I came across the following interesting link today:
dCS Presents: The Spirit of Turtle Sampler (Download)
The download is in DSD256 and most dCS products only support DSD128. Is this on purpose?
1 Like
I believe that when this came out, it was a physical disc dual layer SACD as a demo disc that was meant to showcase what dCS equipment could do. Bert van der Wolf who is the engineer of this recording has a long history and cooperation with dCS. I think now he has chosen to also offer it as a download up to DSD256, that is his choice as the owner of Turtle/Northstar. If you have Varese it will work 
The reason is that, aside from Varese, other current dCS units use a third party produced streamer that only supports <DSD128 owing to the time of product design when there was no DSD256. To upgrade to a newer board would require a hardware change and that would be costly ( think of the upgrade to Apex). Given the limited availability of real ( not upsampled) DSD256 repertoire I can only guess that there may not be that many owners of V/R/B that are happy to pay several thousand £/$/€ to upgrade at least at this point in time.However no doubt Varese is a pointer that other future products may well ( read: will) include this feature.
Of course what the record label releases is up to them, not dCS.
1 Like
From the disc booklet; https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0537/5288/9514/files/tr75538.pdf?v=1629482423
Bert van der Wolf
July 2013
It’s unclear what format it was originally recorded/mastered in, but based on the fact that it was originally mastered for multi-channel surround (both SACD-M.Ch & 5.1 DTS HD 192/24) , my guess it’s natively PCM.
As in 99% of DSD256 material, it wasn’t natively DSD256 (or even DSD for that matter). Personally, I wouldn’t download any of the DSD formatted versions 
3 Likes
I think this discussion is a pure academic thing…pretty sure that 99% here don’t hear the difference btw. 64-128 DSD or even 24/192 PCM…(at least I can’t here)
3 Likes
Thanks for al your inputs, guys. What tickled me is the tagline “dCS presents - The Spirit of Turtle”, so dCS at definitely had a hand in this. The original production is from 2013, so in the meantime the album has taken a life of its own and grown beyond its humble roots (even samplerate wise).
My comment wasn’t meant to be a serious question by any means. I just thought it funny that something “dCS presents …” is presented in a sample rate that has been subject of intensive discussion on this forum. I think in the meantime we all know about the limitations of Stream Unlimited’s Stream800.
1 Like
Must have been some Bert van der Wolf - dCS - More Music (Dutch importer) idea to showcase the Vivaldi no doubt.
I agree with @Anupc. It’s not clear from the notes and as a result, it is likely PCM. One could simply email them and ask, or maybe @AndrewS would be so kind to clarify.
In the classical domain there are a number of high quality studios like Eudora, for example, using the Pyramix workstation to record natively in DSD256 (with some editing in DXD). A number of these offering sound, IMHO, outstanding.
As we are limited at DSD128 with the V/R/B platforms, one has three good options, either (a) buy/download the recording in DXD, (b) download in DSD256, and use your streamer to down-sample to DSD128; or (c) download in DSD128. I choose (b) so that I have the higher resolution files for my future DAC.
Cheers,
R
1 Like
I’m afraid I have no idea. Let me ask the @dCS_Marketing team.
1 Like
This is what Bert himself responded:
You can answer/submit in the forum that all these recordings, apart from the very early Turtle Records® tracks, were done in Native DXD with proto-type dCS ADC’s with custom filtering for my personal purpose.
It allows for bandwidth and resolution up to DSD256.
I indeed was more than close to dCS between 1989-2015, working on Vivaldi as latest consulting project.
As dCS withdrew from the pro-market I shifted my attention to Merging Technologies and am now involved in the development of Master Fidelity.
6 Likes
Found these interviews which might be nice reading:
In Dutch (use translate if needed)
2 Likes
Thanks for these details Rudi. We should get Bert on this forum! He would likely have some great technical insights.
As noted in prior threads, Merging Technologies, based on Switzerland, makes the Pyramix workstation, which records natively in DSD256 and is used in a number of the smaller HD recording studios, including Octave Records (PS Audio), Eudora and others.
Because of DSD256’s editing limitations, Merging is also the inventor of the DXD format, since those two formats have comparable resolution.
All, or (ideally) portions of a native DSD track can be moved into DXD for editing, and then saved back into DSD256, as desired. In an ideal scenario, the microphones are placed correctly, and no random noise enters the recording, and no (or de minimis) editing is done (= “Pure” DSD).
From there the track can be upsampled to DSD512, for example (not recommended) or downsampled to PCM192, for example (if necessary/desired).
There is not a lot of native DXD content out there, as with DSD256, but there is a lot of content in the “lower” resolution HD PCM formats.
Cheers,
R
1 Like
Merging (still based in Switzerland) is now part of Sennheiser Professional (as opposed to Sennheiser Consumer, which is part of Sonova).
Claude Cellier, the founder of Merging is the son of Marcel Cellier who played organ on this famous audiophile recording.
See para 2 of Le CNA réseau NADAC de Merging Technologies – Magazine TED
2 Likes