Question about 755 SACD Player

I'm getting mixed answers from what I read on this board and from what the sales people tell me.
Basically, I'd like to know if SACD actually works as two channel, since I have no intention of getting another amp or surround sound speakers.
It seems from what I read here the answer is yes.
But the sales people tell me no, because in two channel mode the output is analog. It might sound a little better than a regular CD but it's not SACD quality.
So whats the answer, will the player really deliver SACD quality to a '80's stereo amp and speakers?
Or are the sales people trying to get me to buy more equipment?

Thanks

 

Not sure what they salespeople are trying to tell you, since ALL SACD output is analog. If you play an SACD in the 775 (not sure if you meant this or 755, but it really doesn't matter), the optical connection actually turns off.

 

yeah, 775, (I was never good with arabic).
Well, if the SACD output is always analog the sales person must have been confussing the DVD-A with the SACD. I really couldn't believe the SACD player required a whole new system since the disc already required a new player.

looks like new toys for me!!!

 

Yes the 775 plays great in stereo (i have no budget or room for 5 speakers and new amp/processor, etc.) There are stereo rca plugs and a separate group of rca plugs for multi-channel. Nice player, sounds better than my other players on CD and sparkling on SACD! Enjoy.

Wynn

 

Yep. Same here. I do have an analog 5.1 setup, and it sounds great, but the 2 channel is where it's at.

Don't break yourself physically or financially to play 5.1 SACD. Just make sure you have a great amp with ample power for your 2.0 or 2.1 SACD experience.

I love my 775. What da baaah-gain!

Those sales people have it all mixed up, big time. The 775 and the SACD experience is specifically MEANT to be analog out for stereo, ie: Sony doesn't want you to run an outboard way or means of DAC out. Heck, that would defeat a lot of the proprietary encode of the disc.

A great stereo hookup is all you need, 775 or something else, it does not matter.

 

EC3970 needs to find a better shop. Either the salemen were telling him what they thought was the truth, in which case they know even less than he does, or they were lying to try and sell more product.

 

it is funny, though, when I bought my SACD/DVD changer at best buy, the salesperson tried to tell me that the machine was for multi-channel only use. I think they just don't know.

 

No, they don't know. In both Zip's case and EC's case, it's similar information that's misunderstood and upside down.

I know I sound like a repetitive boob, but I'll say it again; Do NOT rely on the audio salesperson to do anything but get the box you want and take your credit card. If you want sophisticated advice, do your homework, use the net, ask here and where ever you like.

There's nothing wrong with a salesperson not knowing because of this, but there IS something wrong when he/she gives out wrong information. Ooh, what a mess... Eeek!

 

It is really disturbing the lack of knowledge by audio salesmen. Thank God for the Net and some excellent info sites (this one included)

 

It was Best Buy.
I didn't quite believe the sales person, not because he was half my age, but because what he was telling me didn't jive with what I read here and what would go for common sense. He claimed that he and everyone had only just attended a lecture/demonstration on the Sony SACDs and he seemed actually to be encouraging me not to buy one with the argument that it wasn't going deliver super audio quality with my two channel system.
I'll be headed back this weekend though.

 

SACD players are very much capable of stereo reproduction, they usually have seperate stereo RCA outputs and multi-channel RCA outputs for SACD playback. And as far as I know, all multi-channel SACD's contain a separate stereo mix. One thing to remember though, most players come set to default to the multi-channel mode on Mch SACD's, so you must set up your player to default to stereo or else you'll just be hearing the Front Left and Front Right information from the multichannel mix.

Enjoy.

 

I really have to ask this question. What does everyone expect when an audio/video store hires people at minimum wage? It gives people zero motivation to really know their stuff and be genuinely helpfull. These children who serve you couldn't care less about your questions and needs as they're only there until the B&B (bigger & better pay) job comes along. I don't know about all of you guys but with all my attained audio knowledge I sure wouldn't work for minimum wage. JMHO

 

That was exaclty his argument. That I could only get the stereo mix on the SACD which would be no different from a regular cd. The super audio layer played through a stereo system would be missing information, especially non-hybrids.
That stopped me from buying the player.

 

What Dave said.

 

He's absolutely insane. A multichannel SACD will contain 2 Hi-Rez mixes, one in stereo and one in multichannel. You will not lose any information listening in stereo unless you are playing back the multichannel mix through only 2 speakers. All you have to do is make sure the player is set to default to stereo when playing a multichannel disc. Of course, even if it doesn't default to stereo, you can always switch to stereo manually before playing it.

The Hybrid issue is a different one entirely. If a SACD is a hybrid, it will contain 2 layers, one a high density SACD layer, which can contain either a stereo mix or stereo and multichannel mixes, and one a Redbook layer which will only play back 16bit/44.1 PCM stereo. Believe me, you will not be missing any information.

 

True enough for the mass market chains; not so for the audio retailers. Finding a good dealer who will be there for you in the long term is a godsend. Some of these sales folk really know their stuff but how they use it depends on the incentives, commission, pay structure. If you can find the right dealer you are half-way there. Not everyone wants to have to do the hard work; some are willing to pay for it, and for that you need the dealer.

Regards,
Geoff

 

The high end people can really intimidate. And they would have more of an interest in steering you wrong than some kid at Best Buy. Difficult to trust the info from one or the motives of another.
I recently bought a rega CD player and they were insistant that I buy $250 plugs for it. Now this was news to me, why would you want any gadet/component between the cd player and the amp when both are already decent? I thought Mapleshade's philosophy was the right one, the less the better.
I ended up with the $70 plugs, but I feel stupid for buying them.

What really got me was that although I had to travel to another city just to find the rega, in a store I had never set foot in before, my name was already in their computer.

 

High end audio cheaters!

 

The answer is yes. Right now you can *only* get the high-resolution (SACD) signal via the analog outputs of the SACD players, and analog inputs of the receiver. This means that any 80's stereo amp and speaker can accept it. No digital input path is required.

They're wrong -- the SACD implementation so far *requires* analog output/input.
This will likely change some day, when the record companues get less paranoid about cloning SACDs.

There are stereo-only SACDs and SACDS thats have stereo and multichannel SACD output. In both cases it's analog. In the latter case your receiver has to have 6 analog inputs, which only tend to occur on modern units. But i fyou don't have one, you can play the stereo version using the usual two channel inputs.

Many SACDs also have a CD layer, so that if your player does not have an SACD decoder in it, you can still play it as a CD. You will lose whatever benefit of 'high resolution' encoding there is, though, since CDs are at 16/44 resolution.

 

No, they'd be wrong abtou DVD-A as well. DVD-A. like SACD, also currently is implementated such taht the output is *analog* for high resolution play. (There's one or two high-prcied proprietary exceptions from Denon and Meridian(.

The only thing you can get from the *digital* out of a DVD-A player is
some form of DVD-video, or DTS/ Dolby Digital surround sound (or CD sound if the disc is a CD).

If you don't have full-range speakers, what you *may* need is some sort of bass management...but this too is changing. Some newer SACD players have it 'built in'.

 

No wonder.

 

Well, the *mix* will be no different from the CD layer, it's true. No remixing is done to the stereo version.

Supposedly the SACD version will sound better though, due to its higher resolution.

Supposedly.

The *mix* of the surround version *will* be quite different, since it's a remix, and you will need a surround setup and a preamp section with 5.1 analog inputs to hear the SACD version.

.

That's badly phrased. You're not missing information, you're missing an entire remix. But if all you want is to hear the original mix, in proper stereo, in high-resolution format, then all you need is an SACD player and a standard full-range two-speaker setup.