Making cd-r's from SACDs

[RickH]

Can this be done via analog, running a line from my receiver's headphone jack to my sound card?

[Jamie Tate]

Take the RCA outputs instead of the headphone out. Less circuitry to run through.

There's an amp involved with the headphone output you don't need to be running through.

[Sckott]

Sure. Won't sound the same, but yes you can.

[JonUrban]

Sure. Why can't you use the audio outs of the receiver, though?

[Grant]

I just hope you have a good soundcard, Rick.

[Metralla]

RickH,

If you don't mind my asking, why do you want to do this?

If the disc you are wanting to copy is a hybrid, I wonder if you would not get a better sounding copy by ripping the CD layer (staying in the digital domain).

Since you probably know this, I guess you must have a few non-hybrid SACDs that you do not have duplicated on Redbook. The one that comes to mind is the different mix on "Blonde on Blonde".

Regards,
Geoff

[Sckott]

IMHO, yes you would. If the disc is Hybrid forget about trying to dub it to a sound card. Waste of time.

But if the disc is 100% special, go for it. You just have to realize the dub will do something to it sonically, however slight, because the sampling rate is 9X different....

[fjhuerta]

I wonder if SACD II will make it impossible for us to rip the CD layer.

That would not be very nice. I can't listen to my SACDs in my bedroom system, because I have a DVD player, not a CD one. :(

[misterbozz]

I have a CD-R dub of the non-hybrid Blonde On Blonde SACD; no idea how it was done though. Sounds pretty good - just while waiting for the hybrid over the last few years..

[Jamie Tate]

Originally posted by misterbozz
I have a CD-R dub of the non-hybrid Blonde On Blonde SACD; no idea how it was done though. Sounds pretty good - just while waiting for the hybrid over the last few years..

I made a copy of that for a fellow forum memeber. Turned out really nice. SACD RCA outputs, Grover cables, Apogee converters, Alesis Masterlink. Pain in the arse but now I can listen in my car, I only have the SACD, never had the regular CD.

[RickH]

Originally posted by Metralla
RickH,

If you don't mind my asking, why do you want to do this?

If the disc you are wanting to copy is a hybrid, I wonder if you would not get a better sounding copy by ripping the CD layer (staying in the digital domain).

Since you probably know this, I guess you must have a few non-hybrid SACDs that you do not have duplicated on Redbook. The one that comes to mind is the different mix on "Blonde on Blonde".

Regards,
Geoff

Geoff,

To answer your question, mostly out of curiosity. I've only purchased two SACD's since buying the Sony 500 model last fall and I've only listened to those in two channel. I've not purchased any hybrids so I was just wondering what kind of results I might get by copying from the two-channel mix off the SACD's I have- Journey's "Escape" and Michael Jackson - "Thriller". Curious as to what the cd-r dub would sound like, especially in the car player. And someone else mentioned taking the output from the RCA jacks as opposed to the headphone jack, I'm doing it from the headphone jack because I have dubbed from my cd player with great results and I haven't got the right cable for the phono jacks to the soundcard, although it's simply a matter of running into Radio Shack for that. Just experimenting, that's all. ;) I'll come back and let you know my results.

[RickH]

Dubbed "Stone In Love" (Journey) and "Beat It" (Jackson) to a cd-r directly from my headphone jack to my hard drive, played it back in the car on the way to work and it sounds great. So, at least now I know if I wanna take a track from a non-hybrid SACD for a cd-r compilation, I can do it. That was the main reason for the experiment. The only thing I noticed was, at about 2:34 in "Stone In Love", there's a drum hit that sounds like a peak level hit but not so much that it begs for the volume to be turned down. For all intents and purposes, the cd-r I made sounds in my car just like what I'm hearing on my main listening rig in two channel. BTW, my receiver is a Sherwood I bought in '95. Sound card is a Sound Blaster 64.

[Tony Plachy]

Originally posted by fjhuerta
I wonder if SACD II will make it impossible for us to rip the CD layer.

That would not be very nice. I can't listen to my SACDs in my bedroom system, because I have a DVD player, not a CD one. :(

What is SACD II?

[Mick Jones]

Originally posted by ALP


What is SACD II?

A rumour. Do a search it was discussed here recently.

[Jamie Tate]

Originally posted by RickH
The only thing I noticed was, at about 2:34 in "Stone In Love", there's a drum hit that sounds like a peak level hit but not so much that it begs for the volume to be turned down.

You're also driving a line level input with an amped signal. There's way more juice coming out of that headphone out than you need to drive line level gear. Even if you turn it down the signal to noise ratio isn't going to be top notch.

Or, if the headphone out is up too loud and you turn down the record level on the CD recorder (or inside the computer) you could be overloading the line inputs even though the record levels will look right.

There's also the problem of tone changes. Run a song into several different recorders with headphone outs. You'll notice all of them sound different. One will have more bottom, one will be narrower, etc.

Just a few things to think about.

[Jamie Tate]

Originally posted by Mick Jones
A rumour.

Maybe... Doug Sax made several mentions of it recently. It's 1 bit 5.6MHz sample rate.

[audiodrome]

What about making CDRs from DVD stereo mixes?

[-=Rudy=-]

OK, to toss this into the ring: on my Pioneer DV45A, what kind of digital signal will appear on the optical output when I play an SACD or DVD-A? Does it downsample to 44.1/16? If that's the case, my digital input board would gladly accept it. :)

[petzi]

Originally posted by Rudy@A&MCorner
OK, to toss this into the ring: on my Pioneer DV45A, what kind of digital signal will appear on the optical output when I play an SACD or DVD-A? Does it downsample to 44.1/16? If that's the case, my digital input board would gladly accept it. :)

There will be no digital output when you play an SACD or DVD-A. This is due to a requirement of the content industry, not a technical shortcoming.