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Can SACD's be played in ony 2 channel format

I have a Denon 2910 that Im using now as a CD player (sort term only). I only have 2 SACD's so this is not that big of deal,but if I understand the technology correctly the SACD's are recorded at a higher resolution than regualr CD's. After reading the instruction manual I'm still not perfectly clear on wether or not if I play a SACD it will output the 2channel info as the same as the equivalent CD source.
last_lemming
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,687 posts
 
To answer your main question,yes.I'm not familiar with your Denon,but on my Marantz,when playing 5.1 discs, I have to switch from multi channel to 2 channel because my system is stereo only.The player has rca outs for front,center,rear,and sub.I just use the front outs to connect to my system.A click of the button and it's in stereo mode.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,694 posts
 
Narrod wrote: "Most are multi-channel but have stereo tracks. Many are stereo only. ;-)"
I believe no more than 1 in 5, of the ones I own, are MCH. None of mine are classical.

That is why I inserted the smiley. More than 9/10 of mine are multichannel and 9/10 are classical.

Kal
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,694 posts
 
Last_lemming asked: I think I got it. Is the SACD layer for multi channnel or can you have SACD 2 channel? Sorry for so many questions, but I just want to be clear.
Almost all multichannel SACDs will have both a stereo and a multichannel track on the SACD/DSD layer. There are 2channel only SACDs, as well, but these lack a multichannel track, of course.

Kal
last_lemming OP
639 posts
 
But is the 2 channel 16 bit or 24 bit playback?

Also, I read this ariticle from 2002. It doens't seem to kind to SACD's, but alot of it was over my head.

http://sound.westhost.com/cd-sacd-dvda.htm

I would have thought SACD's would sound better than traditional 16 bit record players/recordngs, but according to the this particualr fellow it doesn't seem so. Except below 10k.

What are your thoughts.
mhedges
180 posts
 
The 2 channel SACD tracks are DSD- Direct Stream Digital. It is a one bit datastream at something like 3 MHz sampling rate. It is completely different from PCM which can be 16 bit or 24 bit, but I believe the theoretical resolution is something like 20 bit (which is all you need anyway since current technology does not have the signal to noise ratio to support a 24 bit signal).

Mark
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