Sorry about the delay! TomCo, I don't use SACD so can't really be sure about the reasons why they play in stereo instead of multichannel on the 976, apart from saying to check the settings in the player itself to see if some downconversion may be happening. Also, if you are using the same player to play other content (like movies in DD or DTS) and you also have an HDMI connection, ensure that the 976 is set to use the 7.1 inputs for SACD content and that no post-processing is engaged.