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Topic: [TOS #9] Using a Sony DAV-S500 home cinema system to optically record  (Read 3582 times) previous topic - next topic
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[TOS #9] Using a Sony DAV-S500 home cinema system to optically record

(Edit: It seems my thread title was truncated. It should be "Using a Sony DAV-S500 home cinema system to optically record SACD to stereo WAV")

I have four SACDs that I'd like to copy the audio off, so I can have the audio on my computer with the rest of my music and just forget about the SACDs themselves. I know SACDs are multichannel/high-fidelity and are not straightforward to rip, but I'd be happy enough to get the audio "downmixed" to 44.1kHz 16-bit stereo.

I have a Sony DAV-S500 home cinema system that can play SACDs, and I was thinking I could record the audio through an optical connection to a MP3 player I have that can record WAV through optical line-in. But then I was wondering what signal the Sony system sends out its optical output when it's playing a SACD. Does it "downmix" the multichannel audio to stereo? Or maybe while it's playing the multichannel audio, it sends the audio signal from the PCM stereo layer of hybrid SACDs to the optical output? Is that possible?

The SACDs I have are hybrid discs, and I know (at least it's my understanding anyway) that I could just rip the PCM stereo layer of the discs, but to my ear the multichannel audio is different to the stereo mix, and I'd ideally like to copy a "downmixed" version of the multichannel audio. (Am I mistaken? Would the "downmixed" multichannel audio be the same as the audio from the stereo layer of the SACDs?)

I appreciate any insight you can give me.

[TOS #9] Using a Sony DAV-S500 home cinema system to optically record

Reply #1 –
I assume there is a setting on your SACD player to select the audio stream.    After that, I have no idea what your MP3/WAV recorder is going to do. 

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(Am I mistaken? Would the "downmixed" multichannel audio be the same as the audio from the stereo layer of the SACDs?)
That's up to the producer. 

With movies, the 5.1 and stereo mixes are usually done separately, so the downmix is usually different from the stereo mix.  But, if they want to cut corners, or if they feel the downmix is good enough, they can make one surround mix and derive the stereo track from an "automatic" downmix.

Or, they can take the really easy way out and supply only a surround track, and the DVD player will mix it down to stereo on on stereo systems.  With a hybrid disc they don't have that option and they must provide a stereo mix, since the CD layer has to be stereo.

[TOS #9] Using a Sony DAV-S500 home cinema system to optically record

Reply #2 –
I just wanted to add a quick follow-up here.

My SACD player in fact sends no signal through its optical output when playing a multichannel SACD, so I was mistaken in thinking that I'd be able to have the SACD player downmix the multichannel audio to stereo and that I'd be able to record the downmixed audio through the optical out.

Additionally, I could confirm that the multichannel audio on a hybrid SACD can differ from the stereo audio. One of my SACDs is 'Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub)' by Groove Armada, and when playing the multichannel audio, after the end of 'Join Hands', there is about 40 seconds of atmospheric/bird sounds, which is entirely missing from the stereo audio on this hybrid disc.

[TOS #9] Using a Sony DAV-S500 home cinema system to optically record

Reply #3 –
Quote from: osullic on
My SACD player in fact sends no signal through its optical output when playing a multichannel SACD, so I was mistaken in thinking that I'd be able to have the SACD player downmix the multichannel audio to stereo and that I'd be able to record the downmixed audio through the optical out.

I'm not surprised. The end user was not supposed to be able to copy SACDs digitally. The format basically was explicitly designed to make this endeavour as hard as possible. It was entirely proprietary and closely guarded. DSD is quite inefficient storage wise, and a 1-bit stream is not entirely transparent the way properly-dithered PCM is - but it was plenty exotic. Obviously an approach like that is totally at odds with the way music is commonly stored and played back today, rendering the format obsolete within a decade of its introduction.

AFAIK, only [removed] can rip SACDs.

[TOS #9] Using a Sony DAV-S500 home cinema system to optically record

Reply #4 –
Quote from: stephan_g on
The end user was not supposed to be able to copy SACDs digitally.
And with that, this thread should have been closed long ago.

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[one or more things] can rip SACDs.
So, you got the above right, but you failed to understand its implications for this site. Please refer to #9 of the Terms of Service. Too many violations of this slip through the cracks. Well, not today, at least.