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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
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.
junzhang10
166 posts
 
No DSD can be sent uncompressed over digital cable. Get an SACD player by Sony ES series or Oppo Blueray SACD combo.
oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
1,076 posts
 
Even with the OPPO the best you will get is 24/88.2 from hdmi or coax out    The OPPO does DSD to PCM conversion at the lower sample rate of 88.2k. Instead of 176.4   There’s was an explanation of why somewhere in OPPO faq.   

It it still sounds pretty good.  Let’s face it some SACD s sucked.  I’ve heard a few where I thought the red book version sounded better. 


big_greg
315 posts
 
Big Greg.
If the OP has JUST a transport then that has NO DAC.
Which I feel is the crux of his question.


@uberwaltz good point.  The original post was a little hard to read, but after re-reading it, I understand the point being made with transport (no DAC) vs player (DAC included). 

There's a long thread about CD transports in the Steve Hoffman forums about it.  Google "SACD Transport".
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