Tipo450s

Jriver's pretty good for converting DSF to Flac. I have also had good success using Weiss Saracon.

No worries. I believe Jriver should be fine on Catalina....you can try Jriver free for 30 days. Your DAC should have no issues playing 176 material.

https://www.sonore.us/dsd2flac.html DSD2Flac For Mac. In Windows Jriver will do the conversion. Also, probably best to covert the DSD file to Flac using a multiple of 44 (88, 176, 352) etc.

Try Best Buy dot com.....you may get lucky and find an open box player. They have one by me (downtown Chicago) right now for $164.99. Have to pickup in store.

The Pioneer BDP-80 was plug and play (rip) for me.....was surprised at how easy it was. The price was reasonable ($200 on Walmart.com) I use it just for ripping as I'm able to stream movies across my network to the Tv. I plan on using it for ripping until it goes kaput and will then use it as a dlna renderer.

Makemkv to decrypt/rip/backup the disc and Audiomuxer to pull the audio off the disc.

https://www.mp3tag.de/en/mac-osx.html

I've had several SACD rips without any track info.....just the nature of the beast.....I just used Mp3Tag to grab the tags off the Internet.

Is it against protocol to give feedback if someone asks a question?.....don't want to fall foul of the powers that be.

I use this for ripping Bluray audio and DVD audio.....works like a charm: http://dvdae.com/

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fsigs8b3m24ld56/AACV2LC2EHfEdiS41fQmlKPxa?dl=0

@Linefader ....good score so I don't think it's a PC issue ...this may help: http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?11366-Multi-Channel-RME-With-Jriver

Try running a test on your PC: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=54396.0 ....anything less than 1000 score might be pushing it for multi-channel DSD.

@Linefader ....Jriver uses the following channel mapping for surround sound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surround_sound ......the description is approx. 3/4 of the way down the article (Channel Identification)

From what I remember the Modwright mods are just to the output stage (adding tubes) and the power supply so the players functionality isn't impacted at all. You should be able to rip without any problems and it shouldn't damage the player. There are some ripping services out there which used to charge $5 for a stereo disc and $7 for a multi-channel and stereo disc. It's been a while since I looked so prices may have gone up. I got a great deal on a new Pioneer BDP-80 and only use it for ripping. Was cheaper than insured round trip shipping the discs (along with a USB hard drive) somewhere and then paying the ripping fees.