Curious about DSD

[mardukes]

Documentation says v5 can handle DSD files. Does that mean it will communicate with my sound card in a fashion that it will understand? Or does that sound card (ASUS xonar se) also have to be able to handle DSD source?

My guess is that somewhere along the line there has to be a conversion to PCM to a) fit on SPDIF optical and/or b) satisfy my Yamaha AVR. And I imagine that MM has met a responsibility for satisfying Windows -- with whom ASUS has made the contract.

However, still curious for some detail.