Oppp DV-980H ($169): www.oppodigital.com.(AUDITIONS)(Product/service evaluation)

SACD over HDMI is finally a reality.

Many new SACD players were just introduced at CEDIA 2007. Most of these units use the older, SACD-incompatible, HDMI 1.1 transmitter. I was hoping to see a push towards the HDMI 1.2a transmitter that enables SACD bit streams to be sent over an HDMI cable, but this product is the only one I can confirm that has adopted the new technology. It is the Oppo DV-980H universal player (DVD/DVD-A/SACD/CD). The $169 price of the unit includes the HDMI cable which can sell alone for $60 even at Best Buy.

Oppo opted out of CEDIA because they sell direct. I have this unit in house and can report it locks up to the Yamaha RV-X2700 that I tested in the last issue. Recall that the Yamaha had an HDMI 1.2a receiver and DSP processing blocks to deal with Direct Stream Digital (DSD) data from an SACD disk. Placing an SACD in the Oppo causes the DSD to light-up on the front panel of the RV-X2700. It locks in both in stereo and five-channel modes. There were some clicks when switching between SACDs and DVD-A, but I do not know which of the two units caused the phenomenon.

One neat feature of the DV-980H is its ability to directly convert DSD data to PCM, thereby allowing the unit to send converted SACD data down an HDMI 1.1 link. In turn, the mechanism reverse-obsoletes older AV receivers that formerly were SACD incompatible. While purists will harrumph and squawk about the conversion of DSD to PCM, it is inevitable the same thing will happen at the AV receiver with a 1.2a HDMI output when using DSP-based bass management, distance correction, and room-equalization. All DSP processing in an AV receiver is done in PCM. For purists, the Yamaha can send the DSD signals to the ...