Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Oppo BD 93/95

The Elton John SACD sounded great. I was a bit disappointed to discover that the CD option in the SACD Multi/Stereo/CD track selections would only play Multi and Stereo. The CD option seems to have been disabled, but not greyed out. I could choose it, but nothing happens when I do. When I switch between Mutli and Stereo SACD options, the track stops for a few seconds, then restarts at the beginning. I couldn't tell any difference between these two settings because it seems my receiver mixes some of the left and right channels in to the center on stereo mode anyways.

I guess if I'm going to do any comparison between SACD and CD, I'll still have to buy the CD, along with more wait time between listening to the separate tracks.

I can see why noone would want to play SACD's in CD mode outside of this comparison, but it would be nice if they could at least implement the ability to play the CD tracks since the option is there. This leads me to believe that maybe they did that on purpose, because there may not be that much, if any, difference between the 2.

That's not right.

Are you sure you weren't hearing an imagined "center" because of good imaging?

It could be that this is an SACD only disc. My Take Five SACD is like that.

Nope, your both wrong.

I can put my ears up to my center channels while I'm playing stereo and there is definitely noise coming out of them. It's probably an option I have set in the receiver because at one point in time, I wanted noise coming out of the center channel.

This is a Hybrid SACD. Hybrid's contain both the lower quality CD tracks and the higher quality SACD tracks. I've proven this because my work computer and car do not have SACD players and this SACD will play in both of them. Only it's playing the CD tracks instead.

My Denon receiver overrides my stereo setting if I put in a multi-channel media. I've never tried to put it back to straight stereo unless the media also included a stereo track (which you would have to choose from the media's menu).

I'm like Mark. On my receiver, I am pretty sure "Stereo" would result in fronts only plus LFE to the sub. "Pure Direct" would give me fronts only, no sub. Definitely not center in either case. However, I'm not sure I can even choose either of these when using a multi-channel source. Although, it's possible that I just never tried.

What would happen if you force a multi-channel media into stereo mode? I assume that if you can do it, it must be smart enough to blend the surround and LFE tracks into the main left and right.

Mostly just thinking out loud at this point.

The CD tracks on the SACD disk are stereo only. AFAIK, all CD tracks are either mono or stereo, never multi-channel. SACD, DVD-A, and whatever other derivatives that are out there, would be the only multi-channel sources that I know of (music only).

When I pop in a normal CD, I still get 3.1 sound. I just need to check my receiver settings. But, I'd probably set it back to 3.1 anyway since that's the way I prefer to listen to it.

One option that I'm a little confused about is PCM vs DSD.

On the back of the SACD, there is a logo for DSD. When I flip back and forth from PCM and DSD options on the OPPO, it doesn't restart the track and there is no sound difference. There is an on screen note when picking DSD that says it requires a DSD compatible receiver. I don't know if Pioneer Elite VSX 21TXH model is, or not. When playing the disk, the receiver panel displays the letters SACD, so I know it's recognizing it as an SACD disk.

According to other stuff I've read online, SACD is always in the DSD (Direct Stream Digital) format. Some were originally recorded in PCM, but it gets converted to DSD before put on the disk. I guess there must be some old ones out there still in the pre-converted condition. It this is so, I'd think that the player would automatically change to PCM without requiring a person to manually make that switch. Confusing.

If the AVR will not process DSD, the player will default to PCM. Not many audio processors except DSD.

Here's a paragraph copied and pasted here direct from the receivers manual, page 27:

Input of the following digital audio formats:
– Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS, High bitrate
audio (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio), DVDAudio,
CD, SACD (DSD signal), Video CD, Super VCD

This is information concerning HDMI #1, out of 4 hdmi inputs. When I go home I'll check to make sure I'm plugged into HDMI #1. I'm pretty sure I am but will need to check.

catbrat, which elton john sacd are you talking about (please name it, i have no idea what eltons second album release was named)