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Audio extractor recommendations for SACD (DSD) via HDMI to RME DAC?

Aha, I did not know that SACDs could be multi-channel. Are there many though?
I did a bit of math in this message.

After updating the calculation as of today, there are at least 8,583 multichannel SA-CD releases. That is more than 50% of all releases on that format.
 
Yes. There's a lot of that going around.

But if they want to use that format for recording, editing, mastering, that's fine with me.
Fewer approximations, possibly better result.
Then they can downsample to 24bit, 48kHz, or even 16bit, 44.1kHz, and I would not know (or hear) better.

I often encounter horrible "upsampling" or fake hires in commercial downloads. I attach the spectra of four examples:

fraud.jpgfraud2.jpgfraud3.jpgfraud4.jpg

The most egregious ones are the ones with the images left from wrongly made upsampling. But the ones that are just upsampled low res are also really bad. All from reputable and major recording companies. One even claiming to be "audiophile" (the one with the single upsampling image as strong as the original signal).
 
I'm not sure many people buy direct "from reputable and major recording companies." per se - usually there is an online retailer. I often buy from Bandcamp, and never had a bad FLAC (or so all my tools tell me, and ears!).
 
If I'd influenced the marketing back then, I might have slightly undercut CDs with SACDs to get traction, as there is no big issue with production costs as a percentage of the end-sell price - they'd have been able to stand for a long time at a sensible price. But no, the DRM goal was abandoned because soemone said that if you pedal quaility, you can justify the price. Then we had MP3... :) In so many things, price and/or availability wins. [VHS was poor, but they also won on price and content availability. ]

It might interest you to know that the makers of the most famous and best selling SACD, Dark Side of the Moon, 'undercut' CDs by mastering the CD layer with dynamic range compression, while leaving the DSD layer free of it.

(There is a presumptuous but non-nefarious case for this: the CD layer was expected to be played mostly in car CD players or other noisy environments)

I have just learned that the new, or new to me, angle is multi-channel. I heard there are thousand of titles - but the ones I have seen are old-ish classic albums, but I buy lots of stuff from very new bands (say last 5 years),
'New' pop/rock releases are poorly represented in recent SACDs -- the number of fans of Life of a Showgirl or Bad Bunny who would care to buy an SACD player being absolutely miniscule -- but as Kal has noted, there is a market still in recently-recorded, multichannel 'classical' SACDs; same goes for jazz; neither constitute 'old-ish classic albums', and sometimes, even the compositions on them are new.

New multichannel pop/rock music floods Atmos releases/streams. That's where you'll find it.
 
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But if they want to use that format for recording, editing, mastering, that's fine with me.
Fewer approximations, possibly better result.

At some point 'better'is purely a numbers game, having left actual audibility far behind.

The best case I know for capturing ultrahigh frequencies is for analog tape sources -- there, bias signal in that realm can be used to correct wow/flutter (timing issues) , a use case behind Plangent processing. (I'm unaware of any rigorously controlled testing that proves it to be routinely beneficial)
 
At some point 'better'is purely a numbers game, having left actual audibility far behind.

The best case I know for capturing ultrahigh frequencies is for analog tape sources -- there, bias signal in that realm can be used to correct wow/flutter (timing issues) , a use case behind Plangent processing. (I'm unaware of any rigorously controlled testing that proves it to be routinely beneficial)
Yes, the numbers on all my music is arguably good enough (albeit non-exciting stereo :) ), as I'm only really interested in the music itself - but as said before, you may well get different stereo master sounds on disk, which I get; fine if you are fussy. . But thinking about DSOTHM's CD layer (above), where it was ruined - how wacky! - nobody normal listens to that in a car! Are there more?
 
Yes, the numbers on all my music is arguably good enough (albeit non-exciting stereo :) ), as I'm only really interested in the music itself - but as said before, you may well get different stereo master sounds on disk, which I get; fine if you are fussy. .

Different mastering -- and sourcing of the original -- is really what matters most. I wouldn't call it fussy to consider that.

But thinking about DSOTHM's CD layer (above), where it was ruined - how wacky! - nobody normal listens to that in a car!)
I didn't say it was ruined. IIRC it wasn't brickwalled. I'm not of the camp that says any added digital compression is a disaster.

And there's actually a good chance that the CD layer would be preferred, in a casual listen. Because it will sound a bit 'louder'. That's psychoacoustics at work.


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Any chance of getting back on topic........

Audio extractor recommendations for SACD (DSD) via HDMI to RME DAC?

After the first 30 Posts the next 40 have just been various debates about DSD and PCM:rolleyes:
 
"My hope is to have it output DSD to my RME ADI-2 DAC. I'm currently using a Cable Matters model 103090 audio extractor and it's not doing the job. I've learned that using optical will down-sample and I'm getting 24/44.1. I've also tried my friends Oppo 103 and get the same results using HDMI2. If I use the Oppo's analog outs to my headphone amp, I'm good."

I thought it had been covered, but without a bit of hacking, it's the DRM mechanism that stops you getting digital streams to a DAC (other than the CD layer on the disk). Your audio extractor is meant to pull stereo from an HDMI output, which has already been de-DRM'd and is not full DSD.
 
I'm using this hdmi audo extractor.
You must take care, that it supports DoP over SPDIF.
But also you've take care, that the RME is used with fixed volume (also not using the headphone out). Otherwise it will convert DSD to PCM.
 
I'm using this hdmi audo extractor.
You must take care, that it supports DoP over SPDIF.
But also you've take care, that the RME is used with fixed volume (also not using the headphone out). Otherwise it will convert DSD to PCM.
Also that your source is unencrypted DSD I would think, unless you can plug your device into an SACD player and it just converts to a DSD signal
 
Hello,

Note: My English is poor, so this translation was done by AI. If it is not good, please accept my apologies.

To extract a SACD to an RME, this can be done as follows:

SACD -> AudioPraise Vanitye (in DoP) -> RME

I have done it, but I was limited because I had to use WASAPI (and not ASIO) due to an issue with multiple sound cards.

Kind regards,
 
Hello,

Note: My English is poor, so this translation was done by AI. If it is not good, please accept my apologies.

To extract a SACD to an RME, this can be done as follows:

SACD -> AudioPraise Vanitye (in DoP) -> RME

I have done it, but I was limited because I had to use WASAPI (and not ASIO) due to an issue with multiple sound cards.

Kind regards,
How does it deal with DRM?
 
I think this should be discussed with Audiopraise.


 
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Also that your source is unencrypted DSD I would think, unless you can plug your device into an SACD player and it just converts to a DSD signal
How does it deal with DRM?
For this type of HDMI extractor, you require a device (specifically an SACD or Blu-ray player with SACD playback capabilities) that outputs the signal via HDMI. These HDMI extractors then extract the audio signal and output it—unaltered—via I2S, I2S over LVDS, and S/PDIF. For SACDs, the output format is DSD64 (2.8224 MHz).
We are discussing here exclusively the technical means of feeding the unaltered data format of an SACD into a DAC for music playback—nothing else.
These HDMI extractors are not certified or officially licensed HDMI devices. Whether you choose to purchase and use such a device is entirely your personal responsibility. Since the legal status regarding this matter varies in practically every country, it is solely up to you to research the relevant laws and act accordingly.
 
Lucky for me that I have no interest in spending extra money to get DSD data! Happy to rip used CDs for as little as £5 from discogs!
 
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