Moode and DSD

[Tim Curtis]

Hi, 

I have a doubt related with DSD

I have buy a DSD album from Qobuz, Let it Bleed, to be sure the source was legit and really what i espected. It is DSD 64. 
I have test, and it is recognise by Moode as DSD64. 

I have read that there is not possible to play DSD using a DAC with the Pi, because ALSA drivers. I use an IQaudio Pro, which is hardware capable to decode DSD. 

so, when I see the playback info it says it is DSD and it is decode to PCM 24bit - 352.8Mhz. 

It is been played as DSD? There are a transcode in some less quality? 
I'm just asking, i'm very pleased with the quality i have in my setup and i think it is quite enough to my needs.

Thk you all. 

Here a photo: https://imgur.com/a/MIRaqxW

Couple things:

1. There are two transmission formats for DSD. The first is Native DSD bitstream which is a 1-bit pulse-density modulated stream. The second is DSD over PCM (DoP) which encapsulates a DSD bitstream in specially flagged PCM packets.
2. A DAC chip must explicitly support either Native DSD or DoP in order to decode DSD format. This would be stated in the data sheet for the chip or by the manufacturer of the audio device that uses the chip.
3. The TI PCM5xxx family of chips which are used in a lot of audio HAT boards for the Pi including the IQaudIO DAC Pro can only decode PCM format thus the player needs to perform DSD to PCM on-the-fly conversion.
4. Moode MPD Config has a setting to enable DoP but if this format which contains ultra high frequency DSD data is sent to a PCM only chip the sound output may be harmful.

(i) help
Native DSD: If the audio device reports that it supports Native DSD then MPD will send the unaltered DSD bitstream to the device otherwise MPD will perform DSD to PCM on-the-fly conversion.
DSD over PCM (DoP): There is no way to detect if an audio device supports DoP so only enable this if you are certain that the device supports it otherwise the encapsulated DSD bitstream may cause loud or unpredictable distortion.

MPD documentation
https://mpd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/plu...lsa-plugin

5. Native DSD is only supported over the USB interface and only with specific DAC chips that support DSD decoding for example ESS9028/38.
6. Since DoP is a PCM format it can be transmitted over the I2S interface but only a handful of I2S audio devices support it for example the discontinued Allo Katana DAC and the still in production Audiophonics ES9038 DAC. Both of these DAC boards use the ESS9028 or 38 chip. There are also ESS based boards and other products from IanCanada that support Native DSD and DoP.