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Can SACD's be played in ony 2 channel format

I have a Denon 2910 that Im using now as a CD player (sort term only). I only have 2 SACD's so this is not that big of deal,but if I understand the technology correctly the SACD's are recorded at a higher resolution than regualr CD's. After reading the instruction manual I'm still not perfectly clear on wether or not if I play a SACD it will output the 2channel info as the same as the equivalent CD source.
last_lemming
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,650 posts
 
Narrod wrote: "Most are multi-channel but have stereo tracks. Many are stereo only. ;-)"
I believe no more than 1 in 5, of the ones I own, are MCH. None of mine are classical.

That is why I inserted the smiley. More than 9/10 of mine are multichannel and 9/10 are classical.

Kal
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,650 posts
 
Last_lemming asked: I think I got it. Is the SACD layer for multi channnel or can you have SACD 2 channel? Sorry for so many questions, but I just want to be clear.
Almost all multichannel SACDs will have both a stereo and a multichannel track on the SACD/DSD layer. There are 2channel only SACDs, as well, but these lack a multichannel track, of course.

Kal
last_lemming OP
630 posts
 
But is the 2 channel 16 bit or 24 bit playback?

Also, I read this ariticle from 2002. It doens't seem to kind to SACD's, but alot of it was over my head.

http://sound.westhost.com/cd-sacd-dvda.htm

I would have thought SACD's would sound better than traditional 16 bit record players/recordngs, but according to the this particualr fellow it doesn't seem so. Except below 10k.

What are your thoughts.
mhedges
180 posts
 
The 2 channel SACD tracks are DSD- Direct Stream Digital. It is a one bit datastream at something like 3 MHz sampling rate. It is completely different from PCM which can be 16 bit or 24 bit, but I believe the theoretical resolution is something like 20 bit (which is all you need anyway since current technology does not have the signal to noise ratio to support a 24 bit signal).

Mark
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