DIY CD or SACD Drive?

[OneManDIY]

Hello,
Here is the million dollar question.... can I buy an optical drive so I can read CD's (even SACD's)? And I am not talking abut a PC CD drive (unless that is the only alternative).

My question is more geared to a DIY CD/SACD player. Has anyone ever built one?

There are plenty of DIY DAC projects so why not add another layer and go directly to the digital source?

Any info on the DSP involved in converting the digital stream? Data sheets?

 

[Zero Cool]

Lots of people have built DIY cd players. and you can buy the Phillips CD-Pro drive mechs and they have a built in DA converter and I2S outputs you just need to build the controller for it. but I understand you can even buy that! then just add your own DAC!

SACD is a bit more complicated. Im not sure how the DSD stream is output from a CD-Mech? Some Dac's have DSD input capability but i have no idea what all is required to make all that work! But i should would like to know!


Zc

 

[OneManDIY]

I saw a few describing DIY CD player kits.
Do you have some projects you can link me to, something you can recommend? I want to see one built from the ground up and I would like to see schematics if possible

 

[jcx]

SACD uses DVD physical parts, but has multiple layers of copy protection - starting with a servo track on the disc that standard DVD chipsets can't lock onto

you would need to buy a SACD capable drive, with the SACD tech/firmware licensed from Sony already built in

there are also layers of protection for the data stream so that won't be compatible either without the rest of Sony's SACD licensed parts

 

[SoNic_real_one]

Super Audio CD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Zero Cool]

Ok so from reading that Wiki it appears that several players as well as some older playstation3's allow DSD output over HDMI. Many DAC's will allow DSD input. so while it may be possible to do.it sure doesn't look real easy! which is exactly what Sony was going for anyway!

So building your own CD system is MUCH easier if you really wanted to go through all the effort. otherwise skip the SACD and just buy an oppo i guess?


Zc

 

[OneManDIY]

There seems to be one solution for obtaining digital non-DRM output on SACD as well as DVD-A players. A Switzerland based company is offering a modified output board that taps into the digital datastream prior to D/A conversion as well as converting DSD to PCM that the S/PDIF port can transfer.[57]

https://www.dvdupgrades.ch/product/...t/Six-channel-S-P-DIF-output-board/24308.html

.... that is interesting.... If you can understand Swedish. But it seems like they down convert the dsd stream so you'll loose quality

 

[uli]

... If you can understand Swedish ...

this is german

its a Swiss page, some 2000 miles away from Sweden *lol*

cheers Uli

 

[es44]

.... that is interesting.... If you can understand Swedish. But it seems like they down convert the dsd stream so you'll loose quality

A small correction. That's not Swedish, it's German.
I understand why it's easy to get confused, if You're not Scandinavian

All the best
Ebbe

 

[SoNic_real_one]

Well, in my Denon 2930 and 2910, the DSD decoded signal is "exposed" at the input of DAC's (PCM1792A from TI). Same in my Toshiba universal player (DSD 1608 from TI).
So it does not require the swiss "thingie" to get those. Problem is what you do after that with the three independent DSD streams (for surround).

 

[OneManDIY]

Well, in my Denon 2930 and 2910, the DSD decoded signal is "exposed" at the input of DAC's (PCM1792A from TI). Same in my Toshiba universal player (DSD 1608 from TI).
So it does not require the swiss "thingie" to get those. Problem is what you do after that with the three independent DSD streams (for surround).

if it is exposed at the input DAC than it's been decoded and it's ready to be sent as analgue.

If you get to the DAC stage than you are good i suppose but it looks like there are some proprietary SONY decoders before the DAC, if you can get the decoding stage than the rest is just your normal D/A conversion.

 

[SoNic_real_one]

Of course there is the SACD decoder before that! But DAC's are separated and have three DSD lines comming from the specialized decoder.
The only advantage to tap into those line would be to use a higer quality DAC. Since my Denon already uses PCM1791A, there is only so much that you can improve (PCM1792A, DSD1792A or PCM1794A, last one is H/W controlled).