Multi-channel Sony SACD player

The problem has been with the authoring equipment. Until recently there has been no equipment to mix DSD recordings. so the initial releases have been from original tape masters and direct DSD recordings without studio remixing. Note that you'll see very little SACDs from digital recordings from 1985 to 1995. These recordings typically used CD quality sampling and miss the clarity and ambiance that SACD is known for. Recording a SACD from one of these masters would be no better than the original. 96/24 recordings offer something better, but still aren't as good as tapes or DSD recordings. The number of newly recorded SACDs is beginning to increase, as is the number of SACDs in general.

By the way, Phillips will begin selling a $2,000 SACD Multichannel DVD Player this month, Marantz is selling a $7,500 SACD player and has announced a lowered priced unit. Accuphase is selling a $28K SACD Player, and Sharp is selling a SACD player in Japan. Pioneer has also announced a SACD player. SACD players are expected from a couple other companies as well. More importantly, many recording studios have or plan to install DSD recording capability.

Also, rumor has it that the next generation of Sony DVD players will be SACD compatiable following the lead of the S9000ES. Nothing has been officially announced, but it makes sense to me.

Sony is a high volume manufacturer--not a highend, limited volume vendor. Sony does not intend to keep SACD highend only. The quantity of the SACD software must increase, and the prices must decrease.

Tmartinjr's point on mixing equipment is a very good one. A friend of mine is a Telarc recording artist, and told me that while Telarc felt the DSD master tapes of his recordings were superior to their prior equipment, they initially were not happy with the editing equipment for their DSD masters. Hopefully new generations of the editing equipment are now available which will make DSD recording more prevalent.

Has anyone heard of any multi-channel SACD movies coming out? If so, let me know. If not, don't buy the new units!!

I do not think there ever be any multi-channel SACD movies, or DVD-Audio movies. Movies are either in DPL, DD, or DTS.

SACD, which stands for Super Audio CD, is for music, and is intended to be a better CD. You can play dual-layer SACDS in your car CD player.

Right now, 99.9999 percent of CDs are stereo and not 5.1. Do you recommend everyone to wait until we have 5.1 CDs before buying another CD player?

By the way, DVD-Audio is 5.1, and the one's I've used have not supported stereo (Doors and Nevelle). SACD supports both stereo and 5.1.

David Chesky, of Chesky records, in creating multi-channel SACD discs, concluded that 5.1 is NOT the way to go with music. He found it impossible to get clear imaging between 3 front speakers. Therefore, his SACD multi-channel discs will not use the center front channel. He's also not using the sub-woofer, so his discs will mainly be 4 channel. He will send a signal to the other two channels, but he assumes that the speaker placement will be in the back of the room (2 speakers front, two on the side, and two in the back) if someone wishes to use all 6 channels.

Back to the question at hand. I own an S9000ES. With it I can play some of the best quality 5.1 DD, 5.1 DTS, and 5.1 THX movie sound by using the S9000ES digital outs to my Rotel pre/processor. It's vastly superior to my old Sony 300, and the Panasonic A7 and JVC723 that I brought home to compare. CD play on the 9000, was better than DVD-Audio play on the A7 and JVC. With music, it's the best CD player that I've ever owned by a long shot, and with SACD, the sound is out of this world. It's smooth, detailed, and dynamic. I can use Dobly Prologic when I want to use all speakers when playing CDs or SACD, but in almost every case, I prefer crystal clear stereo for music.

With Neil Youngs' Live at Red Rocks DVD, I'm 50-50. If I desire to make it sound like I were there, I use the 5.1 DTS. Neil sounds distant the there's reverberation everywhere--much like the real thing. If I desire to listen to the music, I go Stereo. Neil is much closer, imaging is possible, and the music very clean.