SA-CD.net - Sony BDP to Yamaha RX-V for SACDs!

Post by Audiodon December 2, 2014 (1 of 3)

I decided to jump in to playing DSD sources starting with SACDs. I researched and found that my Yamaha RX-V867 can play DSD via HDMI, and that a cheap Sony Blu-ray player (BDP-S5100) can stream DSD out the HDMI. Hooked it up, had to set the Sony to send DSD instead of PCM, and the Yamaha is playing DSD through its Burr-Brown DACs! The front panel even shows DSD (not PCM)!

Just listened to Norah Jones with an A/B comparison from SACD/DSD versus analog out of a Marantz CD-5004 playing the same CD-DA. Quite a bit more 'spacious' on the DSD side, so I can't wait to hear some more!

Note that the latest Sony BDP-S5200 seems to have dropped SACD support.
For those with other Yamaha receivers, many of the current Yamaha RX-Vs use 24-Bit 192-kHz Burr-Brown (TI) DACS, which sound pretty good to me so far!

Next project is to stream DSD from other sources... This may be an Oppo opportunity...

Post by Yoropiko1 December 4, 2014 (2 of 3)

Your Yamaha, like my RXV2067 is capable of receiving DSD via HDMI ( and shows DSD in the display ) but internally converts the bitstream to 24bit 88.2Khz before then converting it futher to Analog. Only the the RX V3067 in that range is capapble of a pure DSD>>>Analog conversion ( assuming all EQ/Bass management are switched off as well ).
Given you have a Sony Player, have you tried converting the DSD internally and outputting the bitstream as 176.4Khz PCM and sending that via HDMI to your Yamaha receiver?. I found it made a slight improvement to the overall sound when I used my 1st gen PS3 to play back my SACDs this way ( the PS3 is incapable of bitstreaming DSD via HDMI so must convert to PCM, but does so at 24bit 176.4Khz )

Give it a try, you might find you prefer this method, although I'll be the first to admit that the difference between a 88.2Khz conversion and 176.4Khz one would be slight if in fact even perceptable in a blind test. Some might suggest its better to let the receiver do the DSD>>>PCM conversion, others the player, again there is no right or wrong just which sounds better to you personally : 0 )

Post by Ubertrout December 4, 2014 (3 of 3)

I don't know if the Yamaha RX-V867 is converting to PCM as an intermediate stage or not, but given its position in Yamaha's lineup I would suspect it does.

Part of my rationale for getting a RX-A3000 a few years back was that it could do pure DSD in pure direct mode, and it was the only model in Yamaha's product line that could do that. Given that the 867 is about the same vintage, I'd assume it's not doing pure DSD.

Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Even the A3000 only does pure DSD in Pure Direct mode, which disables bass management and speaker correction and such. I find it's not so much of a problem for listening in stereo and 3.0, but more of a problem for surround listening. And many here have argued reasonably that pure DSD playback isn't particularly important.

Short version: PCM conversion is probably happening, be it in the receiver or the Blu-ray player. If you prefer the sound from the receiver's processing of the signal, then that's awesome, and keep using it :).