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Sony 900ES SACD sound vs CD - Help

I now have a little over 120 hours on my 9000ES DVD. Here's the problem: When I use the Sony as a transport (The digital output fed into an MSB Link Dac 2) the sound quality is MUCH better than the Sony supplied SACD music played through the SACD internal decoding circuits and output form the analog outputs on the Sony.

How can this be? I thought the SACD was supposed to be much better than the CD. Is it possible that the SACD circuits need much more time to break in?

The Sony when used as a transport is almost as good as my SimAudio Moon Eclipse cd player (when also used as a transport) which has a floating suspension.

I have the Sony on a magnetic levitation system which I designed that floats it 1/4 to 1/2" off the shelf.
This isolates the transport and circuitry from low frequency vibration. The result is: better bass, more open midrange, and clearer highs.

I just don't understand why the SACD part of this doesn't sound as good as everyone says it does. Maybe the sampler sacd is very good?

Any ideas??
128x128darrell
jadem6's avatar
jadem6
1,074 posts
 
Hello Mcfly, Martice. Are you listening? The 9000ES can be bought for about $1100. It has been stated many many times here on Audiogon that the sound quality ON STANDARD REDBOOK CD is as good as most outboard dac systems and as most upsampled cd systems. The fact that it plays SACD and DVD-V is just gravy. If you want (as you stated) the best from your present cd collection than the Sony 9000ES will get you that and more.
How else can it be said, THIS IS THE BEST BARGAIN IN AUDIO TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks if you listened, J.D.
joekras2785
25 posts
 
But the problem is you CAN get BETTER redbook sound with a cheaper DAC. under $1k. you should listen. or maybe you just haven't heard. and now you are misleading others.
no_money
638 posts
 
Joe, Yes if all you want to do is have redbook cd playback then you can spend 999.99 on a dac. and maybe get marginally better sound, or maybe not according to many posts. The 9000es seems to be very popular here with not to many negeative posts regarding it's cost/performance ratio. Actually I don't remember reading any complaints yet.
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drubin
3,274 posts
 
Golly Martice, it is so wonderful of you to save us poor slobs from our dumb-ass purchase mistakes. But really, I think everyone on this forum who choses to buy an SACD player is doing so with eyes wide open as far as the viability of the format. Maybe it is just worth it to some folks to have SACD playback in their systems, even if there are never a lot of software titles. Maybe they will find they want to add an outboard DAC for redbook CD playback in the future, maybe not. Why do you care?
tmartinf373
1 posts
 
I'm not so certain that a $1K DAC would have improved the CD play on my Sony 300 DVD player above the S9000ES CD sound. This $1K also would not have improved the audio while playing DVDs (I play DVD-V as much as CDs), give me DTS capability (which the Sony 300 could not do), or give me progressive scan. Oh yes, I would not have the option to buy SACD records. For me, spending $1K on an external DAC in lieu of a new DVD player does not make any sense.
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