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DAC's & SACD's. Can they be used? Total novice..

I am using a Sony SCD333es player and have been kicking around using a DAC due to ungrade fever. I am naive about the DAC thing so please bear with me. After looking at the owner’s manual for my unit and the new SCD-xa5400, I see that SACD's only output through the analog outputs. During my perusal of the DAC threads I see that the outputs need to come from the digital side. Is this true, or am I missing something?
If this is so, must I hook up the CD player using both outputs? I hope not, as I have no more inputs available on my KCT pre. And even if I did muster up another input how could I toggle between the two? Or is it automatic?
Anyone recommend a nice DAC for this particular player, or am I wasting $...?
Gear; Krell KCT pre, Krell FPB300cx amp.
Thanks everyone & Happy Holidays from the high desert of So. Cal., John
jsd52756
5 responses Add your response
hifitime
715 posts
 
Take some aspirin(for your fever) until things change.Sorry,I couldn't resist.The new technology is driving me crazy.I just found this out a myself few months ago.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,678 posts
 
AFAIK, there are no stand-alone HDMI-input DACs. The only ones are inside processors.

I wonder if it is not an economic issue as licensing and qualifying to HDMI might be a significant burden, especially for a small specialist company. In addition, these same companies are the ones who complain about jitter and other issues with HDMI.

Note, however, that there will be an Ayre universal player with HDMI output and that it will implement Audio Rate Control to resolve the jitter issue. OTOH, Ayre is not (yet?) planning to offer a DAC or preamp that you can plug this into.

Kal
a1126lin
70 posts
 
Kal

any dac that would accept SACD output from HDMI
musicslug
430 posts
 
you read it right: SACDs don't work with DACs and you'll need 2 inputs if you want to use a DAC (you can buy a box that will add inputs to solve that one).

others will no doubt disagree, but SACDs just aren't the huge dramatic improvement that they were supposed to be. regular CDs, it turns out, are quite capable of sounding very good, assuming they're recorded/mastered well.

if you really want to listen to a lot of SACDs and have the upgrade bug, you might want to look at getting a SACD player that is known for excellent CD playback - there are quite a few out there and some can be had used for the price of a good DAC (about $1K).
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,678 posts
 
SACDs only output from the analog outputs OR from the HDMI output of the XA5400ES.

Kal
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