Snoopy8 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 (edited) Rather than reviving a 10 year old DTVForum thread, I thought it would be better to provide more up to date information on how to play multi channel music from SACD.s There are some excellent multi channel music in this thread While Blu Ray Audio can be played on any BD player, SACDs (and DVD-A which has died) require specific players. Playing multi-channel SACD The easiest and cheapest way is to get a top model Sony player https://store.sony.com.au/player-bluray/BDPS6700.html https://store.sony.com.au/player-bluray-ultraHD/UBPX700.html#start=1 Or an older Sony BDP player, usually the top model. If money is not an issue, get the Pioneer UHD players https://www.pioneeraudio.com.au/collections/blu-ray-players/products/udp-lx800-universal-disc-player https://www.pioneeraudio.com.au/collections/blu-ray-players/products/udp-lx500-universal-disc-player Also, used Oppo 103, 105, 203, 205 players, plus list of players which can rip SACDs. All of the above players output DSD via HDMI to the AVR or HT pre-processor. Not all AVRs or prepros can manage DSD, so the player may need to convert DSD to PCM. Optionally, but getting rare, use BD player multi channel analogue outputs to an AVR with multi channel analogue inputs. The players can do other digital outputs, but only 2 channel and PCM. Playing multi-channel DSD/DSF SACDs can be ripped into DSD/DSF, see this thread for tools and players (post #16) https://hifihaven.org/index.php?threads/rip-sacd-with-a-blu-ray-player.3652/ There are some multi channel DSDs for sale https://www.nativedsd.com/catalogue/?filter_channel=5ch Not many multi channel DACs for playback. https://www.essenceelectrostatic.com/product/evolve-ii-4k-hdmi-v2-0-multi-channel-dac/ https://www.exasound.com/Products/e688-channelDAC.aspx https://www.exasound.com/Products/s88StreamingDAC.aspx I am sure that there some pro-audio multi channel DACs. All Panasonic UHD players can play multi channel DSD/DSF music. ------ Please let me know if you have additional information to update this post. Edited March 3, 2021 by Snoopy8 Typo 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy8 Posted September 20, 2021 Author Share Posted September 20, 2021 Some people have commented that getting into multi channel SACDs is difficult. SACD albums are in niche music genres, and often are out of print and therefore can cost hundreds of dollars. Thought it would be useful to use Quadraphonic Quad (QQ) to identify the most popular (by number of votes) SACDs . Usually, a SACD with a score of 9 or more has good multi channel SQ, although there are exceptions. Looking at the Top 20 most popular SACDs on QQ below, the following are cheapest on Amazon and eBay, and sound good: Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms Elton John: Madman across the water If you decide to explore further, consider Donald Fagen: Nightfly Fleetwood Mac: Rumours Eagles: Hotel California Deep Purple: Machine Head Please note that you should check that SACDs are multi channel, either in the product description or the album cover. SHM and MFSL (MOFI) are 2 well known labels who produce excellent stereo SACDs, but they are not multi channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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