Putting SACD on Hard Disk

Jens · Joined: 11 Nov 2007 Posts: 99

No, I'm not talking about the PS3's HDD -- as far as I'm aware you can't do that except rip the CD layer of a hybrid SACD in standard resolution -- but a PC's (or Mac etc.)

This month's issue of UHF (Ultra High Fidelity) describes how you can capture the (analog stereo) signal with an AD Converter and convert it to (176.4 kHz) high-resolution PCM.

See http://www.uhfmag.com/Issue87/Issue87.html

If you click on the magazine cover you'll get a free preview. You can see the first page of the article on p32.

wavoman · Joined: 12 Sep 2009 Posts: 1

Great link, thanks!

See also the following thread over at Head-Fi, which documents a number of ways of getting hi-res PCM from the PS3 HDMI output.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/ripping-sacds-via-spdif-176-4-ps3-455769/

dvdasacd · Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 24

There's now devices available to capture the raw DSD stream (even before it gets to the HDMI 1.2+ output stage) and send it over USB to the computer to capture the DSD stream that way, anyway.

See info here. [pics]

Yuri · Joined: 28 Aug 2007 Posts: 162

dvdasacd · Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 24

Use google translate, it's the way I'm doing it. It's integrated in google toolbar or use google translate website. For more information, he can be PM'ed, and the guy in question does speak English.

N.b this is not the only DSD grabber out there, nor the first. Another one is someone at hydrogenaudio who mentioned his to me many months ago, it's a similar deal - capture raw DSD stream in the circuitry and pass it on to computer. (output was USB or maybe another connection of some sort).

Brandon B · Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 392

similar to what wavoman posts, there's also a thread over at audio circle where some folks are using HDMI audio stream strippers to successfully pull the converted hi-rez stereo PCM off of HDMI from an SACD and send it over SPDIF to store it.

It's converted, but more usable with DACs at the moment. They have some specific product recommendations and such.

dvdasacd · Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 24

Brandon B · Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 392

Well, I converted the two channel layer of 3 SACDs to 24/96 stereo PCM this weekend using the method I mentioned above. Pretty nice improvement over the redbook layer of the same SACDs.

I stuck with 96 Khz as the mac I am playing from only does 96KHz output over optical.

Other than the single speed playback required, the process was pretty quick. Set the PS3's output option to 96KHz stereo, connect the hardware inline and run an optical to my mac, playback the SACD and record the stream (I used Audacity), no attendance required, just come back before it finishes to hit stop. In Audacity, chop off the individual songs into AIFF files, convert to apple lossless with Max, add to iTunes.

In my second system where I am using the mac, I need to get a better DAC than the one built into the preamp, but even so, sounds pretty nice.

Obviates my need for a combination DAC/SCD player, so now I can focus on just getting a decent DAC. When I want multichannel, I'll stick with using the PS3 in my other system.

Jens · Joined: 11 Nov 2007 Posts: 99

Exciting! Now wouldn't it be great if the manual chopping off weren't necessary anymore (or the other separate conversion steps could be integrated)...

Brandon B · Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 392

That would be nice. I don't have the time, talent, or motivation to create the tools necessary though.

I may try ripping one to 176.4 or 192KHz as well just to confirm it works.

Gennadyi · Joined: 31 May 2008 Posts: 6

http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3587818
Exact digital copy of SACD layer