[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by nicoff

I have done the same and fully agree that it is a transforming and positive change.

As noted by crwilli, in order to be able to rip SACDs you need players that meet the following conditions: "a player that uses the MediaTek MT8560 or MT8580 chipsets. “like Oppo 103/105, Cambridge Audio 752bd/cxu, Pioneer bdp-lx58/88 ) or MT8560 (like Pioneer BDP-160, 170 and BDP-80FD”. I own an Oppo 105 and used it to rip all my SACD discs.

The Sony HAP-Z1ES CAN convert FLAC files, WAV files, etc. to DSD64 for listening. It does so on-the-fly but you cannot save the DSD file.

A music player like HQPlayer can also take any type of lower resolution file, convert it to DSD, and upsample it up to 512DSD. This is also done on-the-fly but it does require lots of computer power. I use HQPlayer and I can now listen to ALL my CDs (stored in FLAC) in 512DSD.

Formerly YB-2 asked: "...am wondering if one must rip CDs into DSD file format to play them back as DSD files or can one rip in FLAC files and play back as DSD?". You cannot rip a CD into DSD. But you can rip a CD, save the file as FLAC/WAV/AIFF/Etc and convert that file to DSD during playback as noted above.

Good info. More grist for the mental mill. Thanks.