SACD - Another year and ...

I think SACD will make it. With the release of the new cheaper players, the dvd-9000es and the 333es I have to believe Sony will make a lot more titles available in the next year.

I am going to play hardball here...I know some of the guys that design and build the current high-end cd players disagree....but I think op-amps...read: big IC's...suck. I am sorry...I don't usually use words like that in a post. But I am tired of high-end audio gear using op-amps...it does screw-up the sound...what does this have to do with SACD....a great deal... Much of the dissatisfaction with the cd format...new or old has to do with power supplies... digital filters and esp. the audio amp section of players. These guys will try to tell you how a class A bias or someother BS makes these op-amps...really good...BS. If so, then the Audio Research, Conrad Johnson, VAC, Ayre...Pass and others of the world should get on the ball and put these world class op-amps in their pre-amps etc... I think I'll call the guy at Magnum-Dynalab and tell him to take the tubes out of the MD-108 and put in an op-amp or two.... My point is the same as my earlier response in this thread. ANY new format...SACD, DVD audio...etc.. needs to address the playback of standard cd's at the highest level possible for what's left of us high-end consumers..to be satisfied.. and excited about their product. Why try to be state-of-the-art in the digital end of a player..and then use audio circuit parts that are at low-end..mid-fi levels. Sorry...but this is why most of you out there have trouble with the sound of digital...period.

That's why I had Mr. Ozment replace the Sony analog stage and power supply with the Audio Logic tubed analog stage and power supply on my SCD777ES. The Sony doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't take full advantage of the resolving power of the medium. But things are built to price points.....

Remember, Sony is behind this format. They own half of the record labels out there and can support it. Also Sony has started to slip this format into dvd players, s9000es, and I would think this will trickle down to lower priced players putting this format more into the mass market.

I've heard what, IMO, is the creme-de-la-creme of SACD players--the Accuphase 100-101 ttransport-DAC system, which plays SACD, Red Book and DVD-A. It's stunning and extremely pricey. I've also heard, at length, the Accuphase DP-75v 24/192 oversampling one-box player. It, too, is stunning-- not quite up to SACD, but miles better than any other player I've auditioned, including the best Wadia and Levinson offered, and a number of others as well, not including the Linn or the elgar/Delia system. I'll either 1) wait out an SACD/CD Accuphase player and the addition of more SACD software (true SACD, not 16-, 20- 0r 24-bit remastered once again for the format), or if the release of SACDs is less than I expect after, say, 2 years+, I'll buy the Accuphase 75v, if I can come up with the bucks. Like many here, I have misgivings about the future of either SACD, or DVD-A, in which I have no interest. BTW, if you take a look at the companies that originally went DVD-A--Chesky, etc.--you'll see a number of them are releasing, or scheduling for release--SACDs. What does this say any future for DVD audio, regardless of the hardware that may be available? In any event, good listening to all!