Thread: Newb Question About Blu-Ray...

I have two Blu-Ray players that get very little use. We will watch an occasional Blu-Ray movie, but that's about it. Is there a use for Blu-Ray players in audio systems?

Also, I have a couple "low end" Yamaha CD changers. Can they be used in a high end system? Do they sound very good?

There are Blu-Ray audio discs - e.g. Amazon.com There's probably a site that lists them better and don't know if any of them are of interest to you.

Do the CD changers have a digital out and do you have a DAC? As with anything it was something they got to market at a price point. They probably didn't prioritze the digital to analog conversion.

Depending on whether you have (or anticipate buying) many SACD's, DVD-A's or BD Audio, and assuming at least one of your Bluray players plays those formats, getting a GearFab D.BOB can allow you to play the stereo tracks of those discs through your DAC (the DVD-A's may play through coax digital as well)

Blu Ray audio is typically encoded at 24bit/96khz, so the potential is present for higher quality audio data than CD. As mentioned, some Bluray players also handle SACD and DSD some of the other more "audiophile" formats. I have an Oppo 205 that I use in my main system as my only spinning-disc media transport (i.e. I don't have a separate CD player). I use the digital-out signal and let my DAC do the processing. Though in the case of the Oppo, the onboard DAC is pretty decent in its own right - I did some non-scientific A/B comparisons a while back and was pleasantly surprised at how competent the analog section was.

Your multi-disc Yamahas may or may not be built to a lower (digital) standard, but the D/A end probably isn't as well implemented as you'll find in any reasonably modern DAC. Assuming all of the digital bits are properly read off the disc and properly sent down whichever digital connection is available, the result should be usable though.

To my knowlege SACD can only be transmit digitally via HDMI due to copyright protection.

Personally I'd say, no. If the changers had digital out and that's your only transport they'd work to hear music but definitely not the best thing as a transport.

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

To my knowlege SACD can only be transmit digitally via HDMI due to copyright protection.

This is correct, but see my post above and read about the D.BOB

Originally Posted by 2FlyingYorkies

...Blu Ray audio is typically encoded at 24bit/96khz, so the potential is present for higher quality audio data than CD. As mentioned, some Bluray players also handle SACD and DSD some of the other more "audiophile" formats. I have an Oppo 205 that I use in my main system as my only spinning-disc media transport (i.e. I don't have a separate CD player). I use the digital-out signal and let my DAC do the processing...

Note that BD Audio is limited to 16/48 if using the coax or optical digital outs. Likewise, only the CD layer of a SACD can be output to a DAC in this way.

See post above re: D.BOB

Oppo players can output 24/88.2 via HDMI and there are relatively cheap devices called HDMI audio de-embedders which can take those signals to a DAC via a coax digital out from the de-embedder (e.g. 4X1 HDMI Switcher w/ Toslink & Digital Coaxial Port - I actually might a couple laying around as that's what I used before file playback and I used them with upgraded power supplies and there's some units on Amazon which may be a drop cheaper). My old Oppo BDP-83 will also pass 24/192 from the coax digital output from a DVD-Audio disc. I have a modded one (multi-channel mods) and it sits in the main system but doesn't really get used more than once ever couple of years at this point (only if someone comes over with a disc). I have a couple of hi-rez Blu-Rays which I have not played in a long time as I extracted the files from them.

There are file players (assuming one rips the DSD file from the SACD) which can transmit those files (just for single rate DSD I believe for everything but the USB output) over all their digital inputs.