SACD won't play in surround 5.1 sound

Linku

Hi there. Apologies for the badly written post, I'm terrible at explaining problems.

I've got a Sony DVP-LS785V DVD/SACD player hooked up to a Sony STR-K840P 5.1 amp by coaxial cable. DVDs play in 5.1 perfectly, but when I put in an SACD which should play in surround sound, I can only get it to play in stereo. The SACD says "Hybrid SACD plays in stereo on CD players and 5.1 surround sound and stereo on all SACD and compatible players."

The player is defiantly reading the SACD part as SACD lights up on the player, and I know how to switch between CD and SACD on it.

The only thing I can think of is that the SACD has a Stereo and a 5.1 track and that it's playing the stereo one (It's Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon 30th Anniversary edition for reference) and that it's only playing the stereo one. If it's not that, what else could the problem be? Like I said earlier, DVDs are playing fine in surround sound.

Thanks for your time.

pH

As you say the SACD will have both a hi-def stereo track and a 5.1 surround track. The player should be able to switch between them.

My SACD player will not play the 5.1 over the digital connect to the amp. I understand this is some sort of copy prevention system enforced on all makers of SACD players (although I don't have a Sony).

To get the 5.1 SACD I need to use 5 analogue connectors from my player to the Amp.

From http://www.timefordvd.com/tutorial/SACDOverview.shtml

hat Else Do You Need for SACD Playback?

For stereo DSD playback, all you need is your stereo-capable audio system (stereo receiver and a pair of loudspeakers) with a pair of analog stereo inputs.

5.1-channel analog audio inputs - For multi-channel DSD playback, it gets a little tricky.

First, you'll need a multi-channel capable SACD player. (Remember that a stereo-only SACD player cannot playback the multi-channel DSD recording of multi-channel SACD discs.)

Second, you will need a 5.1-channel receiver or pre-amplifier with 5.1-channel analog audio inputs and an "analog direct" mode. The 5.1-channel analog audio inputs are required to pass the multi-channel audio signals from the SACD player to the receiver/pre-amplifier.

Due to copyright protection issues, there is currently no digital audio connection implemented like that for movie soundtracks. The "analog direct" mode allows the analog audio signals to pass without any additional analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) conversions in the receiver or pre-amplifier. Any A/D and D/A conversions in the receiver or pre-amplifier only degrade the pristine high resolution audio signal coming out of the SACD player.

formatman

the 5.1 track on that SACD is excellent by the way

Linku

Thanks, I used two of those Red,White and Yellow cables I always forget the name of that I had lying around and the yellow works okay for sound so I used those for the Sub-woofer and Centre speaker and it's working perfectly, Thanks for the help

secret_squirrel

Off to the hifi shop for some 5.1 interconnects - assuming your amp has got a 5.1 aux input?

Must admit I bought a SACD and a DVD-A to see what all the fuss was about when I bought my universal player. I seem to remember the SACD sounding shíte (was bat out of hell) and the DVD-A sounding excellent (Rumours) Still never bought another of either format.

_CreeD_

Besides copy protection SACD uses DSD not PCM - ie. a totally different method of digitally recording/replaying music than CD/DVD/PC's etc. At the moment the only place you're likely to find a DSD converter is in a professional sound studio or cd-mastering lab. You're only getting the CD quality version of the tracks by using Digital outs from your SACD player, you'd be much better off using the Analog outs (And use decent cable! ).
PCM essentially takes snapshots where the resolution of each snapshot is defined by the bit-depth used (16bit for CD, 24 for DVD-A etc) the interval between these snapshots is defined by the sample rate : SACD/DSD uses a more analog like method of only recording the changes from moment to moment - No bit-depth or real sample rate is involved (I can't remember the max offhand but it's up to something close to 2Mhz).
The difference is a bit like plotting a sine wave on paper. With PCM you're using graph paper with the Bit-Depth defining the box height, the sample rate the box width, higher = smaller boxes = a finer wave that is still composed of squares and not a true curve. With DSD imagine the paper is blank, constantly unrolling with the Pen attached to an arm that only allows it to move up and down as the paper moves by (like a plotter), you get a lot closer to a true curve this way.