Big Greg.
If the OP has JUST a transport then that has NO DAC.
Which I feel is the crux of his question.
If the OP has JUST a transport then that has NO DAC.
Which I feel is the crux of his question.
Beware of SACD Transports -- they probably will not work with your favorite DAC
Hello, I just learned a painful lesson. I'm guessing that not many people will know this so I'm going to put it in here.
The audio on a SACD is encrypted.
If I were to purchase a SACD / CD player I have nothing to worry about. The Audio is un-encrypted inside the player.
However if I were to purchase a SACD / CD Transport made my brand Z, I would have to purchase a brand Z DAC???
Apparently Sony who owns the SACD format mandated that the audio on the SACD itself is encrypted and
the digital output from a SACD transport is ALSO encrypted. It looks like the actual un-encryption is done in the DAC.
There is no standard for doing the un-encryption so every manufacturer has their own proprietary way of doing this.
So I cant use a Esoteric SACD transport and an Auralic DAC which is what I tried to do?
The audio on a SACD is encrypted.
If I were to purchase a SACD / CD player I have nothing to worry about. The Audio is un-encrypted inside the player.
However if I were to purchase a SACD / CD Transport made my brand Z, I would have to purchase a brand Z DAC???
Apparently Sony who owns the SACD format mandated that the audio on the SACD itself is encrypted and
the digital output from a SACD transport is ALSO encrypted. It looks like the actual un-encryption is done in the DAC.
There is no standard for doing the un-encryption so every manufacturer has their own proprietary way of doing this.
So I cant use a Esoteric SACD transport and an Auralic DAC which is what I tried to do?
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- 47 posts total
big_greg ... everything I've read indicates that you can't output SACD via optical (toslink or coax) but can via HDMI, so you'd need something like an Oppo with an HDMI output and a DAC with an HDMI input ...There are a few players that will allow this through their HDMI output, but they are the rare exception. I do believe that one of the Oppo models permit this. On the other hand, I know that my McIntosh spinner doesn't. |
The new McIntosh SACD Transports use a Mac proprietary output to their dac with the same input to decode SACD. Not positive but I believe you can output SACD from the Oppo using the HDMI out to a Wyred4Sound Dac with an I2 squared HDMI input. I sometimes play my Esoteric through the dac in my preamp but always have to play SACD via the analog inputs. You can play the newer Esoteric SACD players via the iLink output to their dac that has the iLink input for SACD decoding. It's clear as mud. |
- 47 posts total