Post by miklet August 3, 2004 (1 of 11)
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Purchased a Sony DVP685 combination DVD, CD, SACD player for my first SACD experience. I like the DSD sound very much.
Do the components and circuitry that enables the multiple format playback diminish the performance of the SACD DSD player ?
Are there SACD only players that perform better ?
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Post by LC August 3, 2004 (2 of 11)
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miklet said:
Purchased a Sony DVP685 combination DVD, CD, SACD player for my first SACD experience. I like the DSD sound very much.
Do the components and circuitry that enables the multiple format playback diminish the performance of the SACD DSD player ?
Are there SACD only players that perform better ?
First rule of high-end audio: there is always something better.
I don't know anything about a player with that designation. Earlier and cheaper universal players have been alleged to sacrifice CD playback quality in particular. There is no such thing as a "SACD only" player, if by that you mean something that does not play CDs, but of course there are SACD/CD players that do not play DVD, DVD-A, MP3, etc. I would recommend such a player if you are serious about music. However, it depends on how important HT is to you, and you have to weigh what you can get in a universal player against the cost of having two different players. You might consider something like the Denon DVD-2900, which has mostly separate guts allocated to each playback function. If you just want something that does the job for DVD and want to get more serious about audio, keep what you have as a DVD player and get the best SACD/CD player you can afford. Let me know if you want suggestions about that.
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Post by miklet August 3, 2004 (3 of 11)
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LC said:
First rule of high-end audio: there is always something better.
If you just want something that does the job for DVD and want to get more serious about audio, keep what you have as a DVD player and get the best SACD/CD player you can afford. Let me know if you want suggestions about that.
to LC - thank you for the response. Your comments are relevant and you interpreted my question accurately. I do not understand the impact of the player having the PCM capability or the effect of upsampling. Based on comments I have read here, it seems, these two phenomena are to be avoided. So, YES! , I would like a suggestion on 2 or 3 options for a SACD/CD player without the video circuits or players that do a good job of not letting the music be affected by the presence of such circuitry.
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Post by LC August 4, 2004 (4 of 11)
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miklet said:
I do not understand the impact of the player having the PCM capability or the effect of upsampling. Based on comments I have read here, it seems, these two phenomena are to be avoided. So, YES! , I would like a suggestion on 2 or 3 options for a SACD/CD player without the video circuits or players that do a good job of not letting the music be affected by the presence of such circuitry.
PCM "capability" is fine and necessary. CD is a PCM format. The problem was with some early universal players that could read a SACD, but just converted the DSD signal to PCM for processing. Upsampling (or oversampling) is common with CD players and is also fine. Some companies make a big deal of it and others don't bother. Wadia, Mark Levinson, Musical Fidelity, dCS and others build some extremely good upsampling products. But it's not an issue with DSD. I assume you'd be looking for a multichannel player. Do you have a budget? Might you buy used?
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Post by miklet August 4, 2004 (5 of 11)
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LC said:
Do you have a budget? Might you buy used?
LC - thanks again, your time and effort is appreciated
Multichannel is a requirement. Used equipment would be considered, but seems unlikely due to a strong sense of "buyer beware". I'm not much of a risk taker.
It's hard for me to establish a budget number, but I think $600 is the most I could rationalize for my station in life. However, most of my previous hi-fi purchases have been emotionally driven resulting in me spending more than anticipated.
If you could suggest at least 1 player below $600 and 1 or more above, I could try to locate review comments on the web to increase my background knowledge. I have tried looking via search engines but got frustrated.
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miklet said:
Purchased a Sony DVP685 combination DVD, CD, SACD player for my first SACD experience. I like the DSD sound very much.
Do the components and circuitry that enables the multiple format playback diminish the performance of the SACD DSD player ?
Are there SACD only players that perform better ?
I also have this player and I'm very impressed with the multi-channel performance *if* one doesn't change the default settings--leave all speakers at large and say that you have a sub even if you don't-- I noticed a drop in sound quality when folding the sub into the L/R fronts. I just bought a used Sony multi-chan XA777ES off Ebay for $1350 to replace my 2ch Marantz SA-14 ver. 2. ( I miss it, but it was 2chan only.) The Marantz has a huge soundstage and very extended, defined bass with redbook and 2chan SACD. I tried the Marantz Sa 8260 because of its multichannel capablity but returned it because of ill-defined bass and lack of powerful extension in redbook playback. Multichan was wonderful. That's the good news: it seems as though multi-channel is very forgiving and you may not have to spend much on a player to get great results, especially if you don't change setting that introduce extra processing.
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Post by LC August 4, 2004 (7 of 11)
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miklet said:
most of my previous hi-fi purchases have been emotionally driven resulting in me spending more than anticipated.
If you could suggest at least 1 player below $600 and 1 or more above
Yeah- that's the right way to buy high-end audio.
I am mostly interested in gear that is more expensive than this, but I can still advise you. At ~$600 for a new unit, it is probably not in your best interests to have separate players. Pretty much anything you'd gain from a division of labour would be more than offset by redundant spending. If you just bought the Sony, I would see if you can return it. Failing that, look into selling it or trading it in. The Denon DVD-2900 is probably a really solid bet. A flexible $600 buget, plus whatever you can get for the Sony, plus a reasonable dealer should make it quite attainable. It should also be a good step up in the video department, as it is considered an excellent DVD player (although I am assuming here that the Sony unit is somewhat cheaper than $600). As I mentioned above, its design allocates mostly separate processing resources to CD, SACD and DVD. Its setup features are well-designed, and it has customizable modes that allow you to completely deactivate the video and display circuitry when you're using it for audio. Lots has been written about it, and it won a number of awards last year. Here's a couple reviews written or updated this year.
http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/DenonDVD-2900-reviewp1.html
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_1/denon-dvd-2900-dvd-player-1-2004.html
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Post by soundboy August 5, 2004 (8 of 11)
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miklet said:
Purchased a Sony DVP685 combination DVD, CD, SACD player for my first SACD experience. I like the DSD sound very much.
Do the components and circuitry that enables the multiple format playback diminish the performance of the SACD DSD player ?
Are there SACD only players that perform better ?
Just picked up the brand-new Sony SCD-CE595 5 disc SACD/CD changer from Best Buy for US$150.00 + tax. There's no video circuitry in this player....just audio.
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Post by Nielstk August 5, 2004 (9 of 11)
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miklet said:
Purchased a Sony DVP685 combination DVD, CD, SACD player for my first SACD experience. I like the DSD sound very much.
Do the components and circuitry that enables the multiple format playback diminish the performance of the SACD DSD player ?
Are there SACD only players that perform better ?
I've got the Sony DVP-NS900 QS (DVD/SACD). The audio circuit is a separate board, and you can switch the video circuits off. It retailed for around $500. The newer models 905, etc have better video quality (according to the reviews) but lack the good audio quality and build of the 900. Set all speaker settings to large with subwoofer, so no bass management processing occurs. If you find a used 900, I can recommend it.
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Post by Galley September 5, 2004 (10 of 11)
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soundboy said:
Just picked up the brand-new Sony SCD-CE595 5 disc SACD/CD changer from Best Buy for US$150.00 + tax. There's no video circuitry in this player....just audio.
Does the 595 have full support for SACD-Text? The's one thing that disappointed me about my 685, is that it only display the album titles. :-(
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