Beware of SACD Transports -- they probably will not work with your favorite DAC
Hello, I just learned a painful lesson. I'm guessing that not many people will know this so I'm going to put it in here.
The audio on a SACD is encrypted. If I were to purchase a SACD / CD player I have nothing to worry about. The Audio is un-encrypted inside the player. However if I were to purchase a SACD / CD Transport made my brand Z, I would have to purchase a brand Z DAC??? Apparently Sony who owns the SACD format mandated that the audio on the SACD itself is encrypted and the digital output from a SACD transport is ALSO encrypted. It looks like the actual un-encryption is done in the DAC. There is no standard for doing the un-encryption so every manufacturer has their own proprietary way of doing this. So I cant use a Esoteric SACD transport and an Auralic DAC which is what I tried to do?
My understanding was in order to playback SACD content using a transport you’ll need a DSD capable DAC. A PCM capable DAC can only process Redbook CD content.
I think you are essentially corrrect - a digital out on an SACD player is rarer than hen's teeth. There are a few, though, including - I'm 99 percent sure - some early Sony Playstations.
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