What is DSD?
DSD is short for Direct Stream Digital, the way in which the analog sound signal is described in the digital domain. It was originally invented by Sony for archiving studios’ master tapes with the idea that they shouldn’t be left wondering ten years later why they hadn’t used a better encoding scheme before transferring and discarding these masters.
Direct Stream Digital. At a very high sampling rate of 2.822 megahertz, DSD measures whether an analog waveform is rising or falling. This yields a single bit; either a 1 for a rising wave or a 0 for one that’s falling. This single bit is then recorded directly, which avoids many of the unwanted side effects occurring when using the standard PCM process.
DSD is short for Direct Stream Digital, the way in which the analog sound signal is described in the digital domain. It was originally invented by Sony for archiving studios’ master tapes with the idea that they shouldn’t be left wondering ten years later why they hadn’t used a better encoding scheme before transferring and discarding these masters.
DSD is an acronym for “Disorders of Sex Development.” Defined as “congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical,” DSD was designed to replace archaic terms “true hermaphrodite” and male and female “pseudo-hermaphrodite,” as well as the imprecise term “intersex.” However, DSD is not simply synonymous with “intersex.” While “hermaphrodite” and “intersex” both clearly refer to the whole person (despite attempts to use clever derivatives to name conditions rather than persons, such as “intersex condition” or “hermaphroditism”), “DSD” is specifically construed as a medical condition. In other words, “intersex” is often about who one is; “DSD” is a condition she or he may have.
