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Re: Mr Hansen.... for your consideration of a new SACD player

Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on March 3, 2007 at 19:27:35

In Reply to: Mr Hansen.... for your consideration of a new SACD player posted by Kenny on March 3, 2007 at 18:52:07:

<< 1. digital inputs : AES, coaxial, optical, that can accept 24/96 >>

The problem here is mainly cost. The basic signalling format these use (biphase-mark encoding) is flawed from the get-go. You can arbitrarily improve the performance by throwing money at the problem. But to get really good sound from this type of input would increase the cost of a player by a significant fraction of the overall price.

The bottom line is that you can't make something that will please everyone. Most people wouldn't use this feature, and wouldn't want to pay a lot of extra money for something they wouldn't use.

<< 2. all digital input signals can be upsampled to DSD if wish >>

This is a red herring. Please remember that "DSD" is a marketing term and not a technical term. "Upsampling" is also a marketing term and not a technical term. So "upsampling to DSD" doesn't mean anything in particular, just whatever any particular marketing department decides it means on any particular day.

Besides, almost all modern DAC chips use some sort of sigma-delta architecture that essentially *does* "upsample to DSD". This is especially true of the cheaper chips. It's not clear to me what the goal is here, besides saving money for the chip maker.

<< 3. sound level same for all formats >>

I assume you are referring to the fact that output level on the Ayre C-5xe is 6 dB lower when playing SACDs compared to CDs or DVDs. This was done because of the four filters available in the Burr-Brown DSD1792 chip we use, the one that sounds the best has a lower output level.

We figured that anyone who cares about SACD in the first place would want to get the best sound out of it. But if you would rather have matched levels than the best sound, there is an undocumented feature on the player. On the rear are a bank of DIP switches. Change the third switch in the right bank from "Reserved C" (up) to "Reserved D" (down). This will select a filter that will boost the output level for SACD to nearly match the PCM level.

<< CD is almost done done >>

Disagree. I think CD will be the dominant music format for at least another decade. (Assuming that we audiophiles are not including MP3 as an acceptable format.)

<< Blu-ray, HD-DVD, can all have high resolution PCM tracks >>

Yes, but I don't think we will ever see any music released in either of these formats.

<< My 6-year old Accuphase SACD player can do all those >>

My understanding is that many, if not all, of the Accuphase SACD players convert the "DSD" to PCM.

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