Best way to play sacd-iso MCH

[harriek]

Hello everybody , I am new here and I have a question

I would like to play sacd-iso in MCH from pc to a high end MCH dac (es9018 es9038)

What would your suggestion be? (budget is 1000-2000 euro's)

[Kal Rubinson]

Hello everybody , I am new here and I have a question

I would like to play sacd-iso in MCH from pc to a high end MCH dac (es9018 es9038)

What would your suggestion be? (budget is 1000-2000 euro's)

What do you need? Do you own anything: PC? DAC? Software?

[ted_b]

Yes, Kal and I and many others play in multichannel regularly. And although there are a few gotchas, the overall work is quite doable to get a functioning system. For example, playing ISOs directly is a thing that only a few software players will support (but can be simply rectified by extracting mch DSF files too). Please give us more info, and tell us the dac model, as it is important to know how friendly it is towards all OS's (exaSound dacs, for example, require their own Playpoint to play in Linux world).

[harriek]

I need all;software dac pc etcetc

And I am completely open for any suggestion

I have a insane 5.1 setup with a dv7001 (sacd-r capable)+ oppo 105EU(will sell this probably) and I want to play my 1200+ original sacd titles(will rip these with my CECHC ps3) and many many sacd-iso downloadfiles directly from pc/nas

I'd like to play directly from iso to dac in 5.1

I have no dac yet (I would like the es9018/38 in this dac)

I have no software yet

I have no preferable OS

I have a budget of +/-2000 euro's (exasound e38 is to much.... 3800$)

There are many solutions for 2ch but not for MCH.

So what is the winning-MCH combination? (software/dac/OS)

[Kal Rubinson]

I need all;software dac pc etcetc

And I am completely open for any suggestion

I have a insane 5.1 setup with a dv7001 (sacd-r capable)+ oppo 105EU(will sell this probably) and I want to play my 1200+ original sacd titles(will rip these with my CECHC ps3) and many many sacd-iso downloadfiles directly from pc/nas

I'd like to play directly from iso to dac in 5.1

I have no dac yet (I would like the es9018/38 in this dac)

I have no software yet

I have no preferable OS

I have a budget of +/-2000 euro's (exasound e38 is to much.... 3800$)

There are many solutions for 2ch but not for MCH.

So what is the winning-MCH combination? (software/dac/OS)

 

I do not have a solution for you. The cheapest multichannel DSD DAC is the exaSound. Perhaps you might find a used e28 now that the e38 has been released.

 

The only practical current solution I see that will fit your budget is to convert the ISOs to DSF and play them through your Oppo. This would mean getting a PC/NAS to store the files.

 

FWIW, I am in the process of converting my ISOs to DSFs for more general use and to reduce the load on the CPU.

[audiventory]

FWIW, I am in the process of converting my ISOs to DSFs for more general use and to reduce the load on the CPU.

 

Also conversion ISO to DSF allow use embedded artworks into the DSFs.

 

If you want use ISO at portable player, possibly to save disk space via extracting stereo only or stereo-downmixed (during conversion) multichannel tracks.

[harriek]

Thanks Kal,

Having only an iso-files saves al lot of diskspace(~10TB vs 20TB and a 1:1 backup) and number of files (1200titles=maybe 1600 discs! and 1000+ other downloadtitles) and time; converting to 2ch and mch is very timeconsuming. Iso is just a nice 'containerfile'.

Maybe the new Oppo 205 can be that DAC?

I have to rethinks this...

Why is there so little interest in MCH???

[Kal Rubinson]

Having only an iso-files saves al lot of diskspace(~10TB vs 20TB and a 1:1 backup) and number of files (1200titles=maybe 1600 discs! and 1000+ other downloadtitles) and time; converting to 2ch and mch is very timeconsuming. Iso is just a nice 'containerfile'.

True but compactness is the major advantage of ISO. OTOH, DSF has every other advantage in use. So, I keep my ISOs as backup but am converting the play files to MCH DSF (I never play stereo if mch is available.).

Maybe the new Oppo 205 can be that DAC?

Mebbe but it will never play ISOs and I am not optimistic about networking enhancements.

 

Why is there so little interest in MCH???

Puzzles me, too.

[almo89]

For myself, I connect my PC to my home theatre receiver via HDMI. I can play multi channel SACD ISO's through foobar. I have to convert to PCM because no GPU's allows DSD playback via HDMI, but that's fine in my opinion. Going through the receiver is probably the cheapest and most convenient way if you already have a home theatre set up.

[ted_b]

For myself, I connect my PC to my home theatre receiver via HDMI. I can play multi channel SACD ISO's through foobar. I have to convert to PCM because no GPU's allows DSD playback via HDMI, but that's fine in my opinion. Going through the receiver is probably the cheapest and most convenient way if you already have a home theatre set up.

 

What do you mean by "no GPU's allow DSD playback via HDMI"? There are dozens of AVR's and pre/pros that do DSD over HDMI, but maybe that's not what you are meaning.

[almo89]

What do you mean by "no GPU's allow DSD playback via HDMI"? There are dozens of AVR's and pre/pros that do DSD over HDMI, but maybe that's not what you are meaning.

GPU as in video cards. If you are connecting your PC to the receiver through HDMI, it's usually through the video card and I don't think there are any that can do DSD. A lot of receivers can do DSD decoding like my old Yamaha RXV1800, but I don't think video cards can yet.

[audiventory]

For myself, I connect my PC to my home theatre receiver via HDMI. I can play multi channel SACD ISO's through foobar. I have to convert to PCM because no GPU's allows DSD playback via HDMI, but that's fine in my opinion. Going through the receiver is probably the cheapest and most convenient way if you already have a home theatre set up.

 

Using foobar's inline or other tools offline conversion depend on that DSD decoder you prefer by sound.

 

There may be matter that target sample rate/bit depth you use. Your receiver may have different features for different sample rate/bit depth combination.

 

Also I recommend use ASIO or WASPI for playback via HDMI receiver for avoiding processing into Windows drivers. If your card havn't native ASIO driver, you can use universal driver ASIO4ALL.

[audiventory]

Why is there so little interest in MCH???

 

I suppose, due many people use portable audio (my impression).

[harriek]

For myself, I connect my PC to my home theatre receiver via HDMI. I can play multi channel SACD ISO's through foobar. I have to convert to PCM because no GPU's allows DSD playback via HDMI, but that's fine in my opinion. Going through the receiver is probably the cheapest and most convenient way if you already have a home theatre set up.

 

I do not want to convert to pcm (DoP is something else)

[harriek]

True but compactness is the major advantage of ISO. OTOH, DSF has every other advantage in use. So, I keep my ISOs as backup but am converting the play files to MCH DSF (I never play stereo if mch is available.).

Mebbe but it will never play ISOs and I am not optimistic about networking enhancements.

 

Puzzles me, too.

 

Converting to dsf and iso as backup is maybe an option... saves some space

No, the new Oppo will not play iso's but maybe it can stream DoP MCH from PC? The new es9038 does DoP MCH I think?

[harriek]

I suppose, due many people use portable audio (my impression).

 

Portable????

My 5.1 system is around 800kg (1760lbs) ;-)

[nsxelent]

Does anyone know if the Marantz AV8802A supports multi-channel DSD via HDMI? It uses the AK4490 32-bit DACs on all channels which supports 11.2 MHz DSD so maybe?

[harriek]

Is just saw the price of the new Oppo 205 and its looking good

 

But can it play/stream multichannel dsd on the USB input? (without converting to PCM)

[Kal Rubinson]

1 hour ago, harriek said:

Is just saw the price of the new Oppo 205 and its looking good

 

But can it play/stream multichannel dsd on the USB input? (without converting to PCM)

Doubt it.  The predecessors could not and, after reading the posted user's manual, I cannot find anything to say that situation has changed.  

[harriek]

that would be a major disappointment...

the es9038pro is native capable of (mch??)DoP. Maybe the new Oppo can do mch-DoP on usb input?

[Brewie]

I use the Dune Solo Lite player to connect to my Synology NAS via Ethernet. Output is HDMI that is connected to my AVR.

Dune plays all formats including iso, DSF, FLAC, mch FLAC, mch DSF.

Alternatively I use the OPPO 103 that is also connected via HDMI to my AVR. Only difference; it cannot play iso format.

I guess the combination OPPO/AVR sounds a bit better than DUNE/AVR (price is also quite different).

 

[pippenainteasy]

Can PC really bitstream DSD? I thought it can only output PCM?

 

I always figured the only way to play ISO was to burn onto DVD-R/W and play off a compatible player (Oppo 8x/9x).

[Kal Rubinson]

49 minutes ago, pippenainteasy said:

Can PC really bitstream DSD? I thought it can only output PCM?

 

I always figured the only way to play ISO was to burn onto DVD-R/W and play off a compatible player (Oppo 8x/9x).

You can (because I can).  The issue is how and to what.  HDMI often imposes constraints  but USB works for me.

[audiventory]

6 hours ago, pippenainteasy said:

Can PC really bitstream DSD? I thought it can only output PCM?

 

It can, because, as rule, audio player is restricted and less powerful PC 

[Brewie]

In my case I use an .iso file on my NAS (or alternatively on my PC) and I can access it with the DUNE player (which is only a small 150 Euro mediaplayer). The dune player plays the .iso file like any other music file (flac, mp3, wav, mch flach, mch dsf).

Then the output from dune (hdmi) is send to the input of my AVR (hdmi again).

I can do the same with any other file format.

If you use an SACD disk in your OPPO, the SACD format is also .iso and it will play the disk of course.

However if you use your OPPO to play an .iso file from the network, it won't be able to play it. Any other files like flac, mp3, mch flac, mch dsf will not be any problem to play.