Appendix V Optional Features; Pyramix Dsd / Sacd - Merging Pyramix User Manual

Detailed notes and information :
1. The table Bussing capabilities indicates the maximum channel count available in a Pyramix system in V4.x
through V6.x modes:
•
•
2. The greyed-out cells indicate that the corresponding mode does not exist for the corresponding daughter
cards.
3. DXD / DSD are only available in XDTDM and MassCore modes.
4. In DXD mode, the I/O count depends on the I/O format speed.
5. In DSD mode, I/O count depends on the AES I/O format (Sony or P3D respectively).
6. Although the theoretical maximum DSD channel count with a MADI daughter card is 24, the bus capability
has a maximum of 16 DSD channels.
7. The ADAT daughter card supports the XDTDM and MassCore modes ONLY with a hardware rework (shield).
In XDTDM mode, the ADAT daughter card offers 8 output channels through optical output A) replicated on
optical output B) but No Inputs.
The hardware rework consists of adding a shield to the ADAT similar to the one used for the DUAL daughter
card. If you have not already done so, please contact your Merging Sales Partner to order this retrofit kit.
8. In a mono-board SDIF system, only 2 DSD channels are available.
9. Dual offers 8 AES and 4 Analog channels of I/O per board.
10. In standalone, non-Masscore mode only 8 channels DSD are available.
Non-MassCore (Mykerinos mode) Multi-board hardware restrictions:
The MADI 1 daughter card does not work in Multi-board mode (This includes all MADI daughter cards with serial
numbers lower than 30051).
ADAT daughter cards with serial numbers lower than 20299 do not function in multi-board mode.
The DUAL daughter cards do not function in multi-board mode.

Appendix V Optional Features

Pyramix DSD / SACD

Hardware and Settings
Interfacing
DSD transmission works well with either AES-EBU or SDIF interfaces. Most converter manufacturers use SDIF. Only
dCS does SDIF and AES-EBU.
A further issue is the existence of two different AES-EBU supported DSD formats. The so called "Sony" and one
named "P3D." Merging Technologies support both of these. If you need to interface to both AES/EBU and SDIF two
cards will be required.
Wordclock settings.
In DSD mode it is imperative Pyramix wordclock settings correspond with the requirements of the converters
employed. To date all the DSD compatible converters we have tested generate and expect wordclock at the stan-
dard nominal rate. I.e. 44.1kHz.
Failure to set Pyramix to expect only 44.1kHz in DSD operation will prevent proper locking to the external source
and therefore prevent correct decoding of the DSD bitstreams, resulting in very loud noise on its outputs. Check
the setting via:
HDTDM mode is the V4.x compatibility mode and offers the same PCM channels count as previ-
ously, except that DSD/DXD modes are no longer supported in this mode since V5.x.
XDTDM mode - V5.x and V6.x only - offers twice as many PCM and DSD/DXD channels compared
with Pyramix V4.x.
Appendices : Appendix V Optional Features 29 - 573