SACD SPDIF DSD LAYER DAC

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To many of us interested in high quality audio probably bought a number of SACDs shortly after their launch. As time passed we saw the advance of "computer" audio and with it came a new market for DACs. Throughout this time we saw the demise in the sales of audio optical discs and the audio only hardware to play them on. In return we saw the introduction of the BluRay disc and the universal disc player capable of playing most forms of optical disc and in many cases could play SACDs. So there we have it, the availability of DACs with great resolution and universal disc players. What we didn't have was the capability of extracting the high resolution layer from an SACD or BD because these wonderful DACs didn't support HDMI. THIS HAS CHANGED and not because of the introduction of HDMI inputs on DACs.

For the total sum of about £1,200 you can have a universal disc player THAT PASSES THE DSD/24bit digital signal TO YOUR DAC VIS SPDIF. THIS IS NO MYTH, CON OR OTHERWISE. What is that player and where do you buy it. You can't but doesn't mean you can't have it.

The Recipe:

1 x OPPO 103/103D Bluray player - widely available.
1x VANITY HD DOP board - not readily available but can be purchased online.
1x Assortment of cross headed screwdrivers
1x Cocktail Stick (or wooden toothpick)
1x Free Sunday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon recommended as you'll need upto an hour to replace the analogue board in the Oppo with the Vanity board and the rest of the day spent rediscovering your SACD collection. The Vanity board is just brilliant and we know that the Oppo is a highly praised product anyway, yet the combination of both is a universal player that'll hold its own against any optical drive including those costing vastly more money. Further, use the money you save by buying a very high quality coax cable of 1.5m length.
I use my Oppo Vanity DOP 103 with a PS Audio DirectStream and my next project is to go out and buy more SACDs as there's plenty around to buy. Just make sure the SACDs you buy are either transcribed from an analogue master or 21st century recordings as the masters are probably 24bit or even DSD. Don't bother with anything in between as the master is probably red book standard. Lastly, will mention the Audiosensibility coax cable (1.5m is mandatory) that works like a dream in my set up.

Well done AudioPraise for bringing to us the treasure that the corporate morons at Sony binned as worthless.

Hi John,
Many thanks for your post. Let me mention that the Oppo can also play DSD files, so you can also shop for online DSD(64) music.

Regards,
Pavel