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Is there an inexpensive SA-CD player that will allow me to bypass the on board DAC and use Benchmark DAC?


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You are going to have very few options as DSD for SACD is proprietary and is a completely different format than PCM (for CD player). Benchmark does not support DSD.

There are a few outboard DACs out there that support both PCM and DSD such as dCS, Esoteric.

Most current inexpensive SACD player do have digital out that onlysupport PCM but not DSD. You would have to go back 2-3 generations of Pioneer, Denon etc SACD player that has iLink (IEEE) that can output DSD signal. As far as I know, only dCS and Esoteric DAC has iLink input so you can use it for SACD playback as well.

Personally I have an old Pioneer universal player connected via iLink to my Esoteric D-05 for SACD playback and it works very well.

 

Unfortunately iLink has been dropped by most brands now so there is no way to do easy SACD playback with external DAC economically.

 

Alternatively, there are companies that offer modified SACD player that will convert DSD to PCM at 24/88 or 24/196 that you can use with standard DAC that accept 24/88 or 24/196 PCM.

However, I have no first hand experience with these players.

 

 

 

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Just a thought ... but if you had an SACD player modified so that it output PCM at 24/88.2 or 24/176.4 could you then use this with an SPDIF input to a PC to rip your SACDs without using a DA-AD stage? Of course you're still potentially loosing quality converting to PCM but would be less loss I would think.

 

Eloise

 

Eloise

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...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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I have been having the same thought. The only way to convert DSD to PCM 24/192 that I am awared of right now is this: https://www.dvdupgrades.ch/digital_audio.html

 

From that, I can connect its AES/EBU output to Lynx card digital input and record everything as 24/192 tracks. However, I have no idea how good the conversion is but it would offer easy and relatively economical way of ripping DSD to high rez PCM , I think.

 

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One place to look for information is the Meridian Unplugged forum ... http://www.meridianunplugged.com/

 

Background: The Meridian surround sound processors use a trio of SPDIF connectors to allow lossless multichannel PCM audio to be processed from BluRay players, etc. Several people use various devices to accomplish this - taking LPCM from HDMI and then using a modified device which extracts the audio as it's internally passed to the DAC chips, a board converts this electronic stream and presents it as 3 or 4 SPDIF connectors (sorry for my inelegant description). I understand the output is completely unencrypted but not 100% sure.

 

A few companies who are involved are ...

http://www.switch-box.com/Home.html - designed the board to extract SPDIF used by various other companies including ...

http://www.custom-ht.com/ - produce scalers and DVD/BluRay players modified with the above board.

http://www.tmfsolutions.co.uk/Octava_HDMIto71.htm - sells the Octava HDMI audio converter and is considering selling it with the same 4 SPDIF board.

http://www.cypuk.com/cyp_techpage.php?product=313&&parent is a HDMI audio to analogue converter which can also be converted.

 

These are all designed for multi-channel but I can't see any reason you couldn't use them to get 2-channel into a standalone DAC; or into a PC via the Lynx card or similar for recording.

 

Hope these links might help someone and if you have any successes I'd love to hear about them.

 

Eloise

 

P.S. I have no connection with either the Meridian Unplugged forum except for reading and occasionally posting there. I have no connection with any of the companies linked to.

 

Chris ... I hope I've not broken any rules with posting the links.

 

Eloise

---

...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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Thanks for all of the input! I think I'll just buy an SA-CD player. Does anybody have any suggestions there? My system consists of:

 

Mac mini running iTunes with all AIFF files

Benchmark DAC 1 PRE

Parasound A21 power amp, 400 watts RMS x 2, 4 ?

Wilson Duette speakers

 

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I suggest you compare the Oppo DV-980 Universal Player ($169 direct from Oppo) to the Yamaha DVD S1800 Universal Player ($250 from Amazon) and choose the one that sounds best to you. Even if you have to buy both and then sell the one you don't like, it won't break the bank.

 

I wouldn't, but if you are really sold on SACD, then you may want to consider spending 20 times that amount (or more) for a significant improvement in sonics. I prefer to have something inexpensive and reliable to play my CDs, SACDs and DVD-As, as my preferred digital source is my computer music server.

 

Within the past year I bought about a dozen Telarc SACDs when they were on sale for $13.98 and I later bought another dozen when they were on sale for $4.98. I am a big advocate of high rez audio, but not necessarily SACD and if the choice is a $2K SACD player or 140 to 400 SACDs, I would choose the latter.

 

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