Philips Ships Standalone DSD Studio Playback Product

The Philips ProTech group has announced the availability of a new Standalone DSD Playback product for use by recording professionals. The new product is a follow-up to the group’s recent introduction of a ProTools DSD Plug-In, the SA-CD Creator product and related Super Audio CD creation tools for the recording industry (see linked story below).

The new product is for recording professionals who need a standalone PC product for work with DSD, DST or SA-CD files but do not need to buy the entire Philips ProTech SA-CD Creator product. (The SA-CD Creator product includes DSD playback in its standard configuration). According to the staff at Philips ProTech, the standalone product includes a PCI Card to be installed in a PC and a Windows based program named the SACD Playback Monitor that controls the playback provided by the card.

More Details on the Standalone DSD Studio Playback Product for the PC
ProTech officials describe the new product as being “a stand-alone solution for playback and listening to your DSD files, DST files or SA-CD Disc image file. The PCI card provides real-time decoding of the SA-CD disc image or DST data into DSD data. The 6-channel DSD data is available via 6 small SMB connectors (SDIF3 format), and can be connected to your own preferred external D/A converter set. The card also contains a clock input and clock output to synchronize the DSD data with your studio clock. Cables and connectors to connect the card to your D/A converter set are included.”

They note that “The playback application software depicts a kind of SA-CD player on your screen. Simply select the DSD file, DST file or SA-CD disc image, and listen to your audio content. The application supports track selection, search forward/backwards, SA-CD text display, etc. The software supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP.”

Availability
The new Standalone DSD Studio Playback Product is available from directly Philips ProTech in the Netherlands for a price of 3500 Euro (excluding VAT). It is also available through a series of professional recording product resellers in Europe as well as Promedia in Canada and Joe Bean at Philips ProTech’s U.S. office in Hendersonville, Tennessee.