Mdconnelly, okay,I went out and bought a Diana Krall Hybrid SACD (The Girl In The Other Room) and I'm sorry to say that I was wrong. The Oppo does NOT convert DSD to 24/96 LPCM and allow it to go through the digital coax or toslink output. It will only go through the analog outputs. I went back to check the Stereophile review, apparently they were only able to output 24/96 LPCM through the digital coax when using an unlocked DVD-A, not SACD. Supposedly some brands publish unlocked DVD-As. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm going to run out to buy a DVD-A too just to test this out since I have no idea which DVD-A is unlocked. With the Oppo player, you can select the exact layer from the SACD hybrid disc you want to play under the Setup menu. It allows you to pick among CD, SACD Stereo, and SACD multi-channel. I did a brief comparison of CD layer (Oppo's analog output) vs. SACD Stereo layer (Oppo's analog output) vs. CD Layer (Oppo's digital coax to Mhdt Lab Paradisea+ DAC). The SACD stereo layer definitely provides the most details. For example, the timbre of the guitar and piano was richer, and there seems to be a little background details than what would otherwise be heard as "air" in the CD layer. The CD layer output from Oppo analog just seems to sound thinner overall and adds a veil of digital harshness to the overall sound. By going through my Mhdt Lab Paradisea+, I was able remove most of the digital harshness and made the sound a little richer, but obviously couldn't get the overall details and timbre richness of the SACD layer. I think at this point, to feed 24/96 digital signal to the DAC, you would have to go hunt down those unlocked DVD-As or look for someone who can mod the Oppo to output 24/96 LPCM converted from DSD through its digital coax/toslink outputs. I think someone on the stereophile forum was able to do just that with a mod.
