> shielded 6' RCA --> E-MU 0404USB --> Win8 AMD X4 laptop

RightMark results:

The first 3 columns are the tests done in PCM mode at various hi-res sampling rates. These essentially measure <1 dB different compared to my original tests using the Oppo's USB asynchronous DAC. Nice confirmation of inter-test reliability.

The last column is with the 24/192 test signal converted to DSD with the KORG software. As you can see, it's almost the same. Note however that RightMark is calculating these parameters just within the audible spectrum between 20Hz - 20kHz (AES17 standard).

Frequency Response:
First hint/reminder of the DSD effect. There's some high frequency noise breaking through up in the 70kHz range. Otherwise, the curves are relatively comparable with -5dB extension out to around 40kHz for DSD and 50kHz for PCM 24/192.

Noise:
Demonstration of the DSD noise shaping through the Oppo. From 20kHz onwards, the noise level rises quite remarkably as you can see. It's all ultrasonic of course so unlikely to cause an audible problem and would only matter if this creates any strain on your amp/speaker system or if nonlinearities cause distortion in the audible spectrum.

Although also not a problem, notice the noise floor from about 12kHz to 20kHz is not as flat with DSD.

THD:
Another view of the ultrasonic noise.

Jitter:
The J-Test cannot be used with DSD of course. This is just for completeness. I've already shown previously that jitter isn't an issue with the Oppo...  Here's just what the 24-bit Dunn J-Test looks like going through DSD transcoding.
If we compare it to the PCM:
Note the loss of the regular modulation pattern. Basically this is telling us that the LSB in the 24-bit signal has been affected and effectively dithered over by the conversion process to DSD.

Analogue Output:
Lets now have a look at what a 1kHz -6dB sample looks like after going through the DSD process. What I did here was record a few seconds of a pure 1kHz test tone in 24/192 to have a look at the waveform zoomed in.

PCM 24/192 FLAC played back:


DSD64 KORG transcoded DFF file played back:

The high frequency noise in the DSD signal can be seen (you might have to click on the images to get a good look). Not a big deal in that this is not audible but a reminder that DSD64 cannot reproduce a simple 1kHz sine wave as smoothly as that produced by the reconstruction filter in the PCM domain.

Impression:
As I had hoped when I wrote that piece on the Pioneer DV-588A last month, here are some results from a device that performs "pure DSD" decoding.

Within the audible spectrum, DSD64 produced by the KORG AudioGate software looks good. Standard measurements like dynamic range, noise floor, distortion are all looking great and reminds us of the high level of performance the Oppo BDP-105 is capable of. I was disappointed that I could not get the KORG-encoded DSD128 test signals to play properly. I don't know if this is due to the KORG software or the beta firmware. Maybe I'd have better luck with Weiss Saracon if I had access to this conversion software... Oh well, maybe next time :-)

As a reminder, all the tests I've shown were converted from the 24/192 PCM domain into DSD64 and therefore will be subject to the limitations of the conversion software and PCM source (note that at 24/192, this is not likely a technical issue).

An interesting observation; even though the encoded DSD128 could not play, free downloads of demo material from 2L worked just fine on the Oppo! They sounded great with a wonderful sense of space, timbre, and dynamics.

Bottom line: The Oppo did a great job with DSD playback just like it did with PCM. Limitations of DSD are clearly seen (ultrasonic noise pollution mainly). From a purely technical perspective, within the 20Hz-20kHz audio spectrum, there's really nothing to differentiate all these hi-res formats. However, if you include ultrasonic characteristics, PCM is definitely cleaner.

Given the frequency response curve demonstrated, this KORG DSD64 conversion + Oppo playback system can likely be encapsulated within the parameters of a good 24/88 system.

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Getting There... (Early HT Room Setup)
    Back from my overseas business trip late last week. It's going to be really busy since I'll be moving to the new house in 1 week. Ma...
  • Information about Internet and its Uses in Our Daily Life
    Information about Internet and its Uses in Our Daily Life How difficult our life would have been if there was no Internet. Think about it. T...
  • MEASUREMENTS: Sony Playstation 1 (PS1) - SCPH-5501 as CD player.
    I got a kick out of this article by Stereophile awhile back (2008): http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/708play/ Imagine, audiophiles using...
  • MEASUREMENTS: Part I: Bit-Perfect Audiophile Music Players (Windows).
    Close to a month back, after publishing my TEAC UD-501 results , someone E-mailed me about the use of  JPLAY  with this DAC. Although I had ...
  • How to Transfer Pictures from Camera to Computer
    How to Transfer Pictures from Camera to Computer Despite the significant increase in storage capacity on memory cards in digital cameras, mo...
  • MEASUREMENTS: Part II: Bit-Perfect Audiophile Music Players - JPLAY (Windows).
    There's something happening here, What it is ain't exactly clear. -- Buffalo Springfield Welcome to Part II of the "Bit-Perfect...
  • MEASUREMENTS: TosLink digital optical audio cables.
    Let us now finish off testing the digital audio cables at my disposal. Already we're seen that USB  and coaxial SPDIF cables did not ha...
  • GUEST REVIEW & MEASUREMENTS: The Dr. Frank's "Best-Coaxial-Digital"™ SPDIF Cable.
    By Keaton I. Goulden-Eyre III, Esq. Two months ago, I had the good fortune to meet my independently wealthy friend Stephen at the local smok...
  • MEASUREMENTS: PCM to DSD Upsampling Effects (JRiver MC19 Beta).
    We're continuing to see a push into the DSD domain with renewed talk of music release as digital downloads requiring the purchase of a D...
  • MEASUREMENTS: Logitech Touch TT3 Mod.
    Here's some data on my Touch with Soundcheck's Touch Toolbox 3.0 ( http://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.ca/...oolbox-30.html ) software ...

Categories

  • Apple
  • Computers Tutorials
  • FaceBook
  • Hardware
  • India
  • iTunes
  • Online Advertising
  • Web
  • Window XP Tips

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (62)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (4)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  May (10)
    • ▼  April (6)
      • GUEST REVIEW & MEASUREMENTS: The Dr. Frank's "Best...
      • MEASUREMENTS: USB Cables for Audio DACs. [2013-06-...
      • MEASUREMENTS: Laptop Audio Survey - Apple MacBook ...
      • MUSINGS: On SACD & DSD audio...
      • MEASUREMENTS: Oppo BDP-105 does DSD.
      • MEASUREMENTS: [UPDATE] Adaptive AUNE X1, Asynchron...
    • ►  March (4)
    • ►  February (18)
    • ►  January (1)
  • ►  2012 (2)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  May (1)
  • ►  2011 (33)
    • ►  August (33)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile