SACD player as transport or dedicated transport?

I'm using a Sony SCD-777ES as a transport feeding a Levinson 30.6 dac........wonderful. In fact, it easily bested my friend's Levinson 31 transport he brought over to audition. Absolutely no comparison.

Good luck in your search, however do not count out the SCD-1 or the SCD-777ES.

Best,

Paul :-)

I am using a XA-9000ES as a transport (and for SACD) and I am happy with its results. Are the SCD-1 and its lesser brother the 777 better - probably but they are getting long in the tooth. I haven't compared mine to many others but in my system have run it against my stock DVP-S7000, known to be an excellent transport (althought touted as stellar once modded) and I prefer the new 9000 (timing/flow just seems better IMO). I think its a good choice - very good to excellent transport (assumes there are better out there), 5 year warranty, excellent (to my ears) SACD playback, built very well (no not as well as the SCD-1 but substantial none the less) and can be bought for under $2K new. All in all a very good business case to own one given you have already decided to use your new DAC for redbook cds...

Thanks, Rgd--that is very sensible advice -- I am leaning that way. One other unit I thought about was the Denon 3910. Anyone have thoughts about this as a transport/SACD player. Also, has anyone used the new CEC TL51-Z?

Sony XA777ES or SCD-1

Pardales, the latest versions of the Exemplar 3910 do improve the transport performance. I cannot say how important this is, however. Certainly a used Denon 3910 could be had within your price range. The SONY SCD-1 would probably not be in that range, and it is slow enough to drive you to distraction.