2. digital
  3. 150056-112482

SACD or not SACD?

Hej

I have two DAC:s but just one transport so I thought I'll buy another transport for my head speaker rig. But then I thought, maybe I should  look for a SACD player instead (have some classical discs with SACD and my interest for classical music is growing so there will surely be more SACD hybrid discs).
I've read some reviews of SACD players and the conclusion is always the same; SACD sounds better than CD. But they always compares SACD vs CD on the same player. Never the SACD player as a SACD player vs a dedicated CD player with the same SACD hybrid disc.
And I've even read that some people says that a SACD plays can't read Red Book properly.
So the question is; how much do I have to spend to get a SACD player that plays CD:s at least as good as my Cambridge CXC transport paired with LAB12 DAC1 SE or at least as RME ADI-2 DAC FS? Or maybe a SACD player that would be at least as good transport as my Cambridge CXC. Yes, I realize that the chance that anyone have had the chance to compare these combinations are almost none, but...

Any thoughts?
simna
mahler123
3,367 posts
 
I have no idea what Elizabeth  is talking about.  I have about 200 SACDs.  Some have room ambience, some don’t.  Same with Red Book.  It depends what is in the original recording...
  I have owned several SACD players but get my best playback using either an Oppo 105 or Sony 9000ES as transports into my Bryston DAC3, which has 4 HDMI inputs.  Both the players output DSD over HDMI.
  To answer the question....how much $....the Bryston DAC goes for around 3-4 K.  current Sony Universal Players also are supporting output DSD over HDMI and can be had for $20o new.
Post removed 
melm
1,082 posts
 
To which I wold add that if you have not heard your SACDs as rips (and your CDs too) you probably haven't heard them at their best.  Running a silver disk through a machine can do nothing to improve the SQ of the music files they contain.  Only detract.
simna OP
165 posts
 

I have been thinking of what Elizabeth wrote (what happened with her post?) and Steve Guttenberg's video and I’ve decided to skip the SACD player and instead do as I intended to do in the first place; buy a transport for about 1k. The extra 2k (max for a SACD player was 3k) I will use for something else in my rig. Yes, it had been nice to hear the SACD Hybrid Discs at their best, but today they actually doesn't count for more than a fraction of my "silver disc" collection. So it's only logical to upgrade something else in the chain that all the "silver discs" will benefit from.

But thank you very much for your thoughts.


geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Uh, oh! Looks like man/woman down! Nurse! Thorazine! Hurry!!
More to discover