I got lost in what you guys were trying to track down. Are you looking for players that pass DSD direct through analog or HDMI or both ? Seems that there are plenty that do this through analog I/Cs - ever since they started making SACD players. My Marantz DV7600 passes DSD direct through analog - I'm pretty sure.
But were you all saying that it turns out that many of those we though passed DSD actually are passing PCM ?
As for HDMI it seems that there are just a few doing it as you pointed out - and some appear (as their forebearers did) to be converting to PCM first.
So then, which players of all that you found actually send DSD through HDMI ?
Ok from what both me and ACDT read there are actually different kind of SACD players. For an SACD player to qualify as a "true" SACD player it has to output DSD all the way to the speakers. Most inexpensive SACD players will take DSD and convert it to PCM through the DAC out the analog outputs. Now with the introduction of HDMI some players can send a native DSD bitstream signal (Oppo 980H is one of them) through HDMI to a receiver but the DACs on your receiver have to be capable of processing a DSD and not convert it to PCM when passing it to the speakers. One receiver whose DACs can process DSD without converting to PCM is the Onkyo 805.
So the Oppo 980H is actually considered a DSD transport since it's DAC will convert the DSD signal into PCM before sending it through the analog outputs. But through HDMI it will send a native DSD signal to your receiver's DAC for further processing.
Now players like the NAD, Denon, and Parasound we linked have DACs which will preserve the DSD signal and send it out the analog outputs untouched. So in essence you have two options. If you already have an HDMI receiver which you know it's DACs support DSD and don't convert to PCM before sending out to the speakers then an Oppo 980H is all you need. But if you have an older receiver with no HDMI, or any 2ch preamp or integrated amp, then you need a player like the Denon, Parasound, or NAD above.
Now while some will say who cares if the DSD signal gets converted to PCM, I think what is the point of SACD if you are not taking advantage of it's main feature which gives you the better sound quality which is DSD. Now earlier I was under the impression that only select titles are mastered in DSD but that is not the case. All SACD titles are actually remastered in the studio and converted to DSD to higher sampling rates than regular CDs. I hope I explained myself well enough so that you can understand.
