Yet another SACD question

Only SACD discs that are "Hybrid" (2-layers) can be played on regular CD players.
My Pioneer dv45A player (SACD and DVD-A) has both Stereo and Multichannel analog outputs (as well as digital optical which I use when playing regular CDs). There is no digital output from SACD or DVD-A. To the best of my knowledge the Stereo output is a "Mixdown" of the multichannel. It is not the different area of the disc (because it is there simultaneously with the Multichannel signal) and it isn't the second layer (because it is there for SACD which are not "Hybrid"). So my player, and probably others, can give you just 2 signals, for stereo, even if the Disc is multichannel.

Thanks for the info,

prpixel

The DV-45A can be setup to default to the 2 channel SACD area only. ALL SACD have a stereo area. The stereo 2 channel RCA's and the front left/right multi-channel RCA's are parallel pairs, ie. exactly the same, coming from the same DAC. It's the mode setting of the player that determines the output as multichannel or stereo, provided the disc has multichannel on it. The amount and mix of the two formats varies, but the player can be forced to do either. And if the disc has not the information you want, it will default to what's available, ie. if you select 5.1 and the disc is not a multichannel it will still play the 2 channel. I don't have any information on the DVD-A setup yet, still waiting for some good discs to show up...