.iso file of an SACD. How to play on mac?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by RobGordon35, Feb 27, 2015.

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  1. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    It depends. It's not clear from your equipment list if your DAC will go higher than 44.1 kHz. The best advice I can offer for a Mac user is to try Audirvana. It will resample DSD and PCM on the fly to match your DAC's capabilities. It will also import existing iTunes libraries.

    With Audirvana, you could resample native DSD to PCM on the fly when your DAC isn't DSD capable, then just stream native DSD to the DAC using DoP once (if) you purchase a DSD capable DAC. Have a look here. There is a free trial period to figure out if you like it or not.

    I'm not saying Audirvana is the best. All of the player software has individual idiosyncrasies. But it's very popular with Mac users and it's probably the best place to start.
     
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  2. RobGordon35

    RobGordon35 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Scotland
    Yeah I actually have Audirvana, havent been using it recently (ironically) I'll have a look at my DAC its a TEAC dt-1. I noticed the bitrate for my Doors 24bit sound files is, around 3000kbps on average. The Beatles seem to be about 1600. Meanwhile the Prince Hi-Rez files I have are around 5-6000. All are 24 bit but vary a lot in the bitrate. :confused: Is there no 'standard' when it comes to 24bit files?

    [​IMG]
     
  3. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    Bitrate is affected by bit depth, but mostly sample rate. I suspect the titles you're calling out have different sample rates.
     
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  4. RobGordon35

    RobGordon35 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Scotland
    I see. I'm guessing the sample rate is higher the better yeah?
     
  5. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    Looks like 48 kHz max sample rate. You can set this manually in Audirvana so that it always resamples when fed higher than 48kHz material. If you're just using iTunes, it's relying on Core Audio to do the resampling. You might get better sound quality with Audirvana.
     
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  6. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    Hehe. Well, many, many, many keystrokes have been spent in the forum debating that exact topic. :cool:
     
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  7. RobGordon35

    RobGordon35 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Scotland
    :D lol Ahh... so a 'subjective' subject? I dont know, I sometimes wonder just what difference it makes when you get to a certain level. We have access to formats that show the age of certain master tapes. What is it that we're all looking for I wonder? They say you cant hear 19-20khz after 19, well I can hear to 17 and I havent been nineteen foe about 20 years!) but I can tell the difference whether something has been mastered properly or not. Maybe thats the difference?
     
  8. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    Well, my advice would be to consider a more modern, USB DAC. Maybe even one that is DSD capable. I believe you would get a significant improvement in sound quality on the digital side of your system. Your R2R decks are most impressive. No doubt you have been exposed to high resolution audio!
     
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  9. RobGordon35

    RobGordon35 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Scotland
    Thanks, yeah the Revoxes are nice, they're starting to suffer dry solder joints now but they still sound good. :) Will have a think about the USB dac. Had never considered that.
     
  10. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    For me, I've found it easier to keep my lossless ALAC files in iTunes and just fire up Audirvana to play my relatively small library of DSD files, and just drag and drop albums into Audirvana as I go. If you only have three SACD rips this seems like your best bet.
     
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  11. jkauff

    jkauff Senior Member

    Location:
    Akron, OH
    JRiver Media Center can mount an SACD ISO image and play it as DSD, at least on the Windows version. They have a Mac version but I don't know about its feature set.
     
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  12. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    It has that same ISO capability in the Mac version.
     
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  13. If I were you, I wouldn't bother with converting the ISO's to anything else. I'd just play them as-is in JRiver or Audirvana--if you are only going to be playing them via your Mac.

    If you are going to load the files on portable devices, then it makes sense to rip to DSF or DFF files, or to convert to 24/88.2, 96, 176.4, or 196 PCM ALAC or FLAC. If you convert to PCM, you'll also have to use a filter to eliminate ultrasonic noise. I think most DSD-to-PCM conversion programs have an adjustable setting for this.
     
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  14. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    The Mac version of PonoMusic World should also support playing the ISO file directly. PonoMusic World is a special version of JRiver Media Center.

    JRiver can convert an ISO to DSF files, but the conversion involves a conversion to PCM during the process so I wouldn't use JRiver to split an ISO to separate DSF files. Maybe a future version of JRiver will address that.
     
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  15. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    FWIW, both programs will support multichannel playback from ISOs.
     
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  16. stenway

    stenway Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Im a mac user: Audirvana play! ISO's perfect, they improve the app over this years.

    Rob, I dont understand why you try to convert the .iso ? why just not play the .iso in Audirnava?

    my big question is: I just have a mac computer, audirnava and .iso SO!!! if I play of course I don't get the great sound quality of a SACD, what I need to listen the SACD .iso's in a proper way? a DAC and a Analogue Speakers? and that is?

    Im a vinyl and cd redbook guy, seriously help!!! on SACD .iso's in my computer :(
     
  17. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    You'd need a DSD capable DAC. I've never heard one, so I can't say how much better it sounds then letting Audirvana convert it to PCM on the fly, which I think sounds great.
     
  18. stenway

    stenway Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    by example, one of this? http://www.musicdirect.com/c-806-dsd-dacs.aspx
    and what happens with other normal files redbook (like flac, alac)? I need buy another "normal" dac? or!!! all DSD DACs works for NON DSD files too :confused:
     
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