Finally, audiophiles starting using the term "native" to describe sending DSD across USB using custom ASIO drivers (built by the DAC manufacturer) to differentiate from using the more ubiquitous DSD-over-PCM (aka DoP), which is a horrible name for a clever way of sending unconverted DSD across USB by way of a PCM container. [In Information Technology, we would use the term "encapsulation." – Editor] Since the term uses "PCM" as part of its description, many newbie audiophiles mistakenly think it is a lossy conversion to PCM. It is not, and therefore in no way is it any less "native" than using a custom ASIO driver (although it may use a percent or two more CPU to unpack).

So...my recommendation is to call direct DSD via ASIO (or Linux ALSA or I2S) "raw" DSD (to differentiate from packed DoP), meaning, let's not use "native" here... they are both native. After getting native DSD files, buying a native DSD DAC... let's not make DoP some sort of bad guy by using terminology that makes it sound un-native.