Ripping SACD's for Separate CD and DVD Tracks

Still learning and would appreciate verification of my understanding. I have a Nucleus and a RME ADI-2 DAC.

It appears that SACD’s have several versions of the music to play and that they are on different layers of the disk. One is the standard CD resolution and another is the DVD64 version. It appears that I need to rip the SACD twice to get both versions using the dBpoweramp Music Converter. Is my understanding correct?

I also attempted to rip a standard CD disk using the DVD64 format and it appears to have been successful. Is this possible and if so would my rip at DVD64 be equivocal to an SACD rip if it were available or is my rip inferior to a studio DVD hi-res file? Thanks for any thoughts you may have on this issue. Steve

You can’t rip the DSD layer of an SACD without lengthy workarounds. These include using certain Blu-ray players that have been ‘hacked’ to access the DSD layer.

Thanks for your reply. Does that mean that when I play the track using Roon that indicates a DVD64 file format that it is incorrect?

What disc-drive are you using the rip the disc?

You’re probably just getting the ripping software to convert PCM to DSD.

An inexpensive LG drive

Yes, you probably have the ripping software set to convert PCM to DSD. So technically, yes, you are playing a DSD file via Roon, but it’s just a rip of the CD layer of a hybrid SACD.

Here’s a good guide to ripping the DSD layer of SACD’s, if you’re interested:

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It is true that it requires the use of certain BD players and specific software but I would not call it lengthy or difficult. As with many things, it might be lengthy or difficult the first time.

As noted above, it is almost certain that you have not obtained a DSD64 (DSD not DVD is what you seem to be looking for) file unless you used one of the specific methods for it, regardless of what it is labeled. Since it is not, it is not equivalent to an SACD rip or a studio DSD file. See Martin Kelly’s post and link above.

Accurate has nothing to do with this. What you have is a rip of the CD which, somehow, has been converted to DSD by your ripping procedure. The result is that all you have is the CD version converted and upsampled.

That’s a tell. AFAIK, such a drive cannot rip the DSD layer nor be accessed by the essential program to do so.

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Roon Conversion shows the source to be DSF DSD64 2ch. Then DSD to PCM conversion DSD64 to 352.8kHz PCM. Then, Bit depth conversion 64bit Float to 32bit. Then to Nucleus and my RME DAC.

So, my rip of the CD layer of a hybrid SACD is less accurate than a studio file using DSD?

Roon can upsample most formats to DSD too, assuming your cpu has enough grunt to do so, DSD64 should be easy, higher rates need several times more powerful cpus, and the likes of DSD512 and higher are probably not going to work on most mainstream hardware.

The DSD layer of an SACD is roughly equivalent to a copy of the master. So yes, a rip of the CD layer of a hybrid SACD will be of a lower quality.

If it is a lower quality than a studio DSD file, is it superior to a standard CD studio file?

The CD layer of a hybrid SACD disc (hybrid is what discs with both layers are called) is identical to any other CD of that release. There is no extra info just because it sits in a hybrid disc.

I would personally recommend against upsampling at rip, and I kind of doubt this is what you’re doing. You would have had to make very specific choices in your ripping software to achieve that.

The method to rip SACDs using one of the blu-ray players that can is relatively simple actually. As Kal was saying, maybe the first one feels more convoluted, but it really is a simple process, and I would very much recommend you do that if you really care about getting the most out of those discs.

Or just buy an SACD player! :wink:

But I assume you want it in Roon

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SACD person here - totally agree, ripping your SACDs with a cheap player and putting them into Roon is way, way more convenient than spending $$$ on a big SACD transport - plus you can do multichannel very easily, something most of those expensive transports simply don’t do.

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I’m not endorsing physical media in general or SACD in particular, but I wanted to point out that if you get a BD player that can rip SACDs, you can also use that to play the discs, multichannel and all. No need for a “big SACD transport”.

It depends which Blu-Ray player you buy. Most players cannot play SACD discs.

Um, one that can rip SACDs? If it can rip, it can play.

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Only certain Blu-Ray players can be hacked to rip the DSD layer of SACD’s, not all of them.

Some can via analog multichannel out. Many do not have that, and will either refuse to output multichannel SACD layers over digital out, or internally convert to PCM first (not necessarily an audible difference but I’d rather do that in software like Roon than trust a cheap player to do it as part of its own DDC or DAC stage)

Either way - putting stuff in Roon means I can play it along with everything else, do DSP, etc, so I personally find that much more convenient.