Magnetar

I now own a Magnetar UDP 900. It is a real boat anchor. The transport is eons faster than anything else on the market and as a music transport is all you could ask for. I can’t speak to the DACs as I do not use them. What really sets it apart is the picture. Is it perfect? No. The buttons are too small and hard to find in the dark. I do not care for the front panel aesthetics. The remote is not backlit. In short if you have a high end system and need a universal transport you have no where else to go. The Panasonic is a tinker toy in comparison.

@mijostyn , Cool, good to know, I guess i’ll hop on the Magnetar bandwagon myself shortly. I am a sucker for them heavy thangsss.

I will be interested in the feedback.

@mijostyn can you comment on SACD, DVD-A, or Blu Ray Audio on this player?  What DAC are you using?

@mahler123 

It will output DVD A and Blu Ray audio via the digital output and they sound great. It will only output SACD through it's analog output and I have not listened extensively to that yet. I only have about twenty SACDs and I avoid them now because of this problem. 

I use a digital signal processing preamp which includes sub crossovers and the necessary four DAC channels. Currently I am using a very inexpensive MiniDSP SHD which has DACs that are substandard for my system and are a bit grainy. My old TacT processor died and I needed a cheap substitute. I have a new DEQX Pre 8 coming any day now which has a full 4 way crossover and 8 DAC channels. It is also a $13,000 unit of the highest quality and should be wonderful. 

So in my 2 channel system I program my Oppo 105 to output DSD from SACD.  Since the Magnetar OS looked identical to Oppo, I am assuming this is the same.  I then output the DSD over HDMI into the HDMI input of my Bryston DAC3.  In a different system I output DSD from SACD using an Oppo 203 into the HDMI of an Anthem AVR

^The later Oppos such as the 205 don’t output DSD from SACD the way the earlier Oppos like the 105 did. As the Magnetar appears to be more like the more recent 205, I doubt the Magnetar can output SACD DSD other than through the analog outputs. With customers so frequently using outboard DACs, archiving systems like Roon etc., and DSP room correction and headphone processing, I think Sony is way overdue in releasing SACD from the constrictions that deny their customers from getting the most from their systems.