2. digital
  3. 187219-159065

SACD is VERY confusing

Seems there are thousands of folks out there buying and playing SACDs using coax or optical from a player to a DAC and thinking they are listening to the SACD layer and they are listening to the CD layer. I was assured the Denon DVD-2910,3910,5910 would play SACD through the digital outputs but on the back of the units they clearly state PMC from the digital outputs.....Seems the ONLY way to truly play a SACD is HDMI to HDMI.....Even stripping the audio off the HDMI signal returns it to PMC ..... And everything I've read states the analog outputs, stereo and 5.1 are PMC...

 

Oppo’s User Manual states: “Due to copyright restrictions, SACD audio cannot be sent through the coaxial or optical digital audio output. To listen to SACDs, please use the HDMI or analog audio connections.) IOW, with a DAC that is connected via coax or TOSLINK, you might be limited to playing the CD layer of a hybrid SACD.

I can't believe they would allow DSD files through analog outputs....Wouldn't this violate the whole copyright issue?

.....There are thousands of people out there buying SACDs and listening to them on their OPPO, Marantz or Denon ..."SACD" players, either through digital or analog and they are listening to the CD/44.1 layer.....This is nuts!

rbertalotto
yyzsantabarbara
4,879 posts
 

I have the following device that takes the SACD DSD signal from my cheap OPPO player and decodes the DSD.

GeerFab Audio D.BOB Digital BreakOut Box – Upscale Audio

This DSD is them sent to my Schitt Yggi+ Less is More DAC via SPDIF. I think that part is DSD over PCM (or something similar). 

The sound is pretty spectacular. My frame of reference for SACD is my recently departed modded Sony SCD-1. In some ways the D.BOB setup is better (more detail) and in others the SCD-1 was better. I was considering adding a SACD/CD option for a DAC I am about to get ($6k option) but after the D.BOB I have no interest.

 

Ag insider logo xs@2x
woofhaven1992
64 posts
 

Isn't this the problem that DoP solves?

soix
9,561 posts
 

Isn't the point to sell SACD's? Making it difficult for people to hear them at their best by putting up roadblocks doesn't seem like much of a business plan.
 

A good question. Possibly because the old factor of....greed, got the better of them. Cut off their nose to spite their face!

+1 @daveyf  and @tony1954 It’s really like a Betamax redux.  What’s the definition of insanity?

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
763 posts
 

@OP The point of the restriction was to stop people making bit perfect copies of recordings from SACD that could subsequently be pirated.

We have to remember that SACD was around at the time that the controversy over illegal file sharing was at its height and before legal streaming was in existence.

rbertalotto OP
138 posts
 

You may or may not like him, but Paul from PS Audio sums it all up beatifully, in under 6 minutes!...

 

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