So I wanna rip my SACD collection...

[Mercutio]

SACDs, for those who don't know, are two, four or six channel high definition recordings with a normal CD layer and a second DVD-like layer that typically contains 96 or 192kbps audio.

The HD Audio doesn't play in anything but devices specifically made to handle SACDs. There is no consumer-available software for listening to one. All the devices I do have only output via six channel analog connections.

I have quite a large number of SACDs. They're the only discs I can't rip or format shift. I have a couple players but I don't expect them to last forever.

So I want to do something with them.

I figure this means obtaining something that will let me input six simultaneous analog audio streams since I don't want to re-mix multiple stereo pairs and possibly change the intentions of the original recording; and getting some kind of software that's capable of handling up to six channel audio in a proper format.

I figure I can turn the results into nice six channel .flac or .ogg files or if I had to I could probably tolerate .AC3 or .DTS files that I'd have to play with something like PowerDVD.

So what do I do that with? Can I just run some kind of connection to a mixing board of some sort?

Anybody know anything about this?

 

[Handruin]

I don't think a mixer would work unless if you wanted to mix down to two channels but it sounds like you want the option to take the unbalanced output connections of your SACD device and record all 6 channels simultaneously and retain the tracks (be it in some other digital format like FLAC). I know this is a bit more than you're looking for, but maybe a device like this M-Audio 1010LT would be able to capture some of what you need. There are possibly better options than this card, because I see it's limited to 96KHz sampling where as you have SACDs upward of 192KHz (I think)? You could then pair the hardware with a multi-track audio recording suite like Adobe Audition to record all the tracks at the same time. Then batch convert to FLAC.

Are there no ways of extracting SACD music digitally even if you had to buy a device?

 

[Stereodude]

They can now be ripped. It requires a early (first?) gen PS3 that's behind on updates (firmware 3.55 or older). Usenet is crawling with digital SACD rips encoded to FLAC. link

 

[Mercutio]

They can now be ripped. It requires a early (first?) gen PS3 that's behind on updates (firmware 3.55 or older).

I'll have to look to see if that's more economical than buying some off the wall prosumer sound card. I've seen SACD rips online. I assumed they were recorded via analog somehow.

 

[Stereodude]

I'll have to look to see if that's more economical than buying some off the wall prosumer sound card.

Supposedly you can find 3.55 or earlier firmware SACD capable PS3's on ebay for $250 or so.

I've seen SACD rips online. I assumed they were recorded via analog somehow.

Up until fairly recently that's what they were. Someone with an 8 channel firewire interface / sound card (or similar) recorded them from the analog output at 24/96. But the huge swell of them in the past few months are PS3 rips.

 

[fb]

Here's a thread with some more details on the PS3 conversion method.

http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=13021

 

[Mercutio]

fb, do you work for Linn?

From what I've seen, the 1st gen, un-updated PS3s are actually selling for $500+ on Ebay. I can't imagine that's because of demand from SACD-ripping nerds.

 

[Chewy509]

fb, do you work for Linn?

From what I've seen, the 1st gen, un-updated PS3s are actually selling for $500+ on Ebay. I can't imagine that's because of demand from SACD-ripping nerds.

More likely due to the Other-OS option, and the better backwards compatiblity...

 

[Stereodude]

Both first and second gen units have SACD playback.

 

[Mercutio]

Last night I managed to obtain a PS3 that HAD appropriate firmware on it.
Unfortunately, the gentleman I got it from chose to plug it in and update it immediately before he sold it to me. Either that or it connected to an insecure 802.11 AP right after I plugged the stupid thing in. Either way, goddammitsofuckingmuch.

(sob)

Also: PS3s are loud.

 

[Stereodude]

While I'm not a PS3 expert, I thought it prompted you for upgrades.

 

[Mercutio]

Yeah. It didn't. It's just on the latest firmware revision now. The guy that swapped (for a laptop hard drive and a copy of Windows) it to me didn't understand why it was so important that it hadn't been connected to the internet.

It does play SACDs over HDMI. I guess that's nice. Too bad the device itself is so damned loud.

But hey now I can play my choice of Madden Football games. So... woo? I guess.

 

[Stereodude]

My point was more that the guy you traded probably upgraded it. Some quick Googling seems to confirm that it prompts you for updates. Since it didn't ask you, it had to have been upgraded prior to being in your hands.

 

[ddrueding]

Will this news help you at all?

 

[Mercutio]

I am hoping that it will eventually.