Toronto, ON, Canada - exaSound Audio Design announces another world's first - DSD256 playback on Mac OS X Mavericks. The new DSD256 capability is available with the release of two new driver technologies - Core Audio DoP256 and OS X ASIO. Owners of the e20 Mk III, e22 and e28 DACs can download the free update from the exaSound website.

 

exaSound developed the world's first DSD256 capable DACs. Until now the highest DSD resolution - DSD256, also known as 4xDSD or DSD 11.28/12.28 MHz, was available only on Windows.

 

OS X Mavericks offers new possibilities for audiophile-grade sound streaming. It also introduces new challenges to driver developers by breaking the compatibility with previous driver technologies. exaSound recognized the importance and scale of the required development effort and started work on next generation drivers early – way back in July 2013, in fact.

 

The Mac sound system doesn't have a built-in support for DSD-encoded audio. The audio industry has adopted an open-source standard called DSD over PCM (DoP). DoP relies on a workaround to disguise DSD as PCM data stream. Unfortunately this workaround causes 30 to 50 percent overhead. The DoP implementation of DSD 256 requires support for PCM at 705.6kHz and 768kHz. Such sampling rates are a real challenge for both computer CPU and USB audio interface.

 

The new completely redesigned exaSound Core Audio DoP256 driver overcomes these limitations.

Other benefits of the exaSound Core Audio DoP256 driver include:

• Simplified installation and upgrade. All that is required is to run the installation package and to select the new driver in the player program setup.
• A single driver supports all exaSound devices in both stereo and multichannel modes.
• Simplified user interface and configuration.
• Seamless support for Integer Mode and Exclusive Mode.

Most Mac users will be completely satisfied with the performance and ease of use of the new exaSound Core Audio DoP256 driver. For enthusiasts interested in pushing the technology even further, exaSound announces a new ASIO driver technology for OS X. We are working with leading player developers to enable ASIO support in their programs. Documentation and sample code is available to interested third parties.

 

With the release of DSD256 support on Mac exaSound reaffirms its commitment to leading edge innovation. exaSound DACs are the only devices on the market that can play natively any high-resolution audio format - multi-channel and stereo - at any sampling rate that can be produced today.