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Playing SACDs

Howdy,

A few months ago I changed my DAC from a Bryston BDP-3 to a CE Hugo TT2. My source of digital music is an Aurender N100H using USB to the Hugo. The change from BDP-3 to the Hugo was significant to my ears so I am as happy as I can be in that respect but... and there is always a but, isn't? I have a collection of ~150 SACDs which I enjoyed playing from my Oppo, through HDMI, to the BDP-3. Since the BDP-3 is gone and the Oppo can not pass SACD/DSD/PCM in its other digital outputs, I now have to use the onboard DAC of the Oppo and use its analog outputs. It does not sound bad... but it is not as good as it used to sound.

I am have been reading multiple posts here and in other forums but from what I can gather, there isn't a SACD transport that will output SACD (DSD/DoP/PCM), am I correct? I don't have that many movies anymore so I could get rid of the Oppo and get me a SACD transport if it would be possible to play SACDs without HDMI.

Any ideas or should I just suck it up and move on?

Thanks!

Ivan
smdb01us

Showing 1 response by big_greg

big_greg
6,708 posts
 
Most SACD's only have 2 channels.  I have a combined 2 channel / home theater system. 

I use an Oppo UDP-203 to play movies and the few multi-channel SACD's I have through a Marantz AV 7704 pre-pro. 

For 2 channel, I have a Marantz KI-Pearl SACD player and use its built in DAC to play 2 channel SACD's through my Modwright LS 100 preamp.  Playing SACD's with the Marantz / Modwright combo sounds much better than the Oppo / Marantz combo.

In general, I prefer the 2 channel mixes of the SACDs I have.  While it's fun to listen to Dark Side of the Moon in 5.1, it's also kind of disconcerting to hear things swirling all around you that you're used to hearing in 2 channels.   
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