Thread: Major sound difference between SACD 5.1 through Sony BDP-S370 vs 88hz Converted file via Media Player.

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Post by windhoek March 18, 2015 (11 of 29)
My OPPO 103D has a definite bass boost compared to playing SACD ISO files when both are fed into my AVR, so I'm not surprised to hear you say your Sony is more punchy. I prefer the flatter sound of my media player as source however, because in my smallish room with neighbours on three sides, I don't want anymore bass than there should be.

Post by Iain March 18, 2015 (12 of 29)
Deribas said:

And all (or most) receivers and processors downsample to 48 KHz for Audyssey processing, as I recall, making sony's higher PCM output rate immaterial.

Use of that "feature" is optional, not mandatory.

Post by Pianist718 March 18, 2015 (13 of 29)
Great feedback so far. Thank you. To answer some questions...

"Is BDP decimating the DSD bitstream to 24/176.4 PCM and then transferred to AVR, or is your AVR processing the DSD bitstream direct from BDP?"

To answer this ... every time SACD is played through Sony, my receiver shows exactly "24/176.4" .. which was kind of weird to me. I know when I play some FLAC files through WD Media player, receiver shows 192/24 and 96/24.

I am using bass management on receiver. Sub set to 120 and crossover is set at 60.

My biggest thing that I noticed I guess was the surround working much better on Sony vs the media player. Both connected via HDMI to receiver.


The files the Media player used were CONVERTED using Foobar off of SACD image file ... same file that I burned on the disk.


"What did you set up as output format for your SACD player (via HDMI to the receiver, I assume?)
With some devices you have a choice of PCM at 88.2 Khz (less commonly 176.4 KHz) OR bit streaming DSD"

I set that option to PCM I believe on the Sony player.

I know my other SACD player (maybe I should test Sony vs Denon just for fun) has BASS boost option that I engaged ON. But Sony doesn't seem to offer that anywhere in settings.

Post by Iain March 18, 2015 (14 of 29)
Pianist718 said:

Great feedback so far. Thank you. To answer some questions...

"Is BDP decimating the DSD bitstream to 24/176.4 PCM and then transferred to AVR, or is your AVR processing the DSD bitstream direct from BDP?"

To answer this ... every time SACD is played through Sony, my receiver shows exactly "24/176.4" .. which was kind of weird to me. I know when I play some FLAC files through WD Media player, receiver shows 192/24 and 96/24.

...

BDP will decimate the DSD bitstream to one specific PCM sample rate at 24 bit depth.

FLAC files will be either 16 or 24 bits at any of the following PCM sample rates:
1) 44.1KHz,
2) 48KHz
3) 88.2KHz
4) 96KHz
5) 176.4KHz
6) 192KHz
7) 352.8KHz
8) 384KHz

For practical purposes, items 7 and 8 are seldom used.

Post by Iain March 18, 2015 (15 of 29)
Pianist718 said:

...

I am using bass management on receiver. Sub set to 120 and crossover is set at 60.

...

"What did you set up as output format for your SACD player (via HDMI to the receiver, I assume?)
With some devices you have a choice of PCM at 88.2 Khz (less commonly 176.4 KHz) OR bit streaming DSD"

I set that option to PCM I believe on the Sony player.

...

Something about that crossover point doesn't seem right. Have you tried other crossover point settings? My Denon AVR-3313 just has one setting for that which is set at 110 hz. Do you have the original PEQ amplifier or the latest PEQ3 amplifier in your F12 sub-woofer?

The 120 for your setting is for BD LFE channel exclusively. My AVR doesn't have that configuration setting available as it uses crossover point setting for that.

BTW, have your tried sending native DSD bitstream direct to AVR-4311 for comparison purposes to decimated PCM?

Post by Pianist718 March 18, 2015 (16 of 29)
Iain said:

Something about that crossover point doesn't seem right.

BTW, have your tried sending native DSD bitstream direct to AVR-4311 for comparison purposes to decimated PCM?

I have pretty decent speakers and found that crossing them at 60 did sound better than 80 for me.

Regarding DSD ... will that change my receiver showing 176hz to a higher rate? I am actually liking sound from Sony much more than WD Media player so if it was a setting for the later, I'd be curious to change it to possibly improve sound ... Sony player sounds great.

Post by windhoek March 18, 2015 (17 of 29)
Fwiw, when I said my OPPO has bass boost I meant its sound presentation is beefier than that of my HTPC media player, not that the OPPO has a bass boost button per se. I should have described that differently in my earlier post.

Post by Pianist718 March 18, 2015 (18 of 29)
So the ultimate question is .... why is surround performance as well as bass sound better on Sony player than via WD Live media player? Same song, file that is on WD Player has been compressed to 88.2hz PCM though. Does that one thing makes such a big difference?

Post by Pianist718 March 19, 2015 (19 of 29)

Post by Iain March 19, 2015 (20 of 29)
Pianist718 said:

So the ultimate question is .... why is surround performance as well as bass sound better on Sony player than via WD Live media player? Same song, file that is on WD Player has been compressed to 88.2hz PCM though. Does that one thing makes such a big difference?

Been there, done that with my previous player which decimated the DSD bitstream to 24/88.2 PCM.

In late 2010, I purchased my first BDP which is a Sony BDP-S770. That machine decimates the DSD bitstream to 24/176.4 PCM. My previous Denon AVR-3310 would not process DSD bitstream. PCM only for that. : (

In comparing the two machines, the Sony obviously is superior in the time domain. The doubling of the PCM sample rate results in significantly enhanced vocal/instrumental sound-stage localisation and timbrel accuracy.

This is what you're hearing when comparing your BDP with the other bit of kit.

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