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Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Direct Stream Digital

Sidebar 1: Direct Stream Digital

As described in Stereophile some years back (footnote 1), Direct Stream Digital is a new way of digital-encoding an analog signal, and was developed by Sony's engineers in order to archive Sony Music's priceless catalog of recordings. While DSD is fundamentally different from the conventional Linear PCM encoding used on CD and DVD-Audio, there is a connection at the A/D level, in that both involve oversampling delta-sigma converters (footnote 2).

The most straightforward way of encoding an analog signal as a Pulse-Code-Modulated (PCM) digital…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Description

Sidebar 2: Description

SACD playback: Frequency range: 2Hz-100kHz. Frequency response: 2Hz-50kHz, -3dB. Dynamic range: >105dB. THD: 0.0012%.
CD playback: Frequency range: 2Hz-20kHz. Dynamic range: >100dB. THD: 0.0012%.
General: Analog outputs: single-ended RCAs at 2V RMS; balanced XLRs (pin 3 hot) at 4V RMS. Digital outputs: 75 ohm S/PDIF on RCA and AT&T optical (44.1kHz, CD replay only). Power consumption: 30W.
Dimensions: 17" W by 57/8" H by 171/2" D. Weight: 58 lbs.
Serial number of unit reviewed: BM599445.
Price: $5000. Approximate number of dealers: 7…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Associated Equipment

Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment

Digital source: Burmester 969, Forsell Air Reference CD transports; dCS 972 sample-rate converter, dCS Elgar D/A converter operating at 24/192.
Preamplifiers: Burmester 808 Mk.V, BAT VK-50SE, YBA 6 Chassis.
Power amplifiers: Linn Klimax Solo 500 monoblocks, Accuphase M2000, Forsell The Statement.
Loudspeakers: JMlab Utopia.
Cables: Interconnects: Synergistic Research Designer's Reference Active Shielding, XLO The Limited, TARA The One, Nordost Quatro Fil. Speaker Cables: Synergistic Research Designer's Reference, XLO The Limited, TARA The One,…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Measurements, CD player

Sidebar 4: Measurements, CD player mode

I tested the SCD-1 as a CD player using the CBS Test CD 1, the Pierre Verany Test CD, and a CD-R of my own test signals generated by the Audio Precision System One Dual Domain), and as an SACD player using a provisional Test SACD (TGZD 900005) supplied me by Sony. First, here are the measurements common to both modes of operation.

The maximum output level was 2.225V at 1kHz into a 100k load from the unbalanced outputs, 4.43V from the XLRs. There was a slight channel imbalance of around 0.15dB. The single-ended outputs are noninverting; the…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Measurements, CD player 2

Playing back data representing a dithered 1kHz tone at -90dBFS gave a textbook analog output spectrum (fig.4), with no level error and no spurious tones or power-supply components present. The rise in the noise floor from low to high frequencies is due to the constant 1/3-octave filter bandwidth used, and to the noise used to dither the signal. The Sony's own analog noise is below this level, as can be seen (at least in the midrange and below) in fig.5. This graph shows the spectrum of the player's balanced analog outputs, now plotted up to 200kHz, with the player decoding data representing…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Measurements, CD player 3

The Sony's analog stage is superbly linear. Fig.8 shows the spectrum of a full-level 50Hz tone. Only the third harmonic pokes its head above the -100dB level, with the fifth at -105dB. (I suspect that the higher-order components in this graph are not real, but mathematical artifacts of the FFT.) The Sony's performance on the high-level, high-frequency intermodulation test was also superb, with the balanced output (fig.9) being a little better than the unbalanced (fig.10). Both of these graphs were taken with the "std" digital filter. Using, for example, "dfil-4" (fig.11) allows some "image…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Measurements, SACD player

Sidebar 5: Measurements, SACD player mode

But it is as a Super Audio CD player that audiophiles will judge the SCD-1. How does it measure up?

Fig.13 shows its replay response at -3dBFS (footnote 2) with the "standard" output setting (lower traces above 40kHz) and with the "custom" setting (upper traces). DSD can certainly be seen to offer the promised extended HF response. Measuring channel separation was difficult due to the high levels of ultrasonic noise present. But playing an 80kHz tone at 0dBFS in the left channel and performing a wide-bandwidth 1/3-octave spectral analysis…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Measurements, SACD player 2

The small blips at 200Hz and 2kHz in fig.15 are due to the Audio Precision and should be ignored. The small peak at 120Hz is real, however, and can also be seen in the spectrum of the player's output while it decodes digital silence (fig.16; again, ignore the blips at 2kHz). Why should the right channel have power-supply noise present on SACD playback (albeit at a very low level) but not on CD playback? I have no idea, but it could have been introduced when Sony's provisional test SACD was mastered.

Fig.16 Sony SCD-1, spectrum of digital silence with noise and spuriae, DSD data. (…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Table 1: SACD vs CD

Table 1: Super Audio CD vs CD SACD (single layer)CD Disc diameter120mm120mm Disc thickness 1.2mm1.2mm Playback sidesOne One Coding system1-bit DSD16-bit linear PCM Sampling frequency2.82224MHz44.1kHz Disc data capacity4700MB 780MB Minimum pit length0.4µm0.83µm Track spacing0.74µm1.6µm Laser wavelength650nm780nm Lens numerical aperture0.600.45 Playback frequency rangeDC-+100kHzDC-20kHz Dynamic rangeMore than 120dB96dB Maximum playing time110 minutes (2 channels)80 minutes Maximum track number 25599 WatermarkVisible "Pit Signal Processing"None Additional functionsText, graphics, video,…

Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player Followup Sony SCD-777ES

A Followup by Chip Stern on the almost identical Sony SCD-777ES appeared in the April 2001 Stereophile (Vol.24 No.4):

Having the Philips SACD1000 in my system promoted me to spill some ink about the Sony SCD-777ES. In the months I've had this SACD player in my system, my experience of music has been enhanced to the point where I feel more and more confident about the aural judgments I'm called on to make—because I'm convinced that I'm listening to a digital source on which I can bet the ranch.

The SCD-777ES was introduced at a list price of $3500, but Sony recently…