I am having a play with SACDs, been a while since I used any sort of physical media having been into streaming. So figured I wanted to hear how do SACD’s sound. I understand the issue with Sony etc restricting the digital outputs.
So do most people on this forum who playing SACDs use the analogue outputs on their players or use the restricted digital outputs?
I am looking at extracting the output from the HDMI feed from a DVD player but thinking that most devices to do this can hardly be considered as high end - or do higher end than Chinese EBay exist?
Or are there players that do provide a DSD feed from the digital output, presumably coax?
I will apologise now in advance if this subject has been discussed to death in a topic I can’t find
I have a feeling there maybe some receivers which maybe able to decode the DSD signal via HDMI. It’s been a while since I have researched but can’t remember anything about coax being mentioned. I know some streamers now seem to be able process DSD directly whereas historically many streamers and DACs would convert DSD to PCM before processing and converting to analog.
If you search for Paul MaGowen (of a well-known US brand) he has covered this subject on his YouTube channel. This will be a good starting point.
I have seen Pauls videos on this. It’s a part of what got me thinking about DSD and SACD. I know my NDX2 is happy with Roon playback of a SACD rip and shows as DSD64 or DSD128.
I am more interested what other Naim users are doing with SACD playback and what people thinks works best.
Seems mad to use the DAC in a SACD player at say a £1k price, when you have something that is more capable.
As it is a bit of fun I have bought a DVD player that can play SACD over HDMI to mess about with.
So do most people just use analogue out from the players or extract the DSD from HDMI. Not convinced that swapping my current amps for a surround set up is the answer to getting the best from SACD.
Actually if I’m honest I’ve been thinking the same, especially now the streamers accept DSD input and especially as ‘other’ formats such as SACD/DSD, HDCD etc aren’t really Naim’s thing as they have focused on standard PCM.
Evening Stewart, for the last couple of months I have had my Oppo 103 blu-ray player hooked up to my main system. This is primarily to extract the audio from dvd, blu-ray and blu-ray audio discs. I have several SACD but most are hybrid, but the few pure SACD discs I have play fine through the Oppo. Rather than go down the rabbit hole of HDMI and connectors I use the anologue out with RCA interconnects to my 282. However, the few SACD titles that I own i only have in that format and therefore cannot compare their playback to say that of a normal cd. Still, they sound top notch and I have no complaints. Yes, I might not be receiving the full benefits of pure SACD sound, but it’s good enough for me. Hope this helps.
If your sacd player has hdmi audio out it can be possible to strip off the dsd layer but I think it’s not a guarantee. Check out YouTube there are a number of how to videos .
I have done it with my Oppo 205 into my Chord Dave. However you need to be careful which extractor/converters to chose as the converters output will need to match the correct input on your dac if you wish to play native DSD. Often dacs will only except DSD playback over a particular input and using a different input can result in the DSD stream being converted to PCM or PCM+ by your dac for playback.
It was a few years back and I was curious to see if it worked so just tried an inexpensive converter think it was a SMSL PO 100 Pro.
I have a feeling I used another cable adapter as well but honestly can’t remember. All I can say is it worked but for me it was a bit of a faff to get the native dsd to work without issue every time. Extraction of the DSD and conversion to PCM+ playback was much more consistent. I played with it for a couple of weeks but only have a handful of sacd’s so it was more of a little side track adventure into seeing if it worked.
I have the Oppo in another room now for cd and streaming dac duty as a roon endpoint.
Thanks again, there must be lots of forum members with SACD and I find it hard to imagine they are all using the analogue outputs.
I have bought 2 SACD’s and will post what happens when I get it working - or when I don’t.
I use a Bluestream HD11AU HDMI de-embedded. I use the HDMI audio only output on the CX UHD to the HD11AU then coaxial from that to the ND555. This will give you DSD into the ND555 and also hi-res PCM from Bluray. It’s an excellent set up.
I also use the optical output from the CX UHD for movies as player converts the surround sound files to stereo.
“Seems mad to use the DAC in a SACD player at say a £1k price, when you have something that is more capable.”
Fwiw with my Oppo 205 red book playback is ok but no where near the same level as using the Oppo as a cd transport into the Dave. However SACD playback using the Oppo and it’s analogue out the differences are less noticeable I’m tempted to say oppo 205 SACD playback is comparable to Dave Redbook playback. However as I mentioned it’s been a few years since I have done such comparisons but I don’t remember the lift in sonics using the converter into the Dave being a step change compared to the difference on the oppo between Redbook and SACD but I think there are to many variables on production to every cd/SACD to make a generalisation.
I would really like to try a higher end cd/sacd player to see if I could get the best of both in a one box solution the Luxman D10x maybe.
OK That looks a good solution and cheap too. I have bought something similar from China - but not much different in price. So knowing others are doing this, tells me I am on the right track.
When I look at the dedicated SACD players I haven’t seen one with HDMI out so it feels like the only way to get at the DSD stream is over HDMI from a BluRay/DVD player. I think I looked at so many dedicated SACD players and none have HDMI outputs - so adapters like your one seem to be the solution.
