SACD/CD Drive Mechanism Replacement


Greetings!

I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question…

I’m  considering purchasing a used SACD/CD player.  I’m concerned that at some point the drive will give out. 
 

If I bought a replacement drive for it right away and just stored it; can anyone install it when the time comes, or must the original manufacturer do it?

 

I appreciate your help!

Best wishes,

Don

no_regrets

The streamer and DAC are equally important. Typically it is best to spend equally… similar to turntable and phonostage. I have extensive experience with both. I have this theory that the DAC tends to set the tonal balance and musicality and the streamer will limit the detail and reduce the noise floor. But, they both make a huge difference… and while you can use a Mac book or PC as a streamer do not let anyone tell you it sounds as good. Some technical people put enormous time and money into a MacBook and futzing with their network to get it close to the sound quality of the streamer. A streamer, like Aurrender is a piece of high end audio equipment. You plunk the heavy beast down and it plays high end audio grade sound quality, no futzing like with a PC.

Generally the streamer itself does everything… your iPad acts as a remote control to the streamer. The streamer box has internal software to directly connect with Qobuz or Tidal. There are other ways of doing it… especially in cheap streamers… you don’t want to do that.

Most streamers have internal memory because for a while (a while ago) storing ripped files was a thing. Now with Qobuz and Tidal, these are reliable and of equal quality to any other media.

You can actually purchase albums from Qobuz and download them to your streamer. Also, more or less something of no value any more. I have my ripped library on my streamer just in case my internet goes out. I have used those only a couple times in five years.

 

The streamed files are not actually kept in your library. What is stored is some data (like the album cover and name of album, artist etc… and a link that you do not see to the location of the album on Qobuz. So press the album and the streamer goes off and finds it and plays it.

 

A good streamer like Aurender will cashe the music before playing so it doesn’t have hiccups and isolates you from your network. This is why you (I do) can use a network extender plugged in next to your streamer and get top notch fidelity.

no_regrets

There has never been a better time to buy a CD/SACD player. Keep me posted on the Brand/Model under consideration. Have fun test-driving.

 

Happy Listening!

@OP. You probably have a better chance of getting a laser replaced in an Esoteric product than most machines, given the size of Teac/Tascam/Esoteric. However, you will probably need to get an official Esoteric service agent to supply and fit it. If you are worried, the best approach would be to get a new laser now and keep the existing one in the machine as a backup. I'm referring to the laser - which is almost always the component that fails. As the VRDS has been replaced by Atlas, you will not necessarily be able to get a complete new transport mechanism. However, the VRDS drive unit is extremely reliable.

@ghdprentice   Thank you again for the excellent run down on how the streamer works, etc!  Could I use my MacBookPro as the "remote" to run the Aurender streamer instead of an iPad? ( I'm just hoping to not have to spend money on yet another item, lol.)

I'm just in the very early stages of considering jumping into the digital side of things.  Originally, my thought was to buy a used high end SACD/CD one box unit.  Thinking that I could get better sound out of the admittedly small 100+ cd collection that I currently have and then also to start collecting SACD's.

Now, hearing that streaming with an excellent streamer can gain me access to SACD quality sound on 1000's of titles for roughly $15/mth sounds very appealing to me.  As also the added bonus of not having to worry about a laser/transport mechanism failing and having the fear of it not being able to be replaced.

So, now knowing that to get the better sound that I would desire, I should plan on budgeting equal amounts of money on both the streamer and the dac; I wonder about this the following as a possible scenario...

Instead of buying a used high end SACD/CD one box player; what if I would use my ancient Rotel 955AX cd player that uses the TDA1541A multi-bit dac that I've had for decades (which still amazingly somehow plays without skipping) as a cd transport via coax into a very nice dac (which I would still have to buy), allowing me to play my current cd's while saving up for a very nice Aurender streamer.  My hope would be that the new dac would give me a significant upgrade in sound over the internal dac of the Rotel.  Or would that not be the case because the inexpensive Rotel would not make a decent enough transport to reap the sonic gains of the new dac?

Best wishes,

Don

 

@jafant  My original thoughts were to buy a very nice SACD/CD one box player.  I was considering something along the lines of the EMM Labs XDS1 v2 or XDS1v3 or a Playback Designs model.  Both of which, if I recall correctly utilize Esoteric's VSOP drive mechanism.  If I am not mistaken, Esoteric will no longer sell these drives to other manufacturers or to consumers.  They will only use them in Esoteric gear.

I'm still trying to decide what will be the best route for me to follow.  Analog is my first love for the recorded medium and I will not be giving that up.  I have a lot of money invested in the analog set up and vinyl records; and to my ears it sounds amazing.  I am investigating the digital side of things as I am aware it has come a long ways over the years and I am discovering that there is a lot of great music that I am missing out on that is not available on vinyl.

Best wishes,

Don