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Redbooks: as good on Sony SACD as on Cary 303?

I have a Cary 303 which does a beautiful job on my standard CDs. However, friends with SACD players insist that their SACD discs are superior to anything else on any other system. I live in the boonies, an audio wasteland, and these friends live in other states...so I can't hear these differences for myself. My CD collection is virtually all standard CDs but I would be willing to invest in some SACDs if I could be certain my redbooks will sound as good. Will you share your experiences with this, please? Thank you.
pendragn
detlof
1,899 posts
 
Hi Pendragn, I suggest you look into the thread "SACD why" here on Audiogon and also put SACD into its search engine for further threads about this topic. I'm sure it will help you along with that very tricky question.
sutts
700 posts
 
There have been several posts on this. From what I understand, in general (there are always exceptions), the better redbook players WILL make your regular CD's sound better (upsampling can become a critical factor in this as well- but that's a whole other discussion. My CD player (Audio Aero Capitole 24/192) sound so good to me that I have absolutely no desire to go the SACD route.
1953
140 posts
 
Depends very much on the SACD player. I broke in my Sony 9000ES for at LEAST 500 hours by leaving it(forgot about it actually)in the basement for almost a month on repeat with the SACD demo running into 10K resisitors. Sounded pretty good. However, when comparing the 9000ES playing the SACD layer to my Muse 9 Signature playing the CD layer on several of my dual layer SACDs, the Muse ate it alive everytime. And I have a couple of eye(ear?)witnesses too. Go figure. Must all depend on how you apply the technology. Good luck
abecollins
219 posts
 
The Cary 303 is an outstanding CD player. I doubt that a mass marketed lower-end SACD player can match it playing standard CD's. The higher-end SACD players *might* have a chance but from what I've read, on standard CD play back, they're not quite up to par with the best CD players.

I would love to get a Sony SCD-777ES or the SCD-1 in here side-by-side with my Cary 306/200 and compare regular CD playback. To me that is the true test in justifying the purchase of an SACD player (for me). If it can't play my 500+ standard CD's to my liking, I can't see buying one. The SACD capability is just icing on the cake but it has to pass the first hurdle of regular CD playback. My 2 cents worth...
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