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are all sacd players the same?

A little technical help for the unenlightened please. I f i want to add another sacd player(i have quite a few discs) does the actual quality of the player matter as much as the ability to play the format? I know that a cd dac at 1000$ is going to be pretty different than a Berkeley or similar at 5k. the question is whether those types of rules hold true on the format change. (Is an oppo sacd going to sound significantly worse than an ayre, for example, at 6k.) thanks mike
emster
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
Well, at some point in the chain, those digital signals *must* be converted to analog. So the DAC and output stages do make a difference. Is that difference worth $5,000 to you? And do you have the ears, speakers, and a room that would justify spending an extra 5 Large?

I'd hazard a guess that for 98% of us, the answer is to save your money and spend it on better source material and/or better speakers and room treatments...

-RW-
zd542
5,339 posts
 
The same rules that apply to any other component apply here, as well. Rlwainwright brings up in his post, the thing that is most overlooked with digital products; the analog section. The digital section matters, as well. I just say, consider the whole player and not just parts of it.

You mention the Ayre. My opinion is that its worth the money. Its a big step up from the Oppo. (I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with the Oppo. Its a great product for the money.) The one thing I really like about the Ayre is that it sounds great with ALL formats. That's very rare. You don't have to give up having a great Redbook player just to get SACD. (Or buy a 2nd unit).

My only concern would be, do your other components justify the purchase? If your other components are not in the same league as the Ayre, you probably be able to hear everything it can do.
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,687 posts
 
are all sacd players the same?

In a word, no.
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
" I know that a cd dac at 1000$ is going to be pretty different than a Berkeley or similar at 5k"

Really? How do you KNOW this? They all the sound the same, UNLESS, one has had it's frequency response or noise level 'tweaked' to sound a certain way. As we do KNOW, from the turntable crowd, increased noise, limited freq response / dynamic range and high noise / distortion levels, can be appealing to some people.
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