WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THIS??? You are only degrading the source, converting and interpolating. You spent many thousands on you Esoteric which makes the concept even nuttier. Have your player modded if you want. Of course SACD is encrypted, that’s the whole idea, just like HDCP for video. The SACD is made from the DSD. Exact same source unless a different mastering. The idea that some other DAC will improve your SACD sound (all dependent on the quality of the recording and mastering) is sadly a complete misunderstanding of the technology. Use your external DAC for streaming and in place of an inferior internal DAC.
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?
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?