The inside con.text. It isn't news that SACD inventor Sony have long since abandoned the format. Neither is it news that to edit DSD recordings during mastering involves conversion to PCM. One can't even apply direct gain changes to a DSD file so forget about digital volume. It's also old fact that physical SACD continue to be very popular in Japan, far less so elsewhere; that the format creates steep ultrasonic noise which gets processed with noise shapers then cut with an analog low-pass filter. Firms like Bel Canto and Chord are decidedly down on DSD. APL, Cen.Grand, Meitner, Nagra, Playback and PS Audio are all openly enthusiastic to process CD signal as SACD including so-called high-resolution PCM at sample rates beyond Redbook's 44.1kHz. That converts pure CD/PCM libraries like mine to SACD/DSD with zero doing on our part. It's why debating real or imaginary merits/demerits of the two formats isn't very interesting. As end users, the involved processing is automatic. The only input Cen.Grand give us over it is to select our preferred digital filter; and the resampler's target rate. But we can't compare the digital method. Should we involve a PCM DAC, we've changed everything. That invalidates any direct format comments. As I said, not interesting. Neither is comparing a hybrid SACD's layers when the two files might have mismatched provenance. Hence in my upcoming comparisons to machines which do PCM the other way, we won't discuss the digital method. Nobody can hear digital. We'll be focused on the analog results that present at the ear. All else is for bench testers, lab rats and real engineers. Sadly or happily, I'm none of those though I have read that Mobile Fidelity use DSD not PCM transfers of archival master tapes to cut their premium vinyl.

How would I use the loaner? Due to layout, upstairs runs I²S over 6m HDMI cable between USB bridge close to the seat to DAC between the speakers. The Cen.Grand doesn't support external I²S so I'd switch to an equivalent digital BNC to A/B resident €5.5K Denafrips flagship and Cen.Grand's £6K digital best. Downstairs it'd be AES/EBU off a supercap-powered USB bridge off my music iMac with Audirvana. I had my con.nections sorted. For what it's worth, in prior comparisons—iFi's twin PCM768 DSD1'024 engine made for arguably the best platform—DSD sounded sweeter, softer, spatially more elastic or organic if also subtly more diffuse. PCM was tauter, sharper and more focused. Popular parlance might deduce more analogue feel for DSD, higher res for PCM? In the real world, generalities rarely cover all bases. For final tech bits, Cen.Grand refer to their re/upsampling algorithm¹ as a complex math not technical digital challenge. Unlike 10MHz external clock generators, their synchronous femto clock uses no frequency synthesizer to instead work directly on their shift registers for claimed lower jitter. In fact the involved clock blocking process disregards the source clock entirely. From that we expect true parity regardless of input used. Cen.Grand also tweaked their XU208's driver to accept native DSD512 and the XMOS hardware has ground isolation. The S/PDIF inputs handle DSD64 via DoP.

¹ Just like Redbook data upsampled to 706.5kHz moves conversion artifacts far out of band to enable simpler reconstruction filters than CD's original brick wall, so does resampling to 1'024 DSD push its format's ultrasonic noise well past the bat sphere; and for the same reasons. It's why proponents of this approach don't resample to DSD64/128 with less load-intense math. Doing high-rate DSD resampling not in external PC software but internal to a DAC requires sufficiently powerful processing to run this math on the fly. That different upsampling algorithms can sound different is something PS Audio have exploited with successive firmware updates for their PerfectWave. It's one advantage of FPGA-based conversion. Sonically significant advances can upload as new firmware to bypass old-fashioned hardware changes back at the factory. Doing it in proprietary code also frees a digital designer from commercial conversion silicon à la AKM, ESS, TI, Wolfson & Co.

Before we get at the inside job under the hood, there's Denafrips. On a parallel export track begun 6 years earlier, they're a fellow Sino brand which battled initial China bashing before extensive clockwork-regular coverage across print and online media established them as a solid alternative to high-performance Western brands. This is particularly true for the growing Denafrips line of discrete R2R DACs with DSD though they've long since added multiple preamps, power amps, DDC, even a headfi amp. For reasons that should be obvious, Cen.Grand's path of global emergence is primed to intersect and collide with Denafrips. Now clear differentiation is key. Not only do these approaches to digital sit 180° opposed, so do features. By eschewing external I²S, Cen.Grand lose the Denafrips fumble of configuring RJ45/HDMI pins for successful sync with an I²S source by pressing multiple buttons in particular sequence. Likewise for setting an external clock input's frequency. Cen.Grand's clock blocking won't benefit from an external clock. And instead of pin-prick sample-rate and source LED, Cen.Grand use a proper display to show all active settings at a glance. Then there's remote control for PGA²-based volume, inputs, mute and mode; plus two sets of analog inputs for preamp use. It's the Cen.Grand yin to the Denafrips yang. My Terminator Plus was thus ideal to confirm whether that picture of a balanced Tao holds at the ears. Looking at this photo, it's obvious that 'rising mode' is Cen.Grand speak for resampling displayed as a from/to arrow. PCM 48 confirms that this machine processes audio and video sample rates to be equally at home behind a CD transport, DVD/universal player or PC/streamer.

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² As I learnt during my Silver Fox review, at the beginning of 2022 Cen.Grand changed their volume-control chip from TI's PGA2310 to the Nisshinbo Microdevices Muses72320 which can run on ±8.5 – ±18V. It's where the +5dB of extra voltage gain are generated.

Export success ties intimately to marketing in the diverse markets one penetrates. Finding just the right business partners who actively promote a brand at local shows, pursue reviews in their language and facilitate sales with trade-in credits is key. Good product without superior marketing just sits there gathering dust. Given their sheer visibility, the Denafrips instatement of Vinshine Audio as primary global reseller continues to be a clearly inspired decision. For Cen.Grand, Willow Tree Audio are an already regular presence on the UK's show circuit though I doubt that it makes them automatic mainstream press darlings. Should one's exhibits compete with or beat far pricier rooms of established High Street brands, not everyone welcomes the usurpers with open arms. For active detractors in fact, Chinese origins make it far too easy to stir up ugly product racism; or berate all who think otherwise for undermining the local economy. Coming from the UK, that would be rich given Brexit's self infliction.

Re: my systems, I'd be nowhere without the Middle Kingdom. All three of my USB bridges are from there. So is one of my DACs and CDTs. Another DAC carries a UK badge but is openly built in the PRC. My network switch is from China as are my reference mono amps and best headphone amp. If we add South Korea, a pair of my speakers is from there as are two all-in-one CD receivers and another headphone amp. If we add Taiwan, it's at least three more components. It's one more reason why I find Cen.Grand coverage important. Not everyone is prepared to pay extra just for that 'made in Suisse' or equivalent rear-panel badge. Consider the $51K Chinese Peacock Witness. It's a complex double tourbillon with six patents, 42-hour power reserve and their own movement. It's a true luxury item. Versus the swish Swiss Breguet 5345 [CHF628K], Louis Moinet Astronef [CHF360K] or Purnell Escape II [CHF435K], it's a fraction. That's the point. Once the cult of exclusivity relinquishes its grip, what really sets such products apart from made-in-China's best?

Another audition room at the Cen.Grand factory.

Even more to the point, against the Peacock today's decimal point still moves one over to the left. Yet purely on perceived build quality and features, it's still very much a luxury product already!