SACD Ripping Guide

sacd_ripping_guide.md

This guide is forked from here and modified by my own experience in using a Sony BDP-S5100 and Mac.

SACD Ripping

Prerequisites

1. Firmware-compatible Bluray/SACD player. See threads below:

   My device is Sony BDP-S5100

   • https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/sony-blu-ray-players-used-for-sacd-ripping.26078/
   • https://hifihaven.org/index.php?threads/rip-sacd-with-a-blu-ray-player.3652/#post-69000

2. AutoScript files. These will root the player and allow raw read access over a network.

   • Download this if your drive is x86 processor , that should be most of the case.
   • Find correct file to donwload for your drive , if you are using these specific model.

3. SACD ripping software

   • Everything centers around one command line-based ripping app, sacd-ripper (forked from the original PS3-based ripper). Download it for your OS.

   • There are two Java-based GUIs built on top of this tool, choose one of these will be fine (or you can just use the command-line if you don't like a GUI):

     • Of course you need Java environment to run it but I will not talk about that here.
       1. SACDExtractGUI
          • You need to point the location of sacd_extract first. Click the Test button right of it, if it shows [DONE] or something else than cannot found, it's fine.
       2. Sonore ISO2DSD
          • You need to put the sacd_extract program in the same directory. Click the Help button on right of the GUI, if it shows something then it's fine.

   • For macOS user : you need to grant /System/Library/CoreServices/JavaLauncher.app (or Jar Launcher.app on older version) Full Disk Access permission for Catalina and later so that the GUI could access the contents under your Home directory. If you don't want to do that, you should use java -jar SACDExtractGUI.jar and java -jar iso2dsd_gui.jar to launch it in terminal.

   • Ripper will extract DFF or DSD files, or generate an ISO (for archiving)

4. DFF/DSF postprocessing tools. These will convert from DSD to PCM (Optional).

   • XLD (macOS) a Lossless audio decoder and CD ripping software for macOS

   • dsd2flac command line tool

   • Sonore DSD2FLAC GUI (which uses dsd2flac)

   • ffmpeg (DSD-to-PCM output quality unclear)

   • DSD Master, a commercial macOS app (from the makers of BitPerfect). Claims to be higher quality, with more accurate normalization.

Steps

1. Connect Bluray player to local network, and note its IP address.
2. Enable player "Quick Start" mode. *
3. Copy AutoScript folder to FAT16/32-formatted USB drive with Master Boot Record (MBR) chosen as the partition scheme. AutoScript should be the only directory in the root of the drive (/AutoScript).
   • Master Boot Record (MBR) as the partition scheme is important. It won't work if using other scheme (for my drive). For macOS user you simply using the Disk Utility app to format that and choose MBR.
4. Insert USB drive into the port on the Bluray player. This should cause it to eject the disk tray.
5. Insert SACD into tray, and power off the player (without closing the tray). The player should close the tray, enter sleep mode, and AutoScript will gain root access.*
6. Wait while player flashes "OFF", and remove USB drive.*
7. Rip to DSF/ISO with ripping tool using the IP address of the Bluray player, which should be accessable over the network (firewalls notwithstanding).*
8. (Optional)Use DSF tool to convert to FLAC (or other PCM format).
9. (Optional)Apply additional postproccessing to signal/container.*

Notes

1. Sleep mode is only required with Sony brand units. See: https://hifihaven.org/index.php?threads/rip-sacd-with-a-blu-ray-player.3652/post-69340
2. Recent versions of macOS restrict access to unsigned apps, including the GUI and command line tools. It may not be obvious that the command line tool is being restricted because it is run by the GUI. Right click on the sacd_extract file, select Open, and allow the exception for the file.
3. Quadraphonic SACDs will probably encode quadraphonic recordings as 5.1 with empty Center and LFE channels. It may be preferable to encode the PCM audio container without the empty channels (i.e. so your amp has the option to use the sub). Drop the two empty channels using an ffmpeg filter:

   for i in *.flac; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -filter_complex "channelmap=0|1|4|5:channel_layout=quad" "./quad_mix/$i"; done;