DSD 256 on ND555

Streaming Audio
1

Can I play a DSD 256 file on my ND555 – or do I have to convert it myself to 128 to get it to play?

2

Mr Google est ton ami.

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3

Merci! I’m practicing my French.

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4

De rien.

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5

I believe the streaming board in the nd555 will only do 128 max.
It would need a different streaming board to do higher DSD rates, just the same as the streaming board in mine.

6

Roon will do it I think. It will downscale from 256 to 128 for Naim endpoint compatibility.

7

So it doesn’t do 256 then
Martin

8

It will convert it down to 128 DSD max.
It won’t give you anymore than that.

9

This document is interesting if you want to delve into the ND555 in detail: https://media.focal-naim.com/naim/file_manager_files/pages/legal/white-papers/nd-555-1/nd-555-white-paper-final-0.pdf

10

In particular this is relevant to this thread “Streaming from a network, ND 555 is compatible
with PCM sampling rates of up to 384kHz and with double-rate DSD (DSD128, sampling rate 5.6448MHz). Because the ND 555’s PCM1704 DAC chips are not DSD compatible, DSD signals are transcoded to PCM within the DSP. First the DSD signal is downsampled to 352.8kHz, 40-bit floating point PCM and low-pass filtered to remove DSD’s noise-shaped ultrasonic quantisation noise. Then it is upsampled to 705.6kHz/24-bit for passing to the
DAC stage.” (from page 4 of the white paper)

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11

That’s part of what I was getting at – I could store a 256 file and if it gets downscaled automatically, so be it.

12

I wonder whether the files “sound better” if I just let a home software product downscale/downsample, vs letting Roon do some itself and letting the ND555 do some.

13

It’s a good question. If you try it, I’d love to hear your conclusions! Lots in this domain that intellectually should be digitally equivalent, ends up not quite being the same.

14

PCM sound better you can convert DSD256 to HD 24/192

15

The ND555 will do that anyway.

16

How does?

17

The ND555 can only play PCM so any DSD gets converted.

18

i know this converting sound bad not like a real pcm

19

Naim uses Dot. Don’t ask me more.
Maybe Meni is right. Better convert first. For my tastes, DSD on Naim sounds like an Indian tea with sleeping pills.

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20

Funny HAAAAAAAAAA LOL
Naim sounds like an Indian tea with sleeping pills.

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