Pre-emphasis and OPPO Blu-ray Players

You might want to PM forum member SamS as he is well up on the capabilities of Oppo's players (although I see that he has contributed to this thread, so may well respond here).

 

I haven't tested the 203 or 205, but my 103 has properly deemphasiszed every CD of mine (only a handful) which I know to have preemphasis. The only bad thing is that it doesn't indicate to you when it is applying de-emphasis on the front panel like my Direct Stream DAC does.

 

I just got this note from Oppo , "Yes, the player continues to support de-emphasize based on the TOC of the CD-Audio title that you are playing in the player" , Not sure what they mean by TOC ?

 

TOC = Table Of Contents

For more info, jump to Page 2 of this thread.

 

Correct, Oppo's have no problem with TOC, it's when the tag is located in the SUBQ Channel.

 

Is there a list of what cds have it SUBQ Channel ? Hopefully I won't ever own any cds like that and maybe this is a good purchase . I don't know ... I really need a nice UHD player with Sacd and analog inputs on the back , These Oppos are going fast . It's a lot of money .

 

It's why I never went further with Oppo, I want to throw in a disc without having to worry about it. If you do end up with one with the tag in the Q you can always rip it via foobar with the plugin and burn a disc or stream/usb it.
Here's the most updated list. I tried as much as I could with the available data to provide where the tag is located.
Pre emphasis list?
#1108

 

Every CD has the emphasis flag in the Q subcode, as that is how it is indicated. However, it depends on whether the Q subcode is occurring during the Lead-in (which defines TOC entries) or during a track. Again, read Page 2 for the details.

 

Thank you very much .

 

Thanks Elk, I didn't know this.

 

Will the Oppo BDP-103 properly handle PE when it's fed from an attached hard drive vs from a cd that's being played?

 

The flags are not passed on when the disc is ripped.

 

No, but neither will anything else when you are talking about ripped CDs so far as I know. If you have CDs which are ripped, then you need to use one of the software tools which is available to process those files to apply de-emphasis to them.

 

My plan is to rip cds to a hard drive using dbPoweramp, then connecting the drive to the BDP-103. I thought I’d read where I could indicate on the ripped file that the cd had pre-emphasis.
So can I take this to mean that flagging it in the file wouldn’t affect the playback. Sounds like the Oppo can handle them if I play the cd on the player, but not if I’m reading from an attached drive. Since I won’t be using my computer to play this, it doesn’t sound like I’ll be able to use any kind of equalization for the pre-emphasis CDs .

 

It’ll be fine if you run the rips of pre-emphasised discs through one of the many free software de-emphasis tools. xAct is quick and easy if you’re on a Mac, I’m sure others here will be able to advise for a PC.

 

Exactly. Just run a software de-emphasis tool against your files with known pre-emphasis, and be done with it. I'm pretty confident that wav files don't contain any information about pre-emphasis. I'm less certain about FLAC, but I doubt that it does it either.

I'm wondering if the OP might have HDCD tagging (which can survive ripping, assuming that nothing gets normalized) mixed-up with decoding pre-emphasis, which does not (so far as I know) survive ripping.

 

And if you’re not sure, have a listen. For all my pre-emphasised CDs (which included some 90s repressings) it was immediately obvious - as stated upthread, a curve like this isn’t easy to miss.

That’s an interesting idea, i’ll have to load some HDCD rips onto a stick and pop it in the Oppo to find out. I know it picks the discs up instantly.

 

HDCD is embedded in the audio data, so is preserved. Emphasis is embedded in the CD sub-code, so is lost.

 

Exactly.

 

Thank you

 

What exactely did you worked on the Scarlet Book? Isn't Scarlet Book the SACD format? Does SACD allow pre-enfasis? It makes no sense.

 

Yes, the Scarlet Book (actually books, as it is in several parts) defines the SACD standard.

I worked on Part 2: Audio Specification.

No, there is no emphasis in SACD.

 

I envy you in a good way, it must have been very interesting to work on a format like SACD that uses a digital format unlike anything seen and heard before as DSD. DSD is a format that I love.

 

Yes, a joy for a music-lover who also loves high-quality playback. I got to attend recording/mastering sessions, and meet many of the names we see plastered all over our record collections!

Here's an old thread where I discuss a lot of the SACD history: Early SACD test pressings and format history

(some of the images may not show, but you can click the links to see them -- they are still stored on the Forum)

 

Thank you for the link, I truly appreciate it. I've read it all and discovered some interesting facts about SACD I didn't know. I remember the first time I read about SACD and DSD, if I remember right it was back in 1998, or maybe 1997, I don't remember on what US magazine. I ended up fascinated (I am still) by the concept of DSD and I was sure it would be the digital system that would end all the issues I didn't like about red book CD like it's hard/harsh sound, plain and dull imaging and bad reproduction of the top end. As I said many times here I still haven't heard a CD that gets string instruments sound right, and drums too specially cymbals, but LP records and SACD can. 192/24 gets close but it's not there. I whished the 2015 Van Halen remasters were done on DSD and not 192/24,they sound great but I'm sure DSD versions would get them sound even better.
You know why I got my first SACD player? The 20th Anniversary for the soundtrack of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial that is my favourite soundtrack was released as a hybrid stereo and multichannel SACD. I ordered the SACD version from Amazon US and run to a local Sony shop to get an inexpensive SACD player. I was amazed at its sound quality either by the stereo and 5.1 version. I later got other SACD's like Boston S/T and I also loved its sound, very few SACD discs have dissapointed me. I remeber the first time I heard Mr. Hoffman's SACD for Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, it has an amazing sound that no other format can achieve apart from vinyl LP. It's a pitty the format didn't really catch on.