Noob to SACD

[Stratmangler]

Touch would be good !
A universal disc player would also do, with the caveat that you are not going to get SACD datastream out of the player via a S/PDIF interface. That's the analogue outs only.
My Pioneer DV656 outputs 24/192 DVD-Audio as 24/96 via S/PDIF.

[bmartins]

Touch would be good !
A universal disc player would also do, with the caveat that you are not going to get SACD datastream out of the player via a S/PDIF interface. That's the analogue outs only.

hum... wouldn't do it for me I'm afraid... I'm using the Caiman as a pre-amp into a Quad 303. All signals would have to be digital.

So sorry Chris but will have to keep the cheque: for the Touch!!!

Thanks for the info!

[Ali Tait]

Stratmangler, you've just saved me £150!!! (where should I send the cheque?)

So what's the only way of topping up the 96kHz of the good old Caiman? PC with opt out? ...perhaps the new Touch?

Don't quite get this,are you looking for something that will output better than 24/96? If so,the touch will not do,24/96 is the max it will output.

[Stratmangler]

Fair do's but the SACD thing is a bridge too far.

I've heard that it is possible to capture the SACD output converted over to PCM using certain equipment, but I've no personal experience of it, so I can't really comment on it.

[bmartins]

Don't quite get this,are you looking for something that will output better than 24/96? If so,the touch will not do,24/96 is the max it will output.

24/96 is the maximum that the Caiman can decode, so if that's what the Touch can do it's fine.

I'm just curious into playing high-res music. Up to today was thinking that it would only be a matter of plugging a SACD player to a DAC to be able to (hopefully) enjoy hi-res...

Many thanks for sharing the knowledge guys!

[Themis]

As far as I know, SACD digital stream can be sent to a consumer device (dac) only through a HDMI (secure) or proprietary (I2S) interface .
Some AV amps (my Denon, for instance) accept digital SACD input.

To come back to your initial post, SPDIF (coax/optical) interface is only for SPDIF digital stream. So, as Chris says, the optical output won't send any SACD data, it will send only PCM stream.
(you need SDIF3 to stream SACD through coax, only some professional drives have such an output/input).

[Ali Tait]

24/96 is the maximum that the Caiman can decode, so if that's what the Touch can do it's fine.

I'm just curious into playing high-res music. Up to today was thinking that it would only be a matter of plugging a SACD player to a DAC to be able to (hopefully) enjoy hi-res...

Many thanks for sharing the knowledge guys!

Ah well in that case the Touch is ideal.I find hi rez stuff,as long as it's well recorded,significantly better than cd.

[BlueMax]

Some active speakers come with high quality DACs built-in. The other well known advantage of actives is the placing of the cross-overs before the amp.

Therefore, the best possible sound can be achieved, when digital stereo channels are taken out of the SACD player and fed them to the actives, with a volume control somewhere along the way.

I have been searching the pro-audio world for some kind of interface or bits but haven't come across anything as yet. But food for thought!

[dave2010]

As far as I know, SACD digital stream can be sent to a consumer device (dac) only through a HDMI (secure) or proprietary (I2S) interface .
Some AV amps (my Denon, for instance) accept digital SACD input.

To come back to your initial post, SPDIF (coax/optical) interface is only for SPDIF digital stream. So, as Chris says, the optical output won't send any SACD data, it will send only PCM stream.
(you need SDIF3 to stream SACD through coax, only some professional drives have such an output/input).

Some Oppo SACD players seem to be able to send out SACD over HDMI, but you'd need a suitable AV system to use that. There may also be the possibility of some of these units converting to PCM - though if they do that it will probably only be 24 bit/48kHz max resolution.

Re the question about what would happen when playing SACDs to the digital outputs - answer - nothing. There is normally no digital output from an SACD player when playing SACDs, not even standard resolution output. The Oppos do allow digital DVD-A output though. I would hesitate to say that it can never be done, as I saw a spec for a unit which would take a DSD input - but it was very expensive, and you'd need to match it with an appropriate player. Perhaps just not possible in the consumer world. There might just be some players which can convert the data to PCM, but again probably limited to 24bit/48kHz.

[Themis]

There might just be some players which can convert the data to PCM, but again probably limited to 24bit/48kHz.

Just to be clear, certain PS3 models (CECHAxx, CECHBxx, CECHCxx and CECHExx models) convert SACD stream to PCM. They stream multi-channel 24/176kHz PCM stream through HDMI to any multi-channel PCM-through-HDMI capable receiver.