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Originally Posted by Plush

As one who has consistently downthumbed DSD recording and its attendants,
we have been seeing mightily increased interest and demand for SACD from Euro classical record companies. We can supply those SACD masters since these companies don't care if the original recording was DSD or PCM.

Early into DSD in 1998, we had in the past dumped all of our DSD recording equipment except the converters (dCS). A house of SADiE, we are perfectly happy with the way it handles pcm files and edits.

Ironically, for fairly cheap money, there are two new pieces of gear in house that will allow us to resume SACD work. The NEVE 1073 DPD and the T(rash)cam DV-RA1000. Imagine that---cheap power to the people DSD!

I posit that the only important thing is delivering to the consumer on SACD since this is what is easy to convince the record company to buy.

As far as Pyramix is concerned, the hand wringers who decry the system should talk directly with the designer, Claude Cellier. The mind behind Pyramix, Claude is focused on good sound and has the down to earth manner (and huge brain) descriptive math skills to explain it to you.

Pristine this, pristine that---I hate that word---it should just be a girl's name!
Those who continue to hold out that the holy sonic grail can ONLY be *pure* DSD will simply lose market share as we swamp them in pcm sourced SACD and DVD-Audio.

There's nothing "pristine" about any recording system. I doubt there ever will be. The only "pristine" part of the recording process is the live performance going on in front of the microphones. Past there, it's an interpretation of what occurred. It's up to the individual to choose tools to get the job done, and there are many excellent tools in ALL formats to choose.

Out of any part of the recording chain, for ME, the recording platform needs to be as transparent as possible. If I choose to add color anywhere, it'll be with mic placement and/or choice, the venue we record in, or any outboard gear used, but I want the recording device to be neutral. For my work, the DSD SADiE or Sonoma fit that bill best.

The Pyramix is still quite a remarkable recording system, despite that I don't like what the internal process does to DSD sources. Pyramix has the best GUI I've seen. It's a really fast, efficient editor and an extremely versatile all-around system. Claude Cellier and Merging and Philips, all put together a terrific recording platform. Lots of excellent productions - pcm or DSD - have been recorded and edited/mastered on Pyramix systems. I had several discussions with Claude and others when the Pyramix was in for evaluation. Merging was kind enough to loan the system for a very extensive trial. It all came down to what I and several other users in our place preferred in the recording process. We chose the more transparent path, IMO.

If SACD went away tomorrow, I'd still be recording on a DSD system out of choice. I've got (up to) 192 kHz or analog multitrack systems I could be using, but I'm working with DSD.