CD vs. SACD vs. DVD-Audio vs Vinyl vs...

Hi Bmpnyc; If you can live with a single disc player, The Sony XA7ES has a disc/track/delete program memory for 224 discs. The XA7 is an excellent stand alone CD player or transport-- Stereophile Class A since it was introduced. I recently saw that it had been discontinued, but they are common on the used market, and are built like a tank ($3000. MSRP). BTW I also have a CA9ES. I run it into a Sonic Frontiers Ultra Jitter Bug via toslink, then to a Muse Model 2 DAC-- it sounds excellent, as good as the XA7, and I still have the convenience of the carosel and delete track programming. The SF Jitter Bugs are also available pretty inexpensively (MSRP $700.) either used or from SF, and besides jitter reduction, they convert toslink to Coax. The UJB was Stereophile class A when introduced. The Theta TLC and Monarchy DIP do the same things the UJB does, are effective, and available. I use Cardas Lightening digital cables with good results-- fast and neutral. Happy Listening.

Hi Garfish, Thanks for the info. Can the jitterbug go to the Denon and use its Burr/Brown DACs and still sound as good as your set up with the Muse DAC? Have you heard the Sony SACD yet?

Hi again Bmp; The SF UJB has to be used between a transport (or CD player with digital out) and an outboard DAC. It has two inputs-- coax. and toslink, and one output-- coax. Its purpose(s) is to 1. reduce digital jitter (a timing distortion or error), and 2. to convert toslink to the more desireable and robust coaxial. As the Sony XA7 has coax out and the CA9 has toslink out, I can connect both to the SF UJB with a single coax cable to the DAC. Using this setup, I cannot tell the XA7 from the CA9. The UJB has a front panel switch to change from one CD player to the other. I like this system a lot. I like Burr Brown DACs too-- the Muse Model Two also uses them. No, I have not yet heard SACD, but I sure would like to-- my nearest dealer is a long way. It doesn't tempt me much yet though because of the limited number of titles available. Have you any experience with SACD? I'm beginning to research "upsampling" devices though to improve the quality of my large and growing CD collection.

Hi again Bmp; I meant to ask you about your experience with the dCS upsampling units, ie is music quality significantly improved with these devices? I don't know if dCS is within reach of my budget, but if the improvement really is great-- well, you never know. Thanks.

Hi Garfish and everyone else, I haven't had enough time with all this gear to be 100% certain of my evaluations but I will attempt a short preliminary report. WOW! The sound does not sound like the master in the playback room of a studio, it sounds like you are directly in the same room with the musicians. I know this is a bit general but the best I can say is that the energy of the performance is palpable. I'm not kidding. I know the feeling of playing with other musicians and how there is an unspoken communication that writers call interplay, but there is a certain kind of anticipation that is communicated from musician to musician that tells you what the other player is about to do and with the DCS gear I could actually anticipate the drummers next moves before they happened. I don't have the budget to buy at this level myself yet. A friend has given me access to his system and he is often not at home for extended periods of time. This is why I am looking forward to a universal player that will approach this level of quality between $2000 and $5000. I think this won't be happening for another year or two. As far as software availability, we'll see. One of these new formats will eventually be widely available. When I bought my first DVD player there were only a few DVDs' around. No one knew if the format would succeed. Now I go to Tower Video and rent thousands of titles for $2. I believe that SACD or DVD-A will be as successful. I can wait a while to let the first few generations work out the bugs.