Bypassing Sony SACD protocols - is it possible?

@yyzsantabarbara

Thanks for taking the time to post your impressions. I am glad to hear D.BOB worked out well for you. Like I said, I was quite impressed by the demo.

@mahler123

Good to know. I believe Bryston DAC would be one of those rare examples that accept DSD over HDMI. Most DAC’s either don’t have HDMI port or the ones that sports HDMI are being designed to accept I2S signal from a streamer or DDC.

@lalitk If the DAC has HDMI inputs, such as the Bryston DAC3, and can decode DSD, then any SACD player that outputs DSD over HDMI can be used without any other necessary device. The DAC3 has 3 HDMI inputs and I have both a Oppo 105 and a Sony 5400 ES hooked up .

I am taking a 15 min break to write this. I got the D.BOB and have been listening to both SACD’s via a low-end Oppo BDP-83 connected to the D.BOB and then SP/DIF to one of my Benchmark DAC3B and Schitt Yggi+ Less is More DACs.

My SACD/CD frame of reference is the amazing Sony SCD-1 that was really amazing after I modded it to Vacuum State Level 5+. That was a famous mod 20+ years ago. My SCD-1 died this year so that is why I had the interest in the D.BOB.

I also will be buying an expensive PlayBack Designs DAC to replace the DAC3B and I was thinking of buying a PD DAC with the SACD tray as an additional option. That is an expensive option and also degrades the DAC a bit.

How did the D.BOB sound? With both DACs I would say it was better than the SCD-1. With the Yggi+ it was excellent. No chance I even consider the SACD tray option for the PD DAC.

I could not find my DSOTM SACD (yet) so I just grabbed a pile of discs and started playing. The first SACD I played was CCR’s Willy and the Poorboys.

I have 2 systems in my office and both go through the same gear until the amp. A Schitt Aegir amp connects to a RAAL SR1a earphone. A Magtech amp goes to the Magnepan LRS+. Both of these systems are amongst the best systems I have ever had. The preamp is a Benchmark LA4.

I am not sure if it was my associated gear (the Yggi+ in particular) but the sound was great and the CCR disk had never sounded as good. The SCD-1 was such a pleasurable listen but it lacked some details. I did not care because I enjoyed the music so much. With my new gear and the D.BOB that same pleasurable sound is there but with nice details.

I then played Rush Hemispheres CD to see if CD’s worked. This is a crappy sounding disc. However, today it did not sound bad, it was not great but very good.

I played David Bowie’s Heathen SACD. I used to play that a lot on the SCD-1. On the D.BOB is sounded better than ever. I even discovered the sonic similarity to this 20 year old disc and with the last one he made before his death a dew years ago. Did not notice it so clearly with the SCD-1.

I have some Bob Dylan SACDs that I bought even though I am not a huge fan. I never really listened to them much on the SCD-1. On the D.BOB it sounds really good. So clear and audiophile like sound. I think I will gives these disc more notice in the future.

The D.BOB is a GREAT device. So glad I bought this.

@yyzsantabarbara 

I’ve never tried a standard RCA for SPDIF- your better off buying a true 75 ohm cable for digital coax like Belden 1694A and terminate as required.

1694A

I will report back. My frame of reference is my Vacuum State modded 5+ Sony SCD-1 player. I thought that was an amazing player. My DSOTM SACD played through that is still my favorite in terms of sonics. It will be interesting to see to see how the rag tag collection I will use with the D.BOB will work.

Does anyone know if a regular analog RCA cable (WyWire) can be used as a SPDIF. Otherwise, I need to pick up one more cable for the D.BOB.

@yyzsantabarbara 

You’re welcome. I heard the demo at AXPONA and it worked flawlessly. I still enjoy spinning SACD’s on my Marantz player, hence never felt the need to pursue D.BOB. May be I will once I’m out of player options. I got over 300+ SACD’s and most of them are now OOP, thought about ripping them but my Marantz player is just stupendously good to try the alternatives. 

Please do report back your experience with D.BOB.

Thanks for reminding me about the D.BOB. My Sony SCD-1 died earlier this year and I was wondering how to play my SACD's.

Upscale Audio is selling the D.BOB for $799. I just got it and will hook it up to my Benchmark DAB3B and Oppo BDP-83. Not sure if the Oppo will work or even if it is working. If not, I will get a low-cost replacement SACD transport.

Another option is to rip the SACD layer yourself as a DSD file which you store on your streaming device and route that to your DAC. It takes some setup work to do and requires a particular set of Blu-Ray players to rip the disc, but it's not terribly difficult if you follow the right instructions. 

I am not aware of any dedicated SACD player that can output DSD stream via Toslink or Coax. I believe you need a universal player with hdmi output and D.BOB to extract DSD 64 stream to any DAC that can decode DSD.

https://geerfab.com/audio/

My OPPO player will output 88.2k digitally when playing SACD.   They claim it has something to do with the Nyquist freq .   and that  176.4 would not sound as good....

as a separate consideration, to know whether you are getting/retaining SACD's DSD format, or if the unit automatically converts DSD to PCM

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/sacd-players-models-with-dsd-processor-used-and-new-not-dsd-conver

The SACD player should have its own DAC which will then send an analog signal to the preamp section, assuming the streamer/Preamp/DAC accepts analog inputs.

If the Sony has a digital out, such as toslink or SPDIF, then you can play the CD layer of an SACDS using the DAC of the streamer.  If the streamer has HDMI input, then you can send the DSD layer to the DAC