SACD Player

[dobyblue]

Loads of great titles on Best Buy or Amazon for between $8~$20.

Both John Mayer albums are $8, lots of Elton john for under $20.

[moviefan42]

dase -- I have an OPPO BDP-83 which I consider the best Blu-ray player on the market for any price and their tech support is outstanding!! The BDP-80 is their economy model...see below spec from OPPO website.

"SACD - The BDP-80 plays Super Audio CD (SACD) and supports both stereo and multi-channel high resolution audio programs. The BDP-80 can output DSD (Direct Stream Digital) over HDMI in its native format or convert into PCM. (Analog audio output for SACD supports PCM mode only, and is not available when DSD over HDMI is in use.)"

However, you must have an A/V receiver that supports the DSD format for the best results from an SACD disc. I checked the specs for your Denon AVR 4310CI and it doesn't specifically mention that it supports DSD. You should check your manual or with Denon directly to verify this. If everything is in order, you must get Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as your reference SACD. Absolutely incredible!!!!

Dave

[Dase]

Originally Posted by moviefan42

dase -- I have an OPPO BDP-83 which I consider the best Blu-ray player on the market for any price and their tech support is outstanding!! The BDP-80 is their economy model...see below spec from OPPO website.

"SACD - The BDP-80 plays Super Audio CD (SACD) and supports both stereo and multi-channel high resolution audio programs. The BDP-80 can output DSD (Direct Stream Digital) over HDMI in its native format or convert into PCM. (Analog audio output for SACD supports PCM mode only, and is not available when DSD over HDMI is in use.)"

However, you must have an A/V receiver that supports the DSD format for the best results from an SACD disc. I checked the specs for your Denon AVR 4310CI and it doesn't specifically mention that it supports DSD. You should check your manual or with Denon directly to verify this. If everything is in order, you must get Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as your reference SACD. Absolutely incredible!!!!

Dave

Cool. Thanks for the OPPO info. The 4310 does support DSD through Denon Link or HDMI so I should be fine . Thanks again.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by -dase-

Cool. Thanks for the OPPO info. The 4310 does support DSD through Denon Link or HDMI so I should be fine . Thanks again.

Yes it does - it will also allow you to implement direct DSD>Analog decoding using the PCM1791A DAC.

In DIRECT and PURE DIRECT mode you will get pure DSD>Analog conversion, which means no bass management. In all other modes DSD is converted and handled as PCM.

Advantage of DIRECT - pure signal with no PCM decimation
Disadvantage of DIRECT - no bass management

I go with DIRECT for my SACD listening, my ears tell me it sounds more natural, more analog. You can use level settings to even out the distance from your speakers and the crossover on your sub to cut out the higher frequencies some discs send. For example if your sub is wide open as most peoples would be for home theatre given that your receiver is doing all the crossovers, when you go to SACD you may find that frequencies in the 150Hz range coming through your sub sound pretty odd. I set mine to about 60~70Hz and nae bother.

[Gremal]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

I go with DIRECT for my SACD listening, my ears tell me it sounds more natural, more analog.

Yep, that's the way to go. If you convert DSD->PCM->analog it's not as lifelike.

Originally Posted by moviefan42

dase -- I have an OPPO BDP-83 which I consider the best Blu-ray player on the market for any price and their tech support is outstanding!!

Well, given that the SE model is better for two-channel and analog output, I would have to say that the non SE model has been bested. Beyond that I have owned a better SACD player than the Oppo, namely a modified SCD-1, although that only delivered two-channel.

If everything is in order, you must get Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as your reference SACD. Absolutely incredible!!!!

I like Pink Floyd too, but there are SACDs featuring better recordings than DSotM for reference demo.

[ManUtd]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Loads of great titles on Best Buy or Amazon for between $8~$20.

Both John Mayer albums are $8, lots of Elton john for under $20.

At Amazon two of the best multichannel albums Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon 30th Anniversary Edition and Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms are still available and inexpensive.

There are a few other online places who still carry SACDs. Ebay is where I usually get OOP albums. They're not cheap but there is no other way to get them.