SACD Player/Transport Choices


I am planning to acquire a McIntosh MCT500 to go with my C53 (proprietary MCT connection).  But I am wondering if there are other good SACD transport choices that will send a true DSD stream to an external DAC on a non-proprietary basis, either through USB or I2S.  I’m trying to research this, but it’s difficult to find definitive answers regarding the actual digital stream from SACD - often I discover that the stream is converted to PCM.  I do know PSAudio has a scheme similar to McIntosh.

I realize simply purchasing DSD and streaming from an SSD is probably more practical these days.  But I am sort of fixated on a physical disc player.  Budget-wise, most interested in transports around or below that of the MCT500 (~$5K). Thanks for your thoughts and advice.

mattsca

Sony rigidly controls access to how DSD is utilized and I believe McIntosh is the only manufacturer that has an exclusive means of sending "native" DSD over a wire.

I've been using an MCT80 for quite some time, first with a DA 1 then the DA 2 in the MDA200. I'm set for life!

There is a new CDT from Metronome called the DST that can resample 16/44.1 to DSD256 but not SACD. Srajan at 6moons has a preview of it on his site while he waits for the unit to arrive. It's a slot loader who's drive is made by StreamsUnlimited €4950. 

All the best,
Nonoise

@mahler123 

The Reavon universal players are very similar to the Oppo and use the same 'System on a Chip" for controlling the device, but have inferior DACs which cannot handle DSD natively - they down-sample to 16-bit PCM.

Have you ever seen the control panel of an Oppo, or one of their derivatives?

@mahler123 I'm sure it can decode DSD internally and output it through the analog outs but it can't output it natively.