I shouldn't even bring up the possibility/probability that various systems potentially handle DVD-A and SACD differently!
So even the same mix and master can sound different...
How so? One significance difference I can imagine is in how LFE (.1) might be handled. AC3/DTS/PCM 'sub channel' expects a 10 dB boost ...DSD Sub may or may not 'expect' that, depending on what spec the mix/mastering engineer followed...and then the system needs to handle the DSD LFE correctly.
See for example this 8-year-old thread about DSD bass in various hardware configurations
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/90-r...t-when-listening-sacds-using-dsd-setting.html
And if you enjoy the sensation of your head spinning, read this post by Bob Pariseau: ;>
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/91-a...-interconnects-explained-27.html#post57871624
Bob Pariseau also summarized the issue on his
blog thus (emphasis mine):
"But the subwoofer issue was a quandary. Sony's solution was to define the ".1" channel as a "Subwoofer" channel rather than as the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel which had already been defined for use with DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 movie tracks for SD-DVDs. What's the difference? In the movie tracks, each speaker channel carries its own bass, and the ".1" channel carries additional LOUD bass -- the Low Frequency Effects. If you want to do Crossover processing to steer bass from the main speakers to the subwoofer, that has to be mixed into the LFE bass -- and level matched accordingly. This gets into the basic issue of Subwoofer Boost which I've mentioned in previous posts. I.e., dealing with the headroom built into the LFE channel so that it can safely carry LOUD bass.
LFE is recorded -10dB down from the regular speaker channels and that has to be corrected on playback so that the LFE content is matched in level with those other speakers. And if you are steering bass from the main speakers into that LFE output, that steered bass has to be REDUCED in volume to match the LFE content, which then gets BOOSTED after output as part of playback.
But in Sony's view,
the ".1" channel on a 5.1 SACD disc would be a PRE-MIXED Subwoofer channel -- already carrying the bass which would otherwise be in the regular speaker channels. And so it
would be recorded at the same level as those regular speaker channels!
This has caused no end of confusion ever since, as people tried to accommodate BOTH ways of handling the ".1" content channels in just ONE audio system setup! It got so bad some studios producing licensed SACD disc simply ignored Sony and recorded their ".1" channel -10dB down just as if it was a movie LFE channel. (That REALLY caused confusion!)
Other studios simply ignored the ".1" channel altogether when making SACD discs. That is, the 5.1 track on their SACD discs is actually 5.0 content. ALL of the bass is in the regular speaker channels and the ".1" channel is silent! Of course this REALLY puts the burden on the user to have full range speakers, or to address how to do Crossover processing with this SACD / DSD content!"