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SACD vs. Vinyl

I've not jumped on the SACD bandwagon. I listen mainly to vinyl via a Marantz TT15 Benz Wood SH MC combo. I've a Sony XA7ES cd player that has served me well over the years, but even it doesn't get enough play to justify moving up to a SACD player.

Since I've yet to convert to SACD over the past decade what have I missed? I should add that I've 8 or so SACD discs that I've played via my Sony BR player that didn't sound much different than standard digital, but granted that playback was observed through my HT only system.

Can someone whose a huge vinyl fan establish a case for SACD as well? I just can't imagine anything getting close to the dynamics one hears on vinyl, for sonically vinyl seems to blow digital playback out of the water.
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buconero117
2,311 posts
 
I am a big vinyl fan, but have a small library of SACD's. I have a few titles on both vinyl, r2r, cd and SACD. The title best known is Miles/Blue. I would rank each media, best first, as r2r (pre-recorded commerical 7.5 two track), vinyl, sacd, cd. In general, the r2r sound best with the vinyl second.

So, I don't recommend you jump into SACD. Wait until audio blu-ray starts to issue in some classic titles. Miles/Blue is due out shortly. If the mix and resolution is done right, it should be the best media of that title.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,680 posts
 
Why are you buying the same music over and over?

Kal
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uru975
684 posts
 
If your buying music that is not available on vinyl then for me at least, SACD is worth it. If you can get it on vinyl why wouldn't you.
Heard a Diana Krall cd then heard the SACD, it was worth the upgrade to me. YMMV
mikelavigne
2,199 posts
 
SACD will always have an advantage over any PCM digital; no matter the resolution (even 352/32). 2X DSD is even better than regular DSD (SACD). i have lots of high rez PCM files (many 192/24) which i do enjoy. but better SACD's are better. and 2X DSD that i have heard is better yet.

all the math that PCM subjects the music to exacts it's cost on the music.

this is assuming you have a sufficiently high performance SACD player.

generalizing about how analog compares to any digital presumes very high quality digital and analog sources. at the top of the heap of analog and digital that i have heard vinyl surpasses any digital and RTR is superior to vinyl. but again; at source quality below the top it's a mixed bag.
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czbbcl
1,752 posts
 
Although I am amazed at how good vinyl can sound for so little money ..... I got back into it with a used Thorens td166mkII. a musical fidelity v-lps and a denon dl103r cartridge along with a spin clean and assorted brushes all for about six hundred bucks and it sounds amazing ....

I have an original release of Sting (Dream of Blue Turtles) and it is extremely clean and dynamic sounding. Same with my Pink FLoyd pressings of The Wall and DSOTM and a couple of Led Zeppelin discs.... Great Stuff indeed ....
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