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SACD & other Formats

I'm a vinyl guy and have invested lots of money in my TT rig and listen primarily to vinyl because it can sound so much better than digital.

I want to buy a CDP that will satisfy and understand a well mastered CD can sound good as well. I abandoned red book play back 10 yrs back because it was very frustrating finding satisfaction. Too many poorly mastered CDs that could not communicate the music. Have things improved? I know you can get better digital sound for less $$, but has the quality of mastering improved?

Looking through stores online I see SACDs are getting a lot of new mastering attention, gold CDs are available, XRCDs, etc. Is SACD the direction to look? are the current SACD issues of titles living up to the marketing hype/price? sonically? the key is in the software, availability and mastering.
musichead
plato
1,543 posts
 
Things are way better even in Red Book than they were in the first decade of CD playback. I have a couple of pretty good turntables/arms/cartridges and phono preamps mainly because I have a lot of LP records from back in the day.

Although I definitely enjoy vinyl playback on a decent audio system I mostly play CD's these days. The better of the CD recordings sound very impressive--musical and dynamic if you have a nice DAC or CD player.

I personally like the DAC route because these days they include all kinds of digital inputs and you can play from either a CD/SACD player or a laptop, music server or tablet. It's just more flexible and the DACs have more features.

For a CD player you could buy one of the Oppo players like a 105D to start with. The Oppo's will also play SACD and Blu-ray concerts too. Believe me, you need to get with the times... Good Luck :)
musichead's avatar
musichead OP
94 posts
 
I already have the flexibility with a Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 V2. Great for playing from any source, my questions has more to do with the software than the equipment. Has the mastering behind a lot of the newer releases improved, the CD market seems to be promoting the SACD format. Or is it all just the same, little change and the gains and improvements are in the equipment.
arnettpartners
312 posts
 
I have older cds the SQ of which is quite pleasant. I found that I needed a heavy solid transport and high quality digital cable. These two components are essential for good cd SQ with older and newer recordings. I'm talking HEAVY.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,622 posts
 
There are a great many classical SACDs available, if you enjoy that genre. I haven't sampled them myself but since they have to be a labor of love (there isn't a lot of money in classical these days), I have to think that many have been produced with better sound quality as a goal.

As far as pop and jazz cds from the last decade go, they are all over the place. Some are very good sounding others are terrible. You really can't generalize.

At this point you might want to wait and see how high-res downloads work out. Reviews so far are mixed. There are not a lot of titles available and sound quality is not always what you would expect for their price. I hope that better players and mastering will make these the best option, but I don't think we're there yet.
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