Review: take SACD and BlURay Hirez directly to your DAC!!!!

ted_b · « **Reply #140 on:** 21 Nov 2010, 09:58 pm »

Doug,
What DAC are you sending the Atlona digital out to? Once you do, could you please confirm that the 370 also does 24/176 (the 570 and 770 have been confirmed).

Brisso57 · « **Reply #141 on:** 22 Nov 2010, 01:30 am »

Quote from: ted_b on 21 Nov 2010, 09:58 pm

Doug,
What DAC are you sending the Atlona digital out to? Once you do, could you please confirm that the 370 also does 24/176 (the 570 and 770 have been confirmed).

Hi there

I don't actually have a S370 yet. I've been pondering the purchase as an upgrade to my current Pioneer DVD/SACD player ... which is not a blu-ray player.

Just trying to understand my options here

Doug

ted_b · « **Reply #142 on:** 22 Nov 2010, 01:47 am »

Doug,
Regardless of your player options what DAC are you using? The Atlona is only a solution for a DAC's input.

Stevo · « **Reply #143 on:** 22 Nov 2010, 04:04 am »

Many thanks for pointing out the Monoprice link earlier in this thread (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=5557&seq=1&format=1#largeimage).

Picked up one of the units and it worked perfectly to split off the HDMI connection off of the XBox into video and digital audio output.
I'll be pairing the monoprice unit with the Oppo BDP-93 in the next couple of days, and plan to use it for the SACD and DVD-A into the W4S DAC-2.

Great find!

Phil A · « **Reply #144 on:** 22 Nov 2010, 04:57 am »

Quote from: Stevo on 22 Nov 2010, 04:04 am

Many thanks for pointing out the Monoprice link earlier in this thread (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=5557&seq=1&format=1#largeimage).

Picked up one of the units and it worked perfectly to split off the HDMI connection off of the XBox into video and digital audio output.
I'll be pairing the monoprice unit with the Oppo BDP-93 in the next couple of days, and plan to use it for the SACD and DVD-A into the W4S DAC-2.

Great find!

It sounds better with no HDMI cable connected to the output (of the audio de-embedder) for both myself and a friend of mine. So you may want to compare.

ted_b · « **Reply #145 on:** 22 Nov 2010, 05:03 am »

Quote from: Phil A on 22 Nov 2010, 04:57 am

It sounds better with no HDMI cable connected to the output (of the audio de-embedder) for both myself and a friend of mine. So you may want to compare.

Phil,
?? So it doesn't need to do a handshake? Wow, weird. Of course that means you need a separate player for your movies, etc (i.e real HDMi stuff

mgalusha · « **Reply #146 on:** 28 Nov 2010, 02:31 am »

I finally started pulling the data off my SACD's last night. Oppo BD-83 > Atlona 577 > ESI Juli@ S/PDIF > Audacity.

So far it's going very well, I've done about 6 of them so far. Not fast since they record in real time but I just start the disc and set a timer to remind me a couple minutes before it's done. Depending on the recording the silence finder in Audacity works pretty well, a little quirky but I think I've got a good handle on it now. If you are planning on doing this one thing to note is that Audacity doesn't have 88,200 as a sample rate in the pull down. Just select other and type it in.

I'm wishing I had an old PS3 so I could get 176.4 but even at 88.2/24 the results are very good. Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. Nice to get some use out of my 60 or so SACD's.

PS, anyone have an old PS3 they want to trade for an amp.

mike

Phil A · « **Reply #147 on:** 28 Nov 2010, 02:48 am »

Quote from: ted_b on 22 Nov 2010, 05:03 am

Phil,
?? So it doesn't need to do a handshake? Wow, weird. Of course that means you need a separate player for your movies, etc (i.e real HDMi stuff

No, it works fine (with the HDMI cable from the player) just connected to the Port-ta box. I have the Oppo HDMI switch and i've just been swapping the HDMI cable. I'll have Oppo BDP-93 here early next week and it will eventually go to the bedroom system (after I play with it for a bit in the main system). It sits on the other side of the wall to the main system and I already have a bunch of cables going back and forth (and pyramid infrared repeaters to remote control it). So I can either take the extra HDMI out of the BDP-93 or just leave the BDP-93 in the Marantz SR6003 in the bedroom and the output of that to the Port-ta box. It's not much of any inconvenience to swap the cables. The Port-ta also works well as an HDMI switch for movies and disconnecting the output is easy too.

Phil A · « **Reply #148 on:** 28 Nov 2010, 02:53 am »

Mike - thanks for the update on the recording. I'm going to be working with a friend of mine in a couple of months to finally build a PC I can also use as a music server with the Squeezebox Touch (right now I'm just using some WMA lossless stuff I had on an external hard drive with an old XP machine I had done for an old Zune player). I'll likely be getting the same sound card. My friend has tried a whole bunch of the them.

ted_b · « **Reply #149 on:** 28 Nov 2010, 05:07 am »

Mike,
Great news that you are ripping these, even at 24/88.2k. What do you end up with, a cue file and wav file, or have you gone the extra steps of breaking them into extra songs. I had a couple of album sized wav files and used EAC's silence finder (along with a copy of the album notes to know song length and metadata) and made a cue file easily..which then could be broken up via Foobar, etc. I ended up with FLAC song tracks.

mgalusha · « **Reply #150 on:** 28 Nov 2010, 01:45 pm »

Phil,

I took an old Dell desktop and rebuilt it with XP as it turns out the Juli@ drivers for win 7 don't support recording from the S/PDIF input or if they do I can't find a way to enable it. Searching around turns out I'm not the only one with this problem and it appears they just didn't bother with the new drivers.

It worked first try with the rebuilt xp box. I have nothing on the box except Audacity and foobar. No anti virus, screen savers and power saving all disabled. I want nothing to interrupt the recording. I'm saving the files to a large usb drive and then plug the drive into my main machine to split the large wave files into tracks. My main desktop has a quad core and 8gb of ram, so the splitting/saving/tagging process is worlds faster than on the old P4 desktop I'm using for capture. Of course I won't hit the internet with this machine.

Ted, as you can tell by the above, I am breaking them into tracks. After cutting the wav I convert them to Flac using the converter in dbPoweramp as it will use all 4 cores and does 4 tracks simultaneously. I the use mp3tag to add the metadata and artwork.

Oh and like Phil, with the Atlona HD577 I don't have anything connected to the HDMI output. I did connect it to the TV when it arrived to learn the handshake and it has no trouble remembering. I have the oppo sitting on my desk with the Atlona on top of it.

mike

Phil A · « **Reply #151 on:** 28 Nov 2010, 03:25 pm »

Mike, thanks. I'll keep following it as it is not that far off when I plan on doing the PC (probably will start to order stuff in late January or early February and hopefully get it together shortly thereafter - always like to monitor if anything will come out of CES new). I did do some searches on it and will try to see if anything comes of it. I may contact the company before I get started too. Here is some things I found (not sure if anything is of great use):
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/422726/esi-juli-windows-7

http://www.fixya.com/support/t4410403-upgraded_os_win_7_but_install_sound

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=57269

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/ESI-JULI-Setup-Configuration-h

http://driverscollection.com/?H=Juli@&By=ESI

mgalusha · « **Reply #152 on:** 29 Nov 2010, 03:14 pm »

Phil,

Thanks for the links, I had read most of them already. There is no problem with the win7/64bit drivers for playback or recording from the line in. ESI seems to have omitted the SPDIF input from the devices presented to the OS. At least that is the conclusion I reached as interrogating the devices in Audacity shows the spdif input but lists it as unavailable. It simply doesn't show up in the OS as an input.

As it turns out, I rather like having a dedicated machine for the capture, nothing to contend with the process. I forgot I was recording yesterday and it kept capturing at 88.2/24 for 4 hours, apparently without any issues. Had to do some clean up on that track.

jaywills · « **Reply #153 on:** 19 Dec 2010, 11:12 pm »

"could you please confirm that the 370 also does 24/176"

I can confirm that it does. BDP-S370>Monoprice HDX-401TA (set for 5.1, NOT 2ch. When it's set for 2ch on my setup, SACD limited to 44.1, Blu-Ray limited to 48)>s/pdif from Monoprice>TacT 2.2x>(down the chain, amp & speakers). When set up along these lines, I get 24/176 for SACD. DAD not compatible with the Sony 370. Good luck. Cordially,

Phil A · « **Reply #154 on:** 20 Dec 2010, 04:48 am »

Do you mean DVD-A is not compatible with the Sony? DAD (audio only DVD) should be compatible with any DVD player (although there may be older ones that will only put out 48kHz). The ones (discs) I have all put out 24/96 stereo.

ted_b · « **Reply #155 on:** 20 Dec 2010, 05:30 am »

Yes, DAD's are an audio-only DVD-video title (video_ts) and playable on any DVD player. They are 24/96. HDAD's are dual sided and have a DVD-Audio (audio_ts) side that plays 24/192, but again the DVD-V side will play on all DVD players.

jaywills · « **Reply #156 on:** 20 Dec 2010, 12:14 pm »

Yes, DVD-A, not DAD. My mistake. Typing while distracted. Sorry.

jaywills · « **Reply #157 on:** 20 Dec 2010, 01:48 pm »

I need some help from you folks who have gotten 24/192 out of the Sony S370 on Blu-Ray material. From my post above, I've been able to configure my setup to deliver 24/176 from SACD's. Didn't try a Blu-Ray until late last night and I can't anything over 16/48 off of a Blu-Ray (SACD still putting out 24/176). For those of you with the S370 (or 470,570, etc.), would you mind sharing your audio settings for the Sony with me. I'm sure it's something simple that I'm just too dense to see, but I would very much appreciate the help. BTW, if there's another setting besides the audio settings that needs to be made, like my Momoprice setting described above, I'd be grateful for that info as well. Thanks very much. Cordially,

ted_b · « **Reply #158 on:** 20 Dec 2010, 03:00 pm »

Jaywills,
I have neother the Sony nor the Monoprice, but wanted to say that once you get the blu-Ray HDMi setting correct you'll find there are not a lot of 24/192 2 channel offerings on Blu Ray yet. Neil Young's stuff, some things from 2L and a few others, but it's not predominant. I haven't checked downmixed hirez standard movie content, though, cuz that stuff I listen to in multichannel with standard HDMI-to-processor.

Let us know when it works. By the way, it's strange that setting the HDMI-to-coax for 2 channel only produces 44k in SACD. I can;t even imagine how that is happening. Even worst case multichannel downmixing (ugh!) would not produce 44k. Anybody with a Monoprice (I'm now gonna go buy one as the instigator here) please chime in.

jaywills · « **Reply #159 on:** 20 Dec 2010, 03:32 pm »

Thanks, Ted, I didn't know that about the paucity of 24/192 Blu-Rays. The Monoprice thing I discovered purely by accident. It comes with a remote that has two buttons, one for 5.1 and the other for 2 channel. When I had the Monoprice set to 2 channel, all I could get out of SACD's was 44.1, regardless of the Sony's settings. When I changed the Monoprice via the remote (there's no button for that on the unit itself, IIRC), I was rewarded with 24/176 for SACD playback (and the sound difference between the two is immediately noticeable). I'll post when I resolve my issue.

If anyone else reading this thread has an answer about the Sony's settings to the question I posted earlier, I'd appreciate reading your input. Thanks. Cordially,