I was asking a question on the McIntosh forum about D/A converters used in a Mac MCD201 SACD player. Ron the Mac rep was stating that the player uses 24 bit multibit converters which are not PCM nor DSD. But my understanding is all multibit converters ARE PCM by nature and all DSD converters are 1 bit. He also stated that mulitbit converters are better then 1 bit designs giving better quality. But everyone I've heard states DSD sounds best when left in its true 1 bit state and not converted to multibit converters like Burr Brown 24 bit units.

Can anyone shed some light on this and what all these people are saying? I would think DSD is best left alone in its native 1 bit format.

Perhaps the new Burr browns can natively decode both without converting the DSD into PCM first? I don't know...

But you are correct that a multi-bit converter is going to designed for PCM, not DSD. And I also agree that DSD sounds best through true DSD chipsets (like many Sony players use), and I personally would rather have my PCM converted to DSD prior to conversion than having DSD converted to PCM.

Perhaps it would be best if you asked Ron himself what he claims they are if they aren't PCM or DSD?