SACD decoders: do different ones differ in their output quality?, Was “SACD decoders” (TOS #6) Options

[Anakunda]

HI, I wanted to know if there's a conversion quality difference among various SACD rippers, or do they give exactly same quality? I only know about SACD plugin for foobar, is it at least as good as other SACD extractors?

[db1989]

Please keep this to a purely academic discussion of the technicalities of different decoders, not anything specific to ripping or extraction, in view of the fact that SACDs possess copy-protection and any discussion of the circumvention thereof is prohibited by TOS #9.

Also, as per TOS #6, please title your threads with something more than just the name of that to which you are referring. Try something like “Name of thing: my question is this”, not just “Name of thing”.

[lvqcl]

SACD plugin for foobar2000 is not a ripper

[saratoga]

The foobar2000 decoder won't rip anything, only convert DSD to PCM, but its probably quite good since it uses the built in foobar2000 resampler for the conversion. See:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=76080

[Anakunda]

Okay I know it's not ripper but decoder, wanted to only know about it's decoding quality compared to decoding only quality of other extractors, thanks.
Btw. can I use DSD output with Realtek HD Audio and does it sound any better than PCM output?

[GeSomeone]

Btw. can I use DSD output with Realtek HD Audio and does it sound any better than PCM output?

For one it will depend on the next part of the chain and how it is connected. I doubt a PC soundcard will do DSD, without HDMI there is no chance. Also when using foobar2000 it will be converted to PCM anyway.

The discussion if DSD sounds better than PCM should be avoided as it is as pointless as the vinyl sounds better arguments. Try it, if you can, and decide what you prefer. Keep in mind that a lot of devices decode internally to PCM before the DAC.