Thanks for all the responses...
With my Lenovo Laptop (Dual core Pentium 2.53 ghz):
DSD X 4 native actually works awesome using Korg's Audiogate 2.x software as the front-end (choosing JRiver MC 20 ASIO from the driver list) and choosing either a sampling rate of 44khz, or 88khz. Anything beyond that, audio gets choppy.
In Audiogate, I'm choosing the highest buffer size option... 4096 samples (stated latency 92.9 ms). Lower buffer size choice makes audio choppy. It looks like the buffer size options are programmed into the ASIO driver? So, I'm thinking higher buffer size options could really make a big difference.
With Foobar software as a front-end (choosing JRiver MC20 ASIO from the driver list), only up to DSD X 2 native plays fine.
Foobar only allows you to choose buffer size in milliseconds.... I choose the maximum and yet audio still choppy with DSD X 4.
Since the front-end software is streaming 'live' to JRiver software, JRiver has a playback latency... I'm guessing if the highest option could be increased that might help.
iFi now has a modest priced Micro DAC that supports natively up to DSD X 8 !!!! and PCM at DXD X 2 !! WOW!
Can future version of JRiver offer outputting to these resolutions? That would be EPIC!
Personally, I think playing back PCM recordings in hi-rate DSD (X4 and higher) reveals the full sound field of a PCM recording (full sound potential IMHO). I would have never dreamed a lowly 16bit 44khz format could produce the same ambience/sound field as the analog vinyl counterpart. The nuances in detail of course would be related to bit-rate of recording... the higher the better.
I think these are amazing times for digital audio. Analog audio purists look down on digital, and to be honest I was probably one of them, but, what I'm hearing now has me thinking digital has arrived.