i've heard SACD, audio DVD, CD (44.1) and the best analouge frontends out there. best thing i've ever heard is 1 inch, 2-track master tape through a hot-rodded Studer-Revox (tube) reel-to-reel @ 30 ips. but how practical is that? ever tried to find master tapes? i have roughly 5,000 lps and 1400 CD's. i still collect lps but, contrary to the experience of david99 (BTW, you ought to get a spellchecker and maybe buy a used version of Strunk & White), find that new lps, if they are available at all, cost as much or more than new CD's on sale (as they always are somewhere). fact is, if you want to listen to almost anything new, you're confined to digital sources. live with it! it ain't gonna change, no matter that there are a handful of us still around with the means and desire to buy $20k+ tt/arm/cartridge combos. and, unless you play your records at something approaching a whisper, you're gonna get noise, no matter that you have, as do i, the best-of-the-best equipment and software. my experience is this: the Accuphase SACD transport played through an Accuphase DC 330 all-digital preamp is vastly superior to any of the Sony's; problem is the former is likely to cost at least 4x's more than the Sony under discussion (at this point, i don't have a qoute on the SACD transport but the digital pre with all the option boards you'll want will run you $18-21k). notwithstanding this observation, the SACD format, with 1st-rate electronics and speakers, is clearly superior to CD, 24/96 audio DVD and CD(44.1). since there are only about 100 SACD's in the present worldwide catalogue, i've not been able to a/b them with lp's. i suspect, tho, that the SACD may, in fact, surpass all but the best-of-the-best lp sources/frontends. all that said, you guys are all focusing on the wrong problem here. SACD, and perhaps CD, may already be doomed formats (i hate it, too, but vinyl is already on life support). MP3 and Napster have changed the face of audio already and, IMHO, may wipe out the whole highend, as we know it, in the next 2-3 years. SACD will not be supported by the oligarchy that controls it unless those few of us on the outer reaches of the audio market embrace it as a format an order of magnitude better than any alternative. absent that, expect to be yolked with compressed, narrow-band dreck that you won't need anything better than Radioshack offers to appreciate fully. but, borrowing (no, stealing) from dennis miller: that's just my opinion; i could be wrong.
Is SACD really this lousy?
Bought a Sony SCD 1 and this is boring me in my system. Have had it for 2 weeks and just cannot get interested. Previously I had a CAL CL2o and we were astounded by how the DVD DAD's sounded-fall into the soundstage, reach out and touch the performers. Also the dynamic range used every bit of the VTL's 275 watts into the Maggies. The 44/16 side of the CL20 was at best lukewarm. This after coming off a Meridian 508 20. Then I tried the Wadia 270/27ix. In my system, all the write ups were proven wrong. Then I went to the Linn Ikemi. It was great except I couldn't forget that sound of the DVD's with the CL20. Sooooo....off I went to get the Sony SCD 1. I don't have a dealer here but trusted it wouldn't dissappoint. WRONNNG! I called Steve Huntley at Great Northern Sound to see if he could do anything. He said it was a great player, it's just that Sony missed the boat when it came to the analog section. He is in fact drawing up a mod to deal with this very thing that he says will approach the Accuphase. That however will cost anywhere from $1500 roonies for the SACD side to $3500 for both. Anybody have any comment on this or am I the only one experiencing disappointment?
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- 83 posts total
- 83 posts total