Super Audio CD, PS3 and personal frusterations.

Firestreak

Firestreak

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Alright, so I have my PS3 connected to my TV through HDMI and my surround system via optical. For blu-ray and gaming it's great. I get high quality surround sound and many games use this perfectly(The Darkness, Rainbow 6, Elder Scrolls). So anyway, I decided I wanted to try out a Super Audio CD.

For those of you unaware, SACD is one of the two high quality audio formats. It's by far the more popular, compared to DVD Audio, and is generally agreed as the superior technical format. Being partially made by Sony, the PS3 can play the format.

What I assumed was that SACD would simply transfer through optical cable, just as the sound from bluray games and movies do. I was wrong.

Apparently the quality of SACD is so high, that the optical cable does not have enough bandwidth to transfer the music from my PS3 to my sound system.

There are only 2 ways to transfer SACD, HDMI connection and multiple analogs.

The trouble?

1) PS3 doesn't have any multiple analog out connections, the cords all have stereo out only.

2) My sound system doesn't have multiple analog inputs. My system doesn't have HDMI either, being built before HDMI was finalized.

This peeves me, that they put a SACD player into the PS3 but they have no way to output surround sound SACD unless you have a brand new receiver with HDMI.

I can use the analogs that I've got, and play in stereo. It sounds great but it's not in surround sound, which takes away the point of buying SACDs to me.

I can find no way to convert HDMI audio into optical. I would buy tons of SACDs if I could just convert the signal. The extremely high fidelity is in fact 4 times greater than the human ear can even notice, so if there was some loss in exchange for surround sound I'd be a more than happy camper.

I think it's ridiculous there's no option to output via optical and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I'm stumped to find a solution that beats, "buy a new receiver."

All that's really available to me now are blu-ray concerts, which amount to I'm gonna estimate less than 10, where as there are thousands of SACDs I want to pick from.
 
You could probably run an output from your TV to your stereo but that'd result in an audio quality loss.

I ended up having to upgrade my Stereo reciever, but that was due for an upgrade anyways.
 
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Go Sony? Brilliant design decisions FTW?
 
Tagrineth said:
Go Sony? Brilliant design decisions FTW?
Click to expand...

Well in all fairness you can't get any of the high def audio formats playing on the 360, period and a SACD player is packed in here all in one package. It's a great bonus for those of us with HDMI recievers, something worth hundreds of bucks to real music lovers to buy in a standalone unit. Even without it still sounds very nice in stereo.
 
Buy a new receiver.

It's not what you want to hear, but that's the only option. You can't convert between the cable types without going through something like a receiver. One is analog the other is digital, it's impossible to make a cable go from one to the other.

A receiver with HDMI is around only $300 for an entry-level(not even a lolsony brand, a good one), even less if they go on sale. I've seen one as low as $200 before, so it's not going to set you back that much. It won't get you THX, but it'll still push some sound. The only reason I don't have a receiver with HDMI on it(even though I don't have an HDtv, but for when I get one) is because my current one was free and it's THX certified.

The only options for super audio are HDMI or the separate analogs, like you said. HDMI is better in every way and you're already going to be using it for your video, so that coupled with the fact that super audio was never very popular to begin with(only a few units support it), there was no reason to add the analogs in the back of the PS3.
 
Actually the digital signal from HDMI input on a TV, output via optical to a receiver is typically very minor signal loss. That's the only way I see PS3 pulling off the transfer without a direct HDMI receiver.

I'm not going by personal experience or knowledge but I was reading a similar question on an audiophile forum when I was researching HDMI's audio capabilities.
 
Taurothar said:
Actually the digital signal from HDMI input on a TV, output via optical to a receiver is typically very minor signal loss. That's the only way I see PS3 pulling off the transfer without a direct HDMI receiver.

I'm not going by personal experience or knowledge but I was reading a similar question on an audiophile forum when I was researching HDMI's audio capabilities.
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Yeah, in terms of Audio, HDMI isn't hugely better than an optical cable; but that's still not going to get you super audio. It's still better, but the difference isn't nearly as big as it is with video.

If a TV can convert it why isn't there a box somewhere that can do it?
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Because there was never enough market for super audio to become standard on devices, nor a converter to ever be made, to my knowledge. Not many TV's or receivers have super audio ports on them; but it's also not converting the signal, it's outputting. It'd be for if you want to watch cable/antenna in super audio, converting from an input through the TV would either not work or would trash the signal, since TV's don't up convert anything. You wouldn't be able to put in composite video and output in 1080p, same with audio.
 
Firestreak said:
Well in all fairness you can't get any of the high def audio formats playing on the 360, period and a SACD player is packed in here all in one package. It's a great bonus for those of us with HDMI recievers, something worth hundreds of bucks to real music lovers to buy in a standalone unit. Even without it still sounds very nice in stereo.
Click to expand...

Oh I realize it's awesome that PS3 supports SACD at all, you just have to admit no matter what "side" you're on that it's quite a silly oversight / engineering SNAFU on Sony's end.
 
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