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.

DSD or disorders of sex development grew out of conversations among a select group of intersex activists, parents' group representatives, medical professionals and scholars that became known as the DSD Consortium, which is responsible for developing two handbooks, "Clinical Guidelines" and "Parents' Handbook.

First, "DSD" is considered an improvement over "intersex," which named the whole person rather than a medical condition. Because the term "intersex" implied an identity rather than a condition, many "intersex" individuals--most of whom view themselves as ordinary men and women who happened to have been born with an unusual medical condition--never accepted the label.

Since its beginning in the early 1990s, the intersex movement has challenged the idea that intersex bodies are abnormal or diseased. While there are some intersex conditions that may signal an underlying medical problem, some would argue, intersex status itself is not a pathology. It is no surprise, then, that the presence of the pathologizing word, "disorder" in "DSD," is perceived by some as contrary to what the intersex movement has stood for.

No. "DSD" is simply a new name for the medical condition, and does not prevent the development of social and political "intersex" identities or communities for people born with such conditions.

Response to the term "DSD" varies around the world, partly due to how the term is translated to different languages, and also due to different social circumstances. For instance, intersex activists in Japan had come up with the term "sei hattasu shougai" (sex development disorder) prior to the introduction of "DSD" in the United States, and are quite receptive to the term.

Technical experts will tell you DSD is basically a 1-bit Delta/Sigma conversion scheme. We'll try explaining it in somewhat more understandable terms but cannot avoid using some technical terms too. Basically it works as follows: DSD being a 1-bit signal means that every bit represents a sample - a measurement of the amplitude of the sound wave at a certain time.

PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) is a very abstract way to describe an analog signal in a digital way but it's the best way that existed at the beginning of the eighties when CD was developed and introduced. In PCM, every sample consists of a combination of bits (typically between 14 and 24, depending on the carrier) describing the amplitude of the signal.

DSD offers, compared with 96 kHz PCM, a much higher time resolution, related to the much higher sampling frequency, and the use of more simple analog low pass filters results in excellent transient behaviour. In addition, DSD eliminates a number of the process steps within PCM that fundamentally degrade the sound.

i.LINK with DSD is not a common feature (yet) but it’s available on various receivers, including Sony’s STR-DA9000ES, Pioneer’s VSX-59TXi and VSX-84TXSi, and Yamaha’s RX-Z9. HDMI from version 1.2 up supports DSD but although several receivers are compatible with this HDMI version, so far few of them decode DSD.