Ripping SACDs

I'd love to know if anyone comes up with a magic pill for this so I can backup my Kinks, Donovan, etc. so I'm subscribing to the thread by saying this.

Jeff

 

It's actually pretty simple, provided you have the time and the $4-500 needed for the hardware. My main problem is always "what to do with the ripped files?" They take up a lot of HDD space. You can't easily load them into a streaming software that outputs to my existing Logitech devices. At that point, it's not adding convenience for me vs. just pulling out the actual discs.

 

I like my hi-rez in WAV format (seems to be the most universal format to me and that's what format I download HD tracks in, and backup my CDs in (lossless WAV). There's no program that rips from SACD to a lossless format of your choice?

Jeff

 

Well, "lossless" for SACD can only be the DSD file. You can indeed freely convert the DSD file to PCM, then to WAV, etc. But most would argue it's no longer lossless, at that point.

 

A question - if I use J River to play DSD is there any setup that would allow me to play it through my Oppo over a network other than by converting to PCM? For that matter, can you confirm that converting to PCM would work?

 

There is a plugin for JRiver that will allow for DSD output over USB to the '105. I have done this before, but not recently. I'm no expert with JRiver, so hopefully someone else can assist.

 

Over USB, but not via network. That's what I thought.

 

Sorry, I missed that part of your question.

The player can handle DSD via SMB over your network. But again I'm not familiar enough with JRiver to know how that can be easily setup.

 

For me,
Oppo (analog out)->Focusrite2i2->PC -wav.,cut->Flac,- tag, I'm recording what I'm hearing or what's being output anyways, I don't have the patience or disposable money to spend on the PS route, If I had 100's of SACD's I can truly understand going after that DSD for backups, but I can't tell the difference (The joys of getting old) between my Oppo DSD output vs' the recording through my SB Touch

 

There are some folks (not me) that will rip them for you. If you have a small collection, this might be a viable option.

Once you get a good PS3, the ripping process is easy but tedious. Now that there is a demand, getting a good unit is difficult. There are many scammers that "refurbish" PS3s using specious techniques and selling junk.

If you decide to do this, do the research.

 

If anyone is interested, I have decided to sell one of my two units.

See classifieds.

 

That will never, ever, happen via iTunes.

A modified PS3 or a >$10K Sonoma digital workstation (which aren't made anymore) are the only methods which remain 100% DSD throughout. Or if you don't care about DSD but want to remain digital, you can buy some expensive cards which will transcode DSD to PCM in real-time from certain modified SACD players, or particular SACD-player receiver combinations. Or you can record from the analog outputs of an SACD player. Those are the only methods that I am aware of.

 

or you can extract DSD transcoded to 24/176 by mediatek chip inside an oppo player, and subsequently available on the HDMI output, by using an audio de-embedder appliance (i.e. atlona At-hd570) intended originally for the home theatre a/v market. strips audio data from the HDMI stream. also works for capturing hardware-decoded HDCD in format 24/44. search here on shf and over on head-fi for i.e. emmodad+atlona+hdcd

 

Couldn't one record the analog outs from an SACD player?

 

Exactly what I do, same setup as my needledrops, Oppo analog out--->Focusrite 2i2-->PC

 

Correct. That is one of the scenarios which I meant when I said transcode DSD to PCM via certain SACD player/receiver combinations. I forgot to mention the HDMI portion of the equation though. But so far as I know this transcoding of DSD to PCM over HDMI feature is not unique to Oppos, but should be present on most SACD/DVD players with HDMI outputs.

 

noticed a new software product announced/available in past days: Trax Audio SACD Extractor. Product description is somewhat incomplete/ambiguous, seems to combine capabilities of making ISO disk image of the SACD; conversion to PCM; tag editing / database function.

 

I thought most universal players output SACD over HDMI in PCM at a lower sample rate (44.1 or 48 kHz)? I believe that was implemented as a form of copy protection.

 

Macintouch.com mentions a "free trial download that can only rip the first three tracks of a disc" which suggests it can actually rip SACDs using a computer drive. Surely not...?

edit: on the Trax site itself it says "this unregistred version of TraX can handling (sic) only the first three tracks". Hmm

 

Indeed not. The program is not as revolutionary as it's name "SACD extractor" suggests. (Programs like "DVD-A extractor" can really access DVD-A discs in a computer drive)

The Trax page says "Input Format: SACD Disk Image (ISO Format)".

So the software can do things on SACD images that the user has created or downloaded, which were made using the only SACD extraction method so far (PS3 rip). The software cannot rip SACD discs on a computer.

 

Lots of players output SACD via HDMI in pure DSD.

 

Thanks Sam. But there's no way to capture such a stream in real time and save the DSD file, correct? Sorry if this has been discussed before.

 

Correct. Gotta use the PS3 method.

 

Besides the PS3 ripping method, the closest thing to making a digital copy of a SACD (not involving successive D/A and A/D conversion) is using a Blu-ray/SACD player with HDMI output, set the player to convert the DSD stream to 24/88 or 24/176 PCM, connect the HDMI output to a HDMI de-embedder, connect the de-embedder via a S/PDIF to a digital recording device (PC soundcard with digital input or a dedicated recorder) and record that PCM stream.

 

I have a different approach. I back them up analog to 1/2 track, 15 IPS Stereo open reel tape. Tones at the head, IEC1/CCIR equalization, no NR.