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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
Ag insider logo xs@2x
cleeds
2,065 posts
 
big_greg
... everything I've read indicates that you can't output SACD via optical (toslink or coax) but can via HDMI, so you'd need something like an Oppo with an HDMI output and a DAC with an HDMI input ...
There are a few players that will allow this through their HDMI output, but they are the rare exception. I do believe that one of the Oppo models permit this. On the other hand, I know that my McIntosh spinner doesn't.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
2,766 posts
 
The new McIntosh SACD Transports use a Mac proprietary output to their dac with the same input to decode SACD.  Not positive but I believe you can output SACD from the Oppo using the HDMI out to a Wyred4Sound Dac with an I2 squared HDMI input.  I sometimes play my Esoteric through the dac in my preamp but always have to play SACD via the analog inputs.  You can play the newer Esoteric SACD players via the iLink output to their dac that has the iLink input for SACD decoding.

It's clear as mud.
audiojan's avatar
audiojan
245 posts
 
PS Audio DirectStream transport to the DS Dac only sends DSD data over the I2S connection (which is NOT an HDMI connection, even though the cables are the same)
mahler123
633 posts
 
I have a Bryston DAC3 which has 4 HDMI inputs.  I play the DSD layer of SACD from an Oppo 105 and a Sony 5400 ES..
If the OP truly has an SACD Transport (no DAC) then it must send the DSD via I2S or HDMI
dgarretson
2,394 posts
 
OP is correct. The only way to "free" an SACD for playback on any third-party DSD-capable DAC to is to rip it to a DSF file on an early Playstation or Oppo. Search the web for Ted’s SACD Ripping Guide.
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