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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?
londontk

Showing 1 response by townshend-audio

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townshend-audio
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I used my Esoteric P01 Transport with a DCS Elgar Dac via dual XLR connection for sacd/cd playback,, 
Before this i had a DCS Stack and used the fire wire connection to the Elgar,.
I eventually purchased the Esoteric D01 Dual mono Dacs which again i used the XLR connection for SACD/CD playback, i did miss the Elgar, great Dac back then. i hope this helps.
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