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FunkyMonkey said:
Are there any SACD players that one can deem to be reference SACD players? I.e. that take the DSD stream and convert straight to analogue, that has a neutral sound, and that is built to high-end audiophile standards?
I just upgraded to the Parasound Halo D3 Universal Player. Weighing in at 16 lbs., it is ruggedly built and passes DSD without first converting to PCM. It plays stereo and multichannel SACD. Audio Advisor has been selling the silver version for $999.00 down from a list price of $2500.00. It is also a stellar upconverting DVD player. Of course I lust for the nearly $70,000 (but stereo only) SACD player from dCS called the Scarlatti, but that is a different story.
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Osbert Parsley said:
Getting off the topic a little - but: if we are using SACD to recreate the space of the concert hall in one's listening room, does this mean the most acoustically neutral room is to be preferred for a listening room - so as to avoid the listening room's acoustic qualities interfering with the recorded experience?
I would love to be able to compare an SACD recording in my listening room (which I am sure imposes its own colourations, etc ...) and a genuinely acoustic-neutral listening room. I am sure that the latter room would allow for the production of a more genuine illusion of being present in the recording venue.
In theory you are correct, but in practice, you can use Audyssey. But that's a whole new thread and would grate against teh purists' notion of less is more! I'm a pragmatist (some would say, slut!) and go with whatever sounds best and true in my own opinion.
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Post by BigTony July 18, 2008 (23 of 26)
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One cost effective approach would be to buy a Denon DVD 2900 and get the upgrade. That way you get top sound at a reasonable price.
As far as reference players go, well how deep are your pockets! But a great player should be affordable in the 1K band, as much more than this and your into 'esoteria' hifi, where having the 'only one of its kind' is the most important feature. Before spending that much on a player, peeps should look at how the actual recordings were made!
A good rule officer thumb : the cost of the player should be in the same ballpark as the investment in music you've got to play on it.
If sony don't bring out bluray players that play SACD then its time to check the classifieds for a quality player, before there all gone!
BT
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Post by godzilla July 20, 2008 (24 of 26)
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Even though only a budget player - less than 3000 pounds - you should look out for the review of the Holfi SA-CD player this fall in Grammophone. It has a traditional linear power supply backed up with battery power for the analogue section that is discretely build using non-feedback design. It plays also 5 channels and even gives you a feature that allows you - if you wish - to play surround without a centerspeaker (VCS - virtual center speaker).
Yummy!
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I would only consider buying a player that cost under UK£1000, and then only if it coudl be demonstrated that it would give UK£900 more listenability than a UK£100 PioneerDV600 spitting out DSD to my Onkyo amp and letting THAT do the decoding and DAC'ing!
Of course, that's not strictly true, because I have to factor in a couple of hundred pounds for the build quality! But you get my drift!
:-)
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Post by BigTony July 22, 2008 (26 of 26)
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Its very difficult to quantify 'sounding £900 better' :-)
Typically the cost vs performance is an exponential curve, which is why upgrading can be very expensive.
In this digital age, the easy part of the equation is getting the data off the disc bit perfect, what you then do with those bits is rather more taxing!
The DAC in the Onkyo (I own the 805 amp btw) are primarliy used for movie decoding, and they do a good job at that. But I have a Beresford DAC (cost £120) that I used for both my SB3 (redbook CD) and PS3 (SACD) and it is significantly better than the DAC in the Onkyo. The problem with the SACD is that it needs a good DSD processor to pass out analogue to your amp, as the amp wasn't designed with 'reference audiophile' quality in mind.
DAC's can cost from £100 - £1,000 without even trying to hard, but I'm not aware of anything that can take DSD and produce Analgue out, so the cost of most SACD's is the D/A stage and preamp.
Of course, if you spend £1,000 then the sound improvement is prety dependant upon the quality of all the other components in the chain, a £100 SACD might sound just great, but a £1,000 doesn't sound much better due to the limits of the other components.
I plan to buy a Denon DVD 2900 (anyone selling?) and get the output upgraded - should cost about £700, and that should sound as good as I'm going to get within the limitation of my gear (and my ears).
BT
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