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[Toys4Boys]

Hi, I just converted some DSF files to AIFF and the files are now about 3x the original size. Is there a way to convert without a huge increase in file size and still maintain high quality sound?

[blgentry]

By default MC will convert 1xDSD to 352.8 kHz, which yields VERY large files.  I've read some people say they think DSD conversions at 96kHz retain most or all of the quality that a DSD is capable of delivering.  I have NOT investigated this or tested it.  Certainly the 96kHz files will be a lot smaller and should have very high sound quality, as the sample rate is more than double that of CD.

AIFF is generally uncompressed, so it's going to be larger than a FLAC file with the same data in it.  The FLAC file will be about 60% the size of the corresponding AIFF.  Yet they will have the same data in them and therefor the same sound quality.

I'm assuming you're doing this conversion for use on a portable device of some sort, so file format might be a consideration, depending on what your target device can play.

Brian.

[Toys4Boys]

Thank you for your reply. The usage is for playback of DSD files on systems using DAC's that do not decode DSD such as Bluesound. Also I have some DFF files that I have not been able to convert to DSF, oddly in some albums some files will convert using DFF2DSF and others will not, and I really like having my files tagged.

[Toys4Boys]

I have just converted a file using your suggestion and it went from 308 MB to approximately 260 KB. In my ignorance I assumed that if converting to 352,800 HZ yielded a file that is about 3x the original that using 96 KHZ would yield a file that would be around 1/4 of that, 352,800/96,000? Another question if you would be so kind is that when I go into options->DSP output->Sampling rate I selected "change all". I see that when I play the original DFF file it is resampled to 352,800, which I get, but when converting isn't the original DFF sampling rate 2.8224 MHz? Does this mean that to convert the file it is first being converted to PCM?

Also wouldn't it be better to convert to 88.2 KB, 2.8224 MHz/32 = 88.2 KHz?

[blgentry]

I have just converted a file using your suggestion and it went from 308 MB to approximately 260 KB.

That sounds like the conversion failed.  If you really mean "KB" above, and not "MB".  Did you activate the DSP in the Conversion Options dialog?  This is different than the standard DSP.  It's separate.  You have to set it up for your conversion.  It ignores the standard DSP settings.

Another question if you would be so kind is that when I go into options->DSP output->Sampling rate I selected "change all". I see that when I play the original DFF file it is resampled to 352,800, which I get, but when converting isn't the original DFF sampling rate 2.8224 MHz? Does this mean that to convert the file it is first being converted to PCM?

I'm not 100% clear on why 2.8 MHz becomes 352.8 kHz during conversion, but that's definitely what happens inside of MC.  I get the idea that this is the standard, normal way of converting from DSD to PCM.  ...and yes, when you convert from DSD to any other format using MC, it definitely becomes PCM first.  AIFF, FLAC, WAV, etc are all PCM based formats.  Further, MC doesn't include any way to manipulate DSD files without first converting them to PCM.  I think some programs claim to manipulate DSD without going through PCM in the middle, but I'm skeptical.

Also wouldn't it be better to convert to 88.2 KB, 2.8224 MHz/32 = 88.2 KHz?

By some theories, yes; by other theories, it doesn't matter.  I don't have a strong opinion either way because I haven't done any testing or done any research into others doing the same thing.  I would expect they would both be very high quality.  You could certainly convert a few files to both rates and do some listening.  But we all know that these types of tests are hard to do in a way that's meaningful.

Good luck!

Brian.

[Toys4Boys]

D'oh, early in the morning! I did mean MB not KB. Actually the resulting file is about 1/4 the size of the first conversion, so again I will blame my prior bad math to doing this early in the morning 

[Toys4Boys]

I'm not quite certain as to what you mean by "Did you activate the DSP...." I did go into the Conversion Options and told it to "Change All to 96 KHz" in the output format, clearly I can tell it to use 88.2 KHz for the output, my question was more out of curiosity.

[blgentry]

Sounds like you've got it all sorted out. 

Enjoy.

Brian.