SA-CD.net - At Sea with Shopping

Post by threerandot October 4, 2007 (1 of 3)

I was wondering if there was any thoughts about putting an SA-CD player buying guide up here at SA-CD.net? I live in Canada where SA-CD is about as popular as cold toilet seats. My trouble is access to a selection of desirable players at desirable prices.

The internet doesn't really help. Buying something without having the chance to hear it first is not my idea of a practical way to shop. The retailers carry only Universal Players, or the Sony Store only has two or three players to choose from. Either the cheapest or very expensive or a Universal machine.

Most audiophile players are Stereo only and I am looking for a player that will do MCH as well. I don't really like the idea of buying a carousel player or one that includes DVD-Audio and DVD Video, as well as a million other bells and whistles.

Any thoughts on this from other Canadians?

Post by wz286t October 5, 2007 (2 of 3)

threerandot said:

I was wondering if there was any thoughts about putting an SA-CD player buying guide up here at SA-CD.net? I live in Canada where SA-CD is about as popular as cold toilet seats. My trouble is access to a selection of desirable players at desirable prices.

The internet doesn't really help. Buying something without having the chance to hear it first is not my idea of a practical way to shop. The retailers carry only Universal Players, or the Sony Store only has two or three players to choose from. Either the cheapest or very expensive or a Universal machine.

Most audiophile players are Stereo only and I am looking for a player that will do MCH as well. I don't really like the idea of buying a carousel player or one that includes DVD-Audio and DVD Video, as well as a million other bells and whistles.

Any thoughts on this from other Canadians?

Perhaps you standards are a little too high.
I made the jump into _both_ SACD and DVD-Audio about 4 years ago, and because
I'm a value shopper - I had no qualms about buying a carousel Sony SACD player, which was a medium-range player at more than 50% off(just over $200).
My feeling was that it would be the other components that would make the difference (I went with Yamaha's flagship receiver at that time(RX-V1) and DefTech speakers for my HT/M-CH), and I don't regret it, even though I had to go through quite a lot of effort to ensure I could set the whole system up in such a way that would allow my to switch bet. the SACD player, and my DVD-Audio capable DVD player (I'll just say I have 18[eighteen] analog cables in my system).
Because the most important thing for me was music, being able to re-discover some of my all-time favourite music all over again and hear in them much more than I originally did. Once I listened to Gaucho, DSOTM, Avalon, Come Away with Me and so many other albums in all their MultiChannel glory - it was only a matter of getting more titles at a good price, for which eBay has been a great place. And once you start enjoying the music - being able to listen more and more without having to get up and change the discs becomes a serious advantage. Especially when you want a full listening session of multiple SACD's of some of your favourite artists(Depeche Mode, Genesis, Alison Krauss -to list a few).
So don't worry about it and get a carousel; once you get the music you can always upgrade to a really good dedicated or universal player(I hear Denon is coming up with some quality universal machines that can also play BluRay and/or
HD-DVD).
Good luck either way,
Derek

Post by toddao October 5, 2007 (3 of 3)

Another thought from an Aussie, if you don't object. Although I'm very happy with my SonyNS92V as my multichannel SACD player, I keep thinking about up grading and there is no real decent MC player at what I consider a realistic price-about $1000.00. As you say most of the new machines are stereo only which is a backward step as far as I am concerned. Then I think perhaps before to long we will get a player from Sony with Blu ray thrown in -whenever they get around to MC audio only in that format.