Peufeu's Electronic Stuff Unfinished projects since 1912

Facts I:

— 1bit DACs have been embraced with great enthusiasm by the audio industry in the 1990's because they were cheap ; of course, marketing dictated that they should be presented to the public as an improvement (remember the "MASH" or "1-bit" logos on gear ?)
— around year 2000 people and manufacturers alike started to notice that the sound sucked big time
— 1bit DACs are now only found in lowest-cost, entry model CD and DVD players

Facts II :
— BB flagship model DAC uses a balanced 66-level delta-sigma modulator running at 64x 192 kHz = 12 MHz
— Typical crap sounding 1-bit DAC (like in the CD63SE) : 12 MHz or someting, balanced
— DSD sampling rate = 1 bit at 2.8 MHz

Datasheet noise measurements only reflect the ability of these chips and formats to reproduce continuous sinewaves.

Draw your own conclusion.

References :
— Interview with an expert

Here is a quote :

That's why you can read in documents from Burr Brown (who manufactures both one-bit and multi-bit converters) that you should use multi-bit converters for "waveform synthesis applications requiring very low distortion and noise". They have not written this for nothing.

A one-bit converter (i.e. the DSD system) cannot regenerate a short pulse with stringent form. It will change form from moment to moment. Every identical recorded pulse will show up with a new form.

One can always discuss the audibility of such behaviour, and if it is audible, one can discuss how much it disturbs. Objectively good reproduction is not important for everyone. So if the presentation of music is changed in some way, some people might see this as a minor problem, others think it is more serious.

It is beyond discussion that the lower resolution of one-bit systems is a problem under circumstances more precision demanding than audio. When you need both super precision and stability, when you need to know that a generated waveform looks like it is suppose to, nothing but multi-bit converters will do.

My entirely personal opinion/experience is that audio actually demands very high precision, and that the reproduction suffers from the lack of precision from one-bit converters and the DSD-system.

Perhaps I even prefer the old 13-bit PCM-based Denon system from the 70s. It was not a super high-resolution system, but it was as stable as it was consequent! I have a lot of these recordings (reissued on CD) and they actually sound fabulous!