I’ve just acquired an Oppo Blu-ray / SACD player, which I intend using solely for playing SACD discs, and the audio track from Blu-rays via my 552.
The Oppo manual suggests using RCA phonos into the phono inputs on the 552, but I wonder if anyone has used phono out from the Oppo, and Din into one of the available inputs on the pre amp, and did it sound any better?
Dave - a difficult test to run 
For whatever it works I actually use my Oppo 105 as digital transport into NDX. Whilst Oppo’s DACs are first rate, I still like the ‘sound’ of a Naim-tuned DAC.
But if you’d like to run an analogue output, I suggest using an RCA > DIN interconnect. Hi-Line is perfectly fine in this context. An alternative would be Chord Signature Tuned Aray. I would not go any ‘higher’ than that though.
I use an rca->din Chord Cobra 3 (the green cable), from my Oppo 205 to my Nait XS 2. It sounds great, and I have tested it vs. the Cobra 3 rca-rca. The difference was very small, but still there: I preferred the din cable.
J McB
I use my oppo 103d for sacd as a transport to my Naim 272. Phono out is not good in oppo 103. Other model like oppo 95 or 205 is much better. So I use hdmi to coax converter in between.
For the phono out, RCA > DIN interconnect works the best.
Slightly off topic, but I sometimes connect up my Oppo HA-2 Headphone DAC/Amp into my Atom via Phono inputs, and it sounds a lot better than playing the same source using the Uniti DAC. This is perhaps because it’s battery powered, but wow.
Caramba!
Hooked up my Oppo BDP-93 to the 552, via a Flashback twin RCA phono to Din, which I had lying around, and a spare Powerline, and it’s sounding great.
So I will venture into a few SACD discs soon, but in the meantime, I can now play the audio from my music Blu-rays and DVDs through the system.
I might trial a better cable, as suggested by @jimmyMcB, above, but for now, the Oppo is so much better than I was expecting it to be, and, purchased pre-owned, for not much outlay at all.
Happy days. 
@dave-marshall I have an Oppo 205 and play my SACDs (DSD stereo) via the Oppo’s DAC straight to analogue - a Chord Shawline goes from the RCA analogue outputs straight into a DIN socket in my NAC 72.
I absolutely LOVE the sound!
I picked up my first SACD disc yesterday, The Stones “Let It Bleed”, and it’s sounding pretty good via the Oppo.
So, given the price of SACDs, anyone got any recommendations for albums which are unmissable in this format?
Otherwise, it’s great to be able to play my music titles in DVD / Blu-ray through the 552.
@dave-marshall - Beggars Banquet and Sticky Fingers both sound awesome on SACD. The former can be picked up pretty easily and cheaply, the latter was only issued in Japan and is expensive - but worth the money IMO. I haven’t heard any other Stones SACDs but I have been told that they are all very good.
If you’re into Can, the hybrid SACDs are all worth picking up, especially the first six or seven albums. Goldfrapp’s Supernature is jaw-droppingly good on SACD.
Others I have heard or have got worth buying on SACD:
Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
A Treasury - Nick Drake
Kind of Blue
Blood on the Tracks
Gaucho
Avalon - Roxy Music
Anything on the Alia Vox label (early music/Baroque/classical)
I’ve also been told that all the Depeche Mode and Peter Gabriel SACDs sound great but are pretty expensive these days.
Cheers, Kev,
I’ll start tracking down the Stones titles and others you’ve suggested.
There’s certainly something special about this format, (given that one chooses the right albums), as “Let It Bleed” compares very favourably with my ripped copies of both the original album and the mono re-release, each streamed via my ND555.
That’s saying something, since I’m using the analogue out on the Oppo, which isn’t even the “superior DAC” model.
Amazing, innit?
Indeed Dave.
Oddly enough the other day I was explaining to my business partner (an audio sceptic, it has to be said) what SACD was, and the differences between that format and CD, DVDA and Bluray Audio.
By way of a demonstration, I played some tracks from the hybrid Let It Bleed: first on the CD layer, then the SACD layer. He was utterly blown away by the difference.
The SACD format is enjoying a mini-renaissance, and that’s a great thing asfar as I’m concerned, DSD is the best digital format I’ve heard.
Yep,
I’m just for the first time dipping my toes into the SACD thingy, and am initially rather pleased with what I’m hearing, especially as my Oppo isn’t even the so called hi-fi version, so I think I’m hooked on this format.
Mind you, I still can’t begin to explain why all of us should be so impressed with the “different plastic” Led Zep SHM CDs … but they do sound good, even, weirdly enough, played as a WAV rip on my streamer. 
Last minute edit … just ordered the Goldfrapp one!
Indeed Dave. The LZ Japanese SHMCDs - which as far as anyone knows, are taken from the 1990s George Marino masters - have to be the great unsolved mysterty of digital audio.
Oppo 205 via Chord Signature phono to DIN on my 252. It’s mostly used for films but I’ve also played a variety audio formats including what few DVD-As I have and it sounds very good indeed. It’s not a bad streamer either.
[quote=“dave-marshall, post:12, topic:2433”]
Mind you, I still can’t begin to explain why all of us should be so impressed with the “different plastic” Led Zep SHM CDs … but they do sound good, even, weirdly enough, played as a WAV rip on my streamer.
[/quote] I bought a fair number of these from Japan when they were relatively cheap, and concluded the better sound from most of them is more to do with the different mastering than the material they’re made from.
On the subject of Oppos and SACDs - I’ve been using my old 103D to rip them (it’s one of the very few players that enable you to extract the dsd tracks from the discs), and the resultant rips played through my Chord Dave do sound extremely fine; dare I say with an analogue- type relaxed yet detailed sound.
Hi Tony,
You’ve got me interested now, as to ripping dsd audio using the Oppo, so how are you going about this?
I use my HDX for ripping / serving purposes, so what would I need to hook into the Oppo for ripping?
Presumably, if I can achieve this, I would then drag the resulting file into “Downloads” on the HDX, much as I do with HD music purchased?
Cheers,
Dave.
Hi Dave,
If you Google “Hifi Haven” & look in their digital section you’ll find the instructions. It’s pretty straightforward, and works a treat. I assume your HDX can play dsd files?
I don’t think it can!!
I use a Cambridge 650BD player and I find I can only output SACDs through the phono output. I use an optical connect or for DVD and Blu-Ray
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