Beyond SACD with Redbook: Price No Object

Cwlondon: I have the Audio Meca Mephisto transport that I originally purchased with a Dodson Audio Dac. I upgraded the Dac last fall with the Audio Meca Enkianthus Dac. These are magic together in my system (Aloia pre-amp, Plinius amps, Dunlavy V speakers, audio techne interconnects and audio techne CD transformer. I use the sony as a one box player for DVD. I used to listen to some SACD, but that has gone by...

Over the past few days I have been messing with interconnects and tweaking/tuning my system to accomodate my Sony SACD player. The interconnects I used with the Mephisto weren't exactly right for use with the Sony. They were close but not perfect.

Now that I have spent some time with the Sony (tuned) I must say that going back to a redbook only player might not be in my future. Considering the upgradability of the new Sony XA777ES to include a tube analog output and separate tube power supply I honestly believe that this piece of equipment has the potential to surpass the performance I had once enjoyed with my redbook only player(s).

Something that hasn't been mentioned here is that SACD has built-in copy protection.. very serious built in copy protection - it is called "no digital output". The RIAA and artists want a format that can't be copied, and I am banking on Sony holding a strong line on this - and the music industry firmly supporting it. This has its disadvantages, obviously, but what I want is SACD software. I'll rip the redbook layer to mp3 if I want, or whatever, but when it comes to SACD...

I just recently purchased a 9000ES DVD/SACD player for $900 shipped. I picked up some original DSD recordings - almost all classical, some remasters from Red Rose Music (Mark Levinson's label), and some remastered analog stuff from Miles, etc.. The Sony remastered stuff really is not that good, I could see how a Mephisto or EMC could trounce it - but listening to pure DSD (the Lindsay Quartets Grosse Fugue for instance) or Levinson's pressings of Fisk playing Bach and Scarlatti - if you listen to these recordings on even a cheap SACD player like mine, and think your redbook player outpreforms them, you need to seriously have your hearing examined. I have a decent loudspeaker system, but most of my listening takes place on my Stax Omega phones - I'd consider them pretty damn reference - and the SACD sound is on another plane. I can't stand people saying that some new digital cable proved to be a "massive" improvement in their sound.. want to hear massive? Listen to pure DSD or well done remasters. That is massive. Everything else is trivial.

So, lets hope SACD makes it. I think there is a very strong likelihood for it. As for redbook, I really have to believe we have wrung every last bit of performance from it by now.. adjustable dither settings? Christ. That must say something about the current state of things..

-A

I have tried to read every post on this thread and have tried to come to some conclusion. I am in a similar position to the original author of this thread. I beleive that new digital recordings that are designed for SACD likely produce the best sound we can achieve today. BUT!

What I want to know is, can a good SACD player do a better job of playing my 500+ redbook CD's than a really good redbook CD player or upsampling DAC?

This thread leads me to beleive that one needs a really good CD player or upsampling DAC for their redbooks, and a SACD player for real SACD recordings (whenever a decent number of them become available)......I would love to learn differently......

Remember that this is "a price is no object" thread, and what us mere mortals find acceptable may vary somewhat. I would thaink for most folks, the results of taking a decent Sony player to a modder like modwright would be acceptable, even a stock XA777ES is no slouch on redbook. There is some perception among the posts which I have seen (not neccessarily in this thread) that the redbook CD on the SACD players and discs may have been compromised to make the new format sound better, but I can't say if this is true or not.