Playing SACD audio on old equipment

[Kal Rubinson]

You should note that the 203 lacks XLR outputs, if that is any concern to you. RCA, only.

[W9TR]

Correct. The UDP 203 will decode every popular digital audio format out there. It is both a music player and a DAC. It’s also a great 4K video player.

It will play all your silver discs - CD’s and SACD’s, DVD’s to 4k UHD Blu-Rays.

It will play audio files stored on USB sticks or USB hard drives. It will play files you have stored on computers if that is your thing.

Maybe folks who own one will chime with their experiences with audio quality.

[rnrmf1971]

Also, to clarify, the DAC's in the list that W9TR posted will not play your SACD discs from your Sony in native format. The Sony player would also probably down-convert any DVD-Audio discs you have when sending the data out the digital outputs.

Apart from the Bryston DAC, very few DAC's have hdmi inputs that would let you input DSD from SACD discs played back on the Sony.

The exception may be the Oppo players with hdmi inputs but that would be redundant because you could play those discs on the Oppo, itself.

[doggiehowser]

Originally Posted by 70sMac

Christian....



DoggieHowser.... It's great to get a post from you again. Before I abandon the idea altogether, do you still think that a separate DAC would be a good idea? If so, do you have any new thoughts on a DAC that's not crazy expensive?

As others have said, Oppo 20x series are commanding crazy prices on the used market and don’t appear to be good value any more. But if you could find one which isn’t overpriced, it’s still probably one of the better options for you.

I do like using an external DAC but getting it to play back SACDs is the difficult part. That’s why the Oppo 20x makes so much sense as an all in one.

The other option is to get one of the Sony UHD players and run an HDMI cable to the Bryston DAC with HDMI inputs that can decode DSD from SACDs.

The last option I can think of is the Pioneer LX500/800 players that are similar to the Oppo’s functionality.

[crwilli]

Or, rip any SACD you buy and just play it from your hard drive/NAS...

[70sMac]

Originally Posted by crwilli

Or, rip any SACD you buy and just play it from your hard drive/NAS...

crwilli..... Would you please elaborate on this post? There have been several strong options discussed in this thread, and I'm not exactly sure how your thoughts fit into the discussion...and what does "NAS" mean? I'm an old vet with old Mac equipment. Please educate me. Thank you in advance.

[doggiehowser]

Originally Posted by 70sMac

crwilli..... Would you please elaborate on this post? There have been several strong options discussed in this thread, and I'm not exactly sure how your thoughts fit into the discussion...and what does "NAS" mean? I'm an old vet with old Mac equipment. Please educate me. Thank you in advance.

That would change the way you play music.

Ripping is the term for extracting the digital audio that’s stored in the disc and saving it as a file on a computer. With CDs it is pretty straightforward. Most computer drives can read CDs and then you just run a program to extract that digital 1s and 0s.

With SACDs there are copy protection systems to circumvent. There is a process (which can be daunting to a beginner) that involves copying some “boot files” to a USB drive that you plug into a compatible Oppo 10x or player using the same chipset (some Pioneer and Sony older models worked too), with those players connected to the home internet network. You then load an SACD disc but not auto play. Next you run a java script program on your computer and tell it the network address for the Oppo(et al) player. And let it do the rest.

Once the files are extracted, they can be copied to a network drive (NAS) which makes them available even when the computer is off. NAS systems often also have multiple drives installed for redundancy so a single drive failure won’t cause all your precious data to be lost.

You would then need a playback device (like the BDA3 with the 3.14 streamer for instance) to read the file (from the NAS or computer) and play it back instead of playing from the disc.

Your mileage may vary but I find that spinning discs often still sound better.

[70sMac]

DoggieHowser..... Very informative post, mate. I want to let the thread know that we just made a deal on an Oppo UDP-203 that's said to be in "mint" condition. I suppose that it goes without saying that I would've preferred to UDP-205, but, alas, they're just way too hyper-inflated for this old dog...which brings me to a question that was inspired by poster Kal R.

Considering that the Oppo UDP-203 has Red & White RCA female plugs on its rear panel, I must assume that they can be configured to be unbalanced 2-channel stereo outputs.

As most of you probably already know, the Mac MX130 Control Center has a perfectly good pair of Balanced (XLR) outputs on its rear panel. We have never used them, but, seeing that our old Mac MC300 Amplifier has a pair of [unused] Balanced XLR inputs on its rear panel, I'd like to avoid the occasional manual level adjustment and upgrade.

As we've employed only Pearl flat "ribbon" RCA cables for our stereo connections in the past, I've never really given this much thought...but, now that Kal's post has me thinking about it, I'd like to know more about balanced XLR. As I mentioned, the Mac MX130 has Balanced Outputs. It did not, however, come with a pair of balanced Inputs. Please forgive the old guy question, but does this mean that the Mac MX130 is internally converting the incoming unbalanced 2-channel stereo signal -- which, in this case, would be coming from the Oppo -203's RCA outputs -- to a balanced 2-channel signal for our Mac MC300 to amplify?

This probably seems pretty simple to most of you, but we've always lived with RCA plugs/jacks in the past, so, believe it or not, XLR is actually new to us.

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by doggiehowser

That would change the way you play music.

It has changed mine and for the better.

With SACDs there are copy protection systems to circumvent. There is a process (which can be daunting to a beginner) that involves copying some “boot files” to a USB drive that you plug into a compatible Oppo 10x or player using the same chipset (some Pioneer and Sony older models worked too), with those players connected to the home internet network. You then load an SACD disc but not auto play. Next you run a java script program on your computer and tell it the network address for the Oppo(et al) player. And let it do the rest.

Once the files are extracted, they can be copied to a network drive (NAS) which makes them available even when the computer is off.

Seems like the description is longer than the process. Once set up, it is almost trivial. I rip a couple of SACDs a week these days without much effort.

Your mileage may vary but I find that spinning discs often still sound better.

Not to me.

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by 70sMac

Considering that the Oppo UDP-203 has Red & White RCA female plugs on its rear panel, I must assume that they can be configured to be unbalanced 2-channel stereo outputs.

No need to configure. That is what they are.

As most of you probably already know, the Mac MX130 Control Center has a perfectly good pair of Balanced (XLR) outputs on its rear panel. We have never used them, but, seeing that our old Mac MC300 Amplifier has a pair of [unused] Balanced XLR inputs on its rear panel, I'd like to avoid the occasional manual level adjustment and upgrade.

I do not understand what this means: "avoid the occasional manual level adjustment and upgrade."

As we've employed only Pearl flat "ribbon" RCA cables for our stereo connections in the past, I've never really given this much thought...but, now that Kal's post has me thinking about it, I'd like to know more about balanced XLR. As I mentioned, the Mac MX130 has Balanced Outputs. It did not, however, come with a pair of balanced Inputs. Please forgive the old guy question, but does this mean that the Mac MX130 is internally converting the incoming unbalanced 2-channel stereo signal -- which, in this case, would be coming from the Oppo -203's RCA outputs -- to a balanced 2-channel signal for our Mac MC300 to amplify?

Of course.