SACD playback thru Bryston BDA-1

My Sony Blu-Ray player outputs SACD through coax as PCM.

For those whose players convert to PCM, what format? 16bit/44.1KHz? In that case there is hardly any advantage to purchsing SACD discs if you are getting only CD resolution on the digital outputs.

Also, I think the SACD players are only allowed to output compressed audio via DSD, which is not an exact digital copy of the SCAD bit steam from the disc. Kind of like getting an MP3, only "higher" resolution. This is of course done to prevent folks from getting an exact digital copy of the SACD.

I spoke with someone at Audio Advisor re the NAD M5, and he confirmed that DSD will not be output due to copyright issues.

All in all, probably not worth the hassel for a few SACD titles out there. I am not into 5.1 surround sound, only stereo, so investing in all this conversion hardware to get something in the end which may or may not sound better than good quality CDs is likely not going to float the boat.

10-18-11: Ncarv wrote:
My Sony Blu-Ray player outputs SACD through coax as PCM.

Can you confirm that it was not from the CD layer of the SACD and can you tell us what model player it is?

Kal

Yes, Kal, it definitely plays SACD. It says so in the manual and I have played an SACD only, not hybrid, disc, Jorma Kaukonen's "Blue Country Heart," on it. It is a Sony BDP-S580.

Ncarv, do you know what bit-rate it outputs?