Wojciech Pacuła: What about most of new vinyl records that are made from hi-res digital files. Are they worth our interest?
Dirk Sommer: There are many audiophiles and music lovers that are happy about these LPs from hi-res-files. But to me, it feels a little bit like cheating the customer. I see no reason to manufacture LPs from digital sources.

Wojciech Pacuła: And what about hi-res files?
Dirk Sommer: Hi-res helps the dedicated music lover make his peace with digital. I really can enjoy recordings in hi-res. It is second only to analog or in the best case, even equally as good.

Wojciech Pacuła: Did you compare PCM and DSD? Which one is better? Why?
Dirk Sommer: I can remember a review of an upsampler and a converter from DCS I did in “image hifi” no. 42 in 2001: A normal CD sounded significantly better when its 16 bit 44.1 kHz signal was converted to a DSD-stream than when it was upsampled to 24 bits and 176.4 kHz or 192 kHz before it was sent to the DAC. I guess the filters used when converting DSD to analog are more pleasing to the human ear than the ones used for converting hi-res PCM to analog. Last month I converted some analog master tapes to hi-res and DSD to prepare our albums for downloads. I'm still checking different converters, but to my ears DSD has a small advantage over 192 kHz. So I can understand the hype about DSD converters especially in the US and Japan. But you have to be careful: It's nearly impossible to do a recording in DSD without changing to hi-res when mastering or ever changing the volume of it. And having a DSD that has been hi-res once is a little bit like producing LPs from hi-res files.

Wojciech Pacuła: How about good ole CDs? Is there any future for it?
Dirk Sommer: One has to admit that there are good sounding CDs nowadays. But hi-res and DSD files – and vinyl – offer a superior sound. That's why there is no longer any need for CDs in the audiophile world. But I think that the CD will survive some time in the mass market. There are many people that don't want to mess around with computers.