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[rsg]

Not sure about this feature in MC23: I have a DSD-capable DAC (IFI IDAC2 by AMR). Just wondering what settings such as 'Encode as DSD in DOP format' is supposed to do. According to the light on my DAC, the track is 'playing' as DSD. The sound is great for this level of DAC, but I haven't done any really sophisticated comparisons with the regular bit-perfect playback. So, what's it really for? Anyone played with this or know what sort of difference, if any, to expect?

[Awesome Donkey]

A lot of DACs only support DSD over DoP (DSD over PCM). DoP is bit-perfect, as the data remains unchanged. In my own experience with the few DSD capable DACs I've owned, they've only supported DSD via DoP. DoP works on Windows, Mac and Linux and it works pretty great.

Here's some more information:

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/DSD
https://www.dcsltd.co.uk/support/what-is-dop-dsd-over-pcm/

[rsg]

So, am I then re-encoding PCM audio output to DSD? The article (https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/DSD) does not recommend this, but I am not sure why. Is there even even point with tinkering with output encoding if all I am playing is ripped CDs?

[Awesome Donkey]

DoP doesn't re-encode at all. As long as you have DSD bitstreaming enabled (and it says DSD on the device when playing back) you're sending bit-perfect DSD to the device.

[RD James]

Encoding to DSD or DoP converts all audio being played to a DSD/DoP format for your DAC.
Some people claim it sounds better (it shouldn't) but it may be useful if you have a DSD-only DAC.

This is separate from DSD bitstreaming. Without DSD bitstreaming enabled, JRiver always converts DSD to PCM.
With bitstreaming disabled and encoding enabled, you have DSD > PCM > DSD/DoP.
The only reason you would want to do that is if your DAC only accepts a DSD/DoP signal, and you want to apply DSP to DSD files; e.g. volume leveling, room correction, eq etc.
 
Enabling DSD bitstreaming will always override encoding, and plays back DSD files natively without applying any processing at all - it bypasses everything.