SACD Player/Transport Choices
I am planning to acquire a McIntosh MCT500 to go with my C53 (proprietary MCT connection). But I am wondering if there are other good SACD transport choices that will send a true DSD stream to an external DAC on a non-proprietary basis, either through USB or I2S. I’m trying to research this, but it’s difficult to find definitive answers regarding the actual digital stream from SACD - often I discover that the stream is converted to PCM. I do know PSAudio has a scheme similar to McIntosh.
I realize simply purchasing DSD and streaming from an SSD is probably more practical these days. But I am sort of fixated on a physical disc player. Budget-wise, most interested in transports around or below that of the MCT500 (~$5K). Thanks for your thoughts and advice.
Showing 3 responses by mattsca
Great discussion, thank you everyone. @faustuss thanks for those excerpts. It seems to me the Oppo and Sony outputs may be DOP. But from @milpai’s early post, it looks like the Onix transport distinguishes between DOP over some outputs and native from I2S. I wish there was a definitive way to know what digital stream is coming from specific digital outs. For now, seems like the McIntosh MCT is the safer, more assured path to native DSD to an outboard, but proprietary, DAC (ie, the McIntosh DAC). |
@mahler123 I don’t know why my feelings would be bruised. I’m not here for a debate. I’m just trying to understand how to get the best out of SACDs. Maybe you are getting native DSD over HDMI. Or maybe it’s DOP, but still sounds sublime. Maybe it doesn’t really matter! Peace, pal! Here’s a question: Does anyone have a DAC that indicates a difference between DSD native and DOP? Does the Bryston DAC3? Again, maybe it doesn’t really matter, but I’m curious. |