CD vs SACD in STEREO

@elliottbnewcombjr 

Please explain your thinking about ’never’ having a Center Channel, perhaps a separate discussion?

Hope this does not hijack this thread!

Centre channel speakers are used in movie theatres so the dialog seems to come from the middle of the screen for those poor so.s (souls) sitting decidedly off-centre.

So of course, it has become a ’feature’ of home theatre.  Really, how many people are that far off-centre at home that they need to have dialogue pinned to the screen?

Now if your main left and right speakers have good imaging, and you sit roughly where you should, you do not need a centre channel for movies.

But wait, there’s more.  That centre channel interferes with the main speakers through the so-called comb-filter effect, both for direct sound and for reflections.

Worse still, most centre speakers lie sideways and have drivers each side of a tweeter.  So they actually interfere with themselves (naughty) if you are not sitting dead centre or have significant room reflections.  Not a good look (or listen).

I must admit that my main speakers emulate point sources of sound, and have huge sweet spots and imaging.  They are either Quad ESL-2905 electrostatics or KEF Reference 1 speakers.  The KEFs play a lot louder!

Could go into the comb-filter effect more - maybe in that other thread?

Meanwhile I've been playing vinyl and am really missing surround and immersive sound!

@mahler123 

Kal Rubinson , who has posted on this site, has reviewed a few multi channel DACs.  As has been mentioned, none of these are by mainstream companies

You can get great dacs in mainstream products from the likes of Marantz and Denon. probably also Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo and Pioneer as well. I personally would be very wary of Bose / McIntosh and anything connected by I2S.

I would also avoid feeding the same digital signal simultaneously to two separate DACs.  How the hell are they supposed to coordinate time delays, etc.

By all means, feed the individual analogue outputs from a single DAC or pre-processor to multiple power amplifiers, the more the merrier!

Cheers

I think Richard Brand covered the specifics of your equipment.  I would go with whatever DAC offers you the native DSD conversion .  You can research that OP on your own.  The Oppo 103 probably does but I don’t know about the rest of your gear.  
 

I have had very bad luck with Marantz products and their missing in action customer support.  While concerns about Bose ownership of McIntosh are valid, I have heard the DACs in Mac Processors and they are quite good.  They really shine when connected to a Mac SACD player through the proprietary link but are also great via HDMI from an Oppo outputting DSD.

@richardbrand "I think Richard Brand covered the specifics of your equipment.  I would go with whatever DAC offers you the native DSD conversion .  You can research that OP on your own.  The Oppo 103 probably does but I don’t know about the rest of your gear. " Richard, what is your comment on my hardware with respect to DAC for both systems? Use built in Oppo/Sony player DAC or receiver (Onkyo/Denon) for 2 and 5.1 channel (system 1 and system 2)? 

Update: Just found your earlier reply Richard, thank you. Never noticed the missing analog output on the Sony x700. But quite surprisingly, the Oppo not doing ATMOS. Does that also mean no DSD? May have to swap Oppo on Denon to become 2nd system, and cheapo Sony X700 on Onkyo for 'main system 1' duty. An Then listen to my new verson of DSOTM!

I'm sorry if this is a little off topic. But as regards Dire Strait's Brothers in Arms. First off, I am a huge fan of both Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler. Despite that, I have to say that Brother's in Arms is a dreadful* sounding album. It was recorded on a Sony PCM 3324 DASH (Digital Audio Stationary Head) tape multitrack which had a maximum resolution of 48/16. Any higher resolution version of the recording is still limited by on the sample rate/wordlength of the original tracks on the multitrack. If the SACD sounds better than the original CD - which I think it does - its most likely because (a) it's been remastered the original 48K sample rate, rather than the CD which would have been downsampled to 44.1.

*Thin and sterile - it, The Nightfly and Bop Till You Drop all have a similar character. Brother's in Arms is made worse by a horrible 80's drum sound.