Sony SCD-1 vs. SCD-777ES

Thanks for all of your help.

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David,

Have you heard the Marantz SA-14 or one of the megabuck SACD combo's ($15K+)

Richard

******

David,

Have you heard the Marantz SA-14 or one of the megabuck SACD combo's ($30K+)

Richard

I have owned a SCD-777ES for a couple of years. I bought it after auditioning both the SCD-1 and the SCD777ES extensively. The physical differences included the feet, the actual box, balanced outputs, and epoxy coated power supply (the actual supplies are identical). First, the SCD-1 was clearly superior in single ended mode. Second, after more than six hours of side by side comparison, I could not tell the difference between the two. As a result, I bought the less expensive 777ES.

Mine has visited Richard Kern twice (last summer for a Superclock and upgraded caps and resistors, a couple of weeks ago for a Superclock II and Richard's transport mod) and I have yet to hear a better digital device, though I admit to not having heard the Meitner.

Those of you who own either of these; I curious to know how satisfied you are with the music options available in the SACD format? ROI?

I have owned the SCD 777Es for about two years and enjoy it immensely. The dealer, who sold both units (though the SCD 1 was not on the shelves at the moment) said that he could tell no difference in listening to the units.

richard kern who does the audiocom mods has stated several times that he prefers the scd-1. i believe he thought it was more open than the 777es. (although i'm not sure if he was comparing fully upgraded units or two stock ones.) you'll find a ton of links on this subject with as many opinions. i can't help thinking that richard is in more of a position to accurately judge the two units...especially since his comments about the scd-1 being his choice probably costs him work while the 777es owners scrambled to upgrade and as hifi goes, ultimately wound up off the hook with somethign completely different like a full-on home theater system.

i love my 777es and hope to get it upgraded by richard...even if he does prefer the big brother.

The XLR outputs on theSCD-1 are a convenience; they're not really balanced. A power supply difference is the reason for the difference in weight between the units. Although it doesn't seem to be because of XLR vs. RCA reasons, I heard a definite, but quite subtle difference between them at the dealer's, in favor of the SCD-1--slightly fuller lower midrange. Cables seemed to be the same, and the dealer swore that everything else was equal. Since I didn't take the 777 home, I can't tell you whether that was true.

I believe the SCD-1 has two power supplies whereas the SCD-777Es has one,also XLR outputs and cosmetics as Stehno suggests.It is basically the same player.

Chuck

I had both machines over at my house for a demo.
I could not tell them apart.

As an SCD-1 owner, I believe the only differences between the two units are cosmetics and XLR outputs (not fully balanced).

Although I've not compared the two, several years ago, one or more reviewers reported the sonics as supposedly being the same.

-IMO