what do I need?

[dcorrea]

With the introduction of a whole bunch of different audio formats can anyone tell me what exactly I need to play SACD, DVD-A and 5.1 audio cd's?
I have a HK AVR 525 that has HDCD decoding onboard, but my DVD player is rather old. Its not even progressive scan capable. Would I need to upgrade my dvd player? I'm pretty sure I would have to upgrade to enjoy SACD right, but what about the other two formats?

[dorokusai]

The new Denon lineup, solves your problem. Great reviews on all of them. Its a lock.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-4PhJ4lJfs5F/cgi-bin/ProdComp.asp?g=54600&c=6&s=0&cc=01&ITM033DVD2200=on&ITM033DVD2900=on&ITM033DVD5900=on&CompareButton.x=26&CompareButton.y=8

Damn you Sony :mad:

[Frank Z]

In order to play back DVD-A and SACD you will need a player that is capable of playing either/or both formats. A universal player will have multichannel (6) outputs to pass the analog signal to yoyr receiver/preamp. You cannot pass a digital DVD-A or SACD signal, unless you have a Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai and a Pioneer Elite VSX-49TXi. As far as I know those are the only 2 pieces of equipment that will actually pass a Multi-channel Hi-Rez signal through anything other than analog connections. Multi Channel DD 5.1 and DTS soundtracks can be played on any Receiver/Preamp & DVD/Cd player that is capable of decoding those formats, or in the case of some DVD players, passing the signal to the receiver/Preamp for decoding.

Make sense?

[bigsexy1]

I concur with doro.
Frank, doesn't the Denon 5900 with the 5803 also do that? I believe it does.

[Frank Z]

I'm not sure, the 5900 is fairly new.

[dcorrea]

Ok so if I am understanding this correctly, I can only listen to SACD or DVD-A on certain dvd players but normal 5.1 encoded cd's I can listen to on a regular dvd player. Am I understanding this correctly?

[Ceruleance]

yes you are correct. the high resolution of dvd-a and sacd is only for players specifically designed for dvd-a and sacd. You don't need the pioneer or denon to play dvd-a and sacd though, you can get any number of players that have SACD or DVD-A support and use analog connections (6 RCA interconnects) to connect to your 525.

[Frank Z]

Originally posted by Ceruleance
You don't need the pioneer or denon to play dvd-a and sacd though, you can get any number of players that have SACD or DVD-A support and use analog connections (6 RCA interconnects) to connect to your 525.

Very true.
Just to clarify, the references to Pioneer and Denon were in regard to Non-analog connections only. There are numerous universal players on the market besides Denon and Pioneer. Sorry for the confusion.