PS3 now able to convert SACD to Full-rate DTS!

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bradavon
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PS3 now able to convert SACD to Full-rate DTS!

Post by bradavon »

This maybe of interest to those who have a PS3 with SACD capability:
Up until recently you had to use the HDMI connection to listen to Multichannel SACDs which scuppers about 99% of people. However as of firmware 2.0 the PS3 will now convert SACDs into 1.5Mbps DTS streams when outputted from the Optical output. This makes it fully compatible with any Amp that supports DTS!
See:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... opic=58926
http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/ ... php?t=7894
http://www.ps3sacd.com/faq.html#_Toc177216796

I appreciate most people aren't interested in SACD, DVD-Audio or even DTS CDs (despite the latter two being fully DVD Player and Standard Amp compatible) but coming from someone who has a small collection of SACDs (about 13), DVD-Audio's (about 7) and DTS CDs (about 5) you should be!

Titles with excellent Surround remixes (of the titles I own):

DVD-Audio:

All DVD-Audio's offer High Resolution DVD-Audio Stereo, High Resolution DVD-Audio Surround plus a minimum of DD5.1 but many also have DTS too.

1. The Eagles - Hotel California - DVD-A Stereo and DVD-A Surround. This also has DD5.1 or DTS on board, so you can just buy the DVD-Audio and listen to the DVD-Video layer on any DVD Player.

Hybrid SACD:

Hybrid means it has a standard CD layer as well as a SACD layer. In most cases the SACD is both High Resolution Stereo and High Resolution Multichannel. All the examples below offer all 3 mixes (CD/SACD Stereo/SACD Multichannel):

1. Genesis - We Can't Dance - SACD + DVD *
2. Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms - 20th Anniversary Remaster
3. Jeff Wayne's - War of the Worlds
4. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

* The entire Genesis back catalogue has been recently released as 2 disc packages - Disc 1 is a Hybrid SACD and Disc 2 a standard DVD with DD5.1 or DTS 96/24 plus documentaries. As the DTS is 96Khz and 24-Bit it sounds strikingly similar to the SACD. The DD5.1 is muddy and a mess though!

The entire Bob Dylan back catalogue is also on SACD and many of REM's work is on DVD-Audio. There are roughly 500 DVD-Audio's on the market and 2000 SACDs. Many SACDs are Classical but there is still a large collection of other genres too.

You can find out what SACDs are out there at (Note: Not all offer a CD layer too, most do though): http://www.sa-cd.net/

Let me tell you War of the Worlds in particular is nothing short of outstanding. It's easily in my top 5 Surround Sound mixes ever. It sounds incredible in High Resolution SACD Surround. It also sounds very good in DTS too (sourced elsewhere).
bradavon
Bruce Lee's Fist
Posts: 24430
Joined: 27 Oct 2004, 19:30

Post by bradavon »

I thought this was great advertising and then Sony go and pull SACD to DTS support in Firmware 2.01. Hopefully it will return in a newer Firmware:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthre ... 839&page=4

:(

Thankfully there are still ways to pick War of the Worlds, Dark Side of the Moon and Hotel California already on DTS CD :D.
EvaUnit02
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Location: Wellywood, Kiwiland

Post by EvaUnit02 »

SACD playback (along with PS2 game backwards compatibility, but oddly not PS1 game playback) has been removed from the 40GB model. The 40GB SKU is currently the only one in production for the European/Australasian regions.