Article: The exaSound PlayPoint Stereo/Multichannel Streamer Review

[EdmontonCanuck]

Ted, your review specifically talks about HQP upsampling to DSD64 5.1. Can I assume that PP also can easily upsample stereo PCM or DSD to 256 using HQP?

 

Esau

 

I was under the impression that HQP upsampling was not handled by the PP, but rather it was just acting as an NAA device to HQP performing the upsampling on another, move capable machine somewhere else on your network.

[EdmontonCanuck]

Thanks Ted. After writing my post I did some research on this site regarding SACD conversion and learned about the various pitfalls, including JRiver converting DSD to PCM before DSF and the potential SACD > DSF clicking issue. Luckily I never got past the testing stage for SACD conversion and still use my iso files with JRiver. Even more luckily I've now learned about (Computer Audiophile user) Bogi's SACD conversion tool that converts SACD>DFF>DSF to avoid the clicking issue and also automatically writes tags from the iso to the DSF. A very nice solution if it works well. Have you tried it?

 

For DVD-A iso conversion I use Foobar to create multichannel FLAC files. This works very well and the resulting files play properly. As anyone who has looked at the native tagging found on DVD-A iso disks knows the tags are often a mess. In addition, there is generally no standardized DVD-A disk layout. Many contain various combinations of stereo, multichannel, alternate versions, redundant tracks, set-up tracks, etc. so any attempt at batch conversion will probably produce an unusable mess. As a result, my first step was to create accurate tags in Foobar and separate each DVD-A iso into it's constituent parts using Foobar's tagging tool. Then I would use Foobar to convert each iso into it's stereo or multichannel component (leaving behind the garbage tracks often found on these disks) and finally re-tag the FLAC files so that they are properly searchable in my collection.

 

The process for DVD-A is labour intensive but produces great results. Unfortunately (fortunately?) my SACD iso collection is more than twice as large and I wouldn't want to attempt to convert it without a batch process.

 

I believe the newest version of the sacd_extract tool (0.38) fixes the "clicking issue" when extracting dsf files from your iso's. I don't think you need to first go to dff files in order to avoid the clicks in your dsf files.