Best way to play sacd-iso MCH

[Kal Rubinson]

5 hours ago, Brewie said:

Kal, you are right, but I mentioned that it was copied.  I just thought it would be helpful for newbies to have it all in one place.

While I appreciate your intentions, I do not believe it is sufficient (or even legal) to exclude proper attributions.  I am personally incensed by your post of my writing without specific link or reference.   

 

In fact, it would be better to have made a single post with a title and link for each of the topics covered.

[Brewie]

Ripping SACDs with an Oppo 103/105 player and converting the retreived iso file to MCH DSF file (special thx to Kal)

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/music-round-93-minidsp-ripping-sacds-page-2

 

I hope this fits the rules now

[harriek]

Well, I found a custom-firmware for my UDP-205.

I can confirm; it now plays sacd-iso files from hdd (nas not yet tried).

It can play them stereo AND multichannel!!!! Gapless

[Brewie]

Harrie, do you have a link? and does it work for the UDP-203?

Please also confirm if NAS works if you have a chance.

[harriek]

No link, you will have to find your own source, sorry. I can only say it is Russian-made firmware. Yes it also works with the 203.

I do not have my Oppo's connected to lan....

But I will look into it in time.

[harriek]

2 hours ago, harriek said:

No link, you will have to find your own source, sorry. I can only say it is Russian-made firmware. Yes it also works with the 203.

I do not have my Oppo's connected to lan....

But I will look into it in time.

I will not go online with my Oppo's (Russian firmware, something with an old Greek town and a horse...)

[Kal Rubinson]

2 hours ago, harriek said:

I will not go online with my Oppo's (Russian firmware, something with an old Greek town and a horse...)

From WikiPedia

Troy was a city in the far northwest of the region known in late Classical antiquity as Asia Minor, now known as Anatolia in modern Turkey, .............................................The present-day location is known as Hisarlik. 

[harriek]

I thought it was conquered by a Greek coalition and therefore you can call it Greek? I do know it is Turkey now. Oh well, you know what place was meant...

[Kal Rubinson]

Just now, harriek said:

I thought it was conquered by a Greek coalition and therefore you can call it Greek? I do know it is Turkey now. Oh well, you know what place was ment...

You can make that case but, if it was conquered by a bunch of Greeks, it must have pre-existed.  Was it originally Luwian?

[harriek]

Yes I believe so..

[Brewie]

like with the greek horse I feel very uncomfortable unpacking such a zipped russian horse in my own city ....

[harriek]

I would't unzip any horse for that matter

[jabbr]

On 10/18/2018 at 11:41 AM, bobbmd said:

I assume you have ripped your SACD's- I never understood why you would this as you now have a digital copy so how can you get the full expression of the SACD?

Bob, 

 

I’ve ripped my entire SACD collection to my NAS using an old PS3 and its fantastic. 

 

Its a two step procedure:

first run the free sacd_extract program on the NAS to accept the ISO and then run the free iso2dsf program to split the ISO into DSF files.

 

The “full expression” of the SACD remains in the DSD encoded DSF files.

 

[Ralf11]

On 10/18/2018 at 2:50 PM, bobbmd said:

@Kal Rubinson & @harriek: thanks Kal as i said it's just my ear 'observations' but as i said hardly listen to them anymore just listen my 'library' that is on iTunes(try not to use THAT anymore) as  all my 'ripped music is on TIDAL Qobuz ROON and Audirvana+3 anyway the sound probably is 'equal' as you say. Plus i have hundreds of extensive playlists(regular and 'Masters/MQA) on all the above services and 2 players using the 2 DACs i mentioned and i am in audiophile heaven so to speak- i especially enjoy playing with 2.1 vs 7.1 vs DSP plx music vs pl2 music vs prologic (enhanced and otherwise) vs various venues ie the Bottom Line/Hall in Munich,Vienna, Freiburg, The Roxy Theater  Classical-Opera etc vs  surround sound enhanced surround etc on my rather ancient Yamaha rx-v2500 AVR

thanks for your input also harriek still have no desire to invest in equipment like Oppo etc just to rip SACDs and my CFO would never allow it anyway!!

bobbmd

 

 

this could only happen if your setup for playing the ripped files is worse than for the disc - say a cheap DAC and PS vs. an Accuphase or ARC disc player

 

or... your perception is being influenced by visual inputs or some other variable unrelated to SQ

 

but do whatever you like the best - if your aesthetic experience is enhanced by playing a disc, do it - similarly for some of the better scotches, burgundies, or even... absinthe 

[Brewie]

Ali Express link for your 203/205 upgrade

 

[Brewie]

another very helpful tool that splits a single big audio file, mostly an album or a compilation, into the relative independent audio tracks, using the informations stored in its associated .CUE file; without decoding/re-encoding the data stream

http://www.medieval.it/cuesplitter-pc/menu-id-71.html

 

[audiventory]

@Brewie  when you use CUE splitters, it may be desirable to care about how a tool split audio: by blocks or samples. Because splitting by blocks can cause getting begin of next track at end of previous. In some cases it can be matter.
Read details here ["Sound quality" part] https://samplerateconverter.com/flac/flac-cue-splitter

[Brewie]

The place to check for DSD multichannel Hardware (Always updated):

https://dsd-guide.com/current-dsd-hardware-software-and-content

 

[Kal Rubinson]

1 hour ago, Brewie said:

The place to check for DSD multichannel Hardware (Always updated):

https://dsd-guide.com/current-dsd-hardware-software-and-content

Something not covered in that compilation is that with JRiver/Roon, you can use a miniDSP U-DIO8 to feed DSD-DoP to almost any trio of DACs (of your choice).

[Brewie]

Hi Kal,

the list with devices here is however the most complete I can find anywhere in the Internet.

Obviously it would be nice if more formats are added like iso, flac, dts…… but ok.

Your special MCH solution with 3 Stereo DACs is very special and perhaps for most people a bit too complicated.

I prefer to keep it simple: NAS -> OPPO -> AVR -> 5.1 speakers 

Soon there will be AVR's with DAC's like the ESS9038 pro included that can handle it all and the route will be NAS -> AVR -> 5.1 Speakers.

Hopefully this is not taking too long anymore. All technology is available; the big ones (Yamaha, Marantz, Denon, Pioneer etc.) just need to bring it all together now. I guess it is a matter of price.

 

 

[Kal Rubinson]

7 hours ago, Brewie said:

Your special MCH solution with 3 Stereo DACs is very special and perhaps for most people a bit too complicated.

Agreed but it opens up the number of possible multichannel-capable DACs for those with particular interests.

7 hours ago, Brewie said:

I prefer to keep it simple: NAS -> OPPO -> AVR -> 5.1 speakers 

Could be simpler if the AVR was more capable.

7 hours ago, Brewie said:

Soon there will be AVR's with DAC's like the ESS9038 pro included that can handle it all and the route will be NAS -> AVR -> 5.1 Speakers.

Exactly if/when this happens.

7 hours ago, Brewie said:

Hopefully this is not taking too long anymore. All technology is available; the big ones (Yamaha, Marantz, Denon, Pioneer etc.) just need to bring it all together now. I guess it is a matter of price.

No, it is not a matter of price.  It is a matter of having the manufacturers recognize the value of including this feature.  So far, afaik, only Trinnov has done this.

[harriek]

All I have to say is that I am very happy with my jailbreak Oppo 205. It is just perfect. There is no (real/easy)alternative and I do not one coming soon. That is why I bought a second 205 (also JB), just in case....

[Brewie]

Harrie, good to hear that you are also happy with the Oppo 205 🙂 One is enough for me though....

I cannot complain either about it, but I miss some comfort in navigating through my NAS via the OPPO.

Looking at some new announced AVR's there might be some on the horizon that can handle the Job: Pioneer SC-LX904, Onkyo TX-RZ3400 , Marantz SR8013 or the Yamaha CX-A5200 + MX-A5200. All look very promising in their specs.

I am waiting for the first reviews to understand more about their MCH DAC & Streaming capabilities. 

 

[Brewie]

Reading some of the AVR reviews on the audiosciencereview website (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?reviews/) let me doubt that AVRs are the the best solution for MCH DAC & Streaming of my NAS content...… latest Pioneer and NAD models were defenitely a desaster and I doubt that Marantz, Denon, Onkyo, Arcam, Anthem and the others are much better……...   

Finally someone is testing DAC's and amplifiers in a neutral non-subjective way. Most of the Audio reviews that we get to read just copy some of the specs and  give a "mostly" very personal review on how it all sounds. 

 

[Kal Rubinson]

41 minutes ago, Brewie said:

Reading some of the AVR reviews on the audiosciencereview website (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?reviews/) let me doubt that AVRs are the the best solution for MCH DAC & Streaming of my NAS content...… latest Pioneer and NAD models were defenitely a desaster and I doubt that Marantz, Denon, Onkyo, Arcam, Anthem and the others are much better……...   

Confirmed.  None of the prepros I have reviewed are suitable for multichannel streaming and I will assume that the AVR versions are no better.  Of necessity, my solution has always been to use an external music player with HDMI output or with a multichannel DAC.