SACD player as CD transport?

You need to call oade.com, they will give you that price, I assure you. You have to ask for it as well as asking for it at J&R.

In a brief trial, I preferred my Forsell transport to the SCD777ES as a transport, but the difference, to my ears, isn't that big, and you're talking about probably (at least in my view) one of the best transports out there. The Sony sure seems to be very stable and built like a tank, and while they may have cut some corners on the analog side (which I've had bypassed; check some of the other SACD threads if you're interested) I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the digital side. At $1500, with SACD capability, I think it's a bargain.

This begs the question, is it worth the extra $1500 for the SCD-1 over the 777, considering performance as an SACD player and as a CD transport for use with externl DAC?

i don't know what your outer limits on price might be, but accuphase has an incredibly good sacd transport/dac combination that will play all formats available (the transport does not play dvd-a but the dac is upgradeable to this source). the pair, dp-100/dc-101 retails for $28k. it is the best "redbook" playback combo i've ever heard and requires no preamp; indeed, it sounds best driven direct using a fully-digital attenuator on board.

Drubin, your question is a good one. I'm not sure of the actual differences between the two units, perhaps someone out there knows. My understanding from hearsay is that the SCD-1 has additional damping, may have some better parts in the analog stage but still sounds similar, and has XLR (not true balanced all the way through) outputs, as well as fancier machinework. I would think you can probably get higher resolution CD playback for the extra $1500 over either Sony unit, and I doubt if the two Sony units differ in any real respect as transports. I'd pocket the $1500 and take the 777ES, which I did (but then took the money out of the pocket to get the far better analog stage; I'm too far gone as a tweaker, but you can still save yourself!). Anyone out there with more concrete facts or thoughts on this one?