SACD Player Recomendations

[Bernard]

Agree. Anything you can't stream is a dead duck. But now that you can rip/stream SACDs, I don't see how there can be any market for them? Who wants to deal with storage and mucking around with physical discs?

Here in Brisbane, there is all of one physical record store left. They have reduced their size by about half a few years ago, but honestly, I haven't even been in there for at least 7 years now. I believe they do quite a "quaint" little trade with vinyl - I should drop by and see what their SACD situation is like?

Adam, don't knock the "quaint" little trade with vinyl. I recently modified my vinyl rig with an inexpensive DIY, then bought Diana Krall's "Turn Up The Quiet" on vinyl....yes....vinyl. It's PHENOMENAL! You just have to know what to tweak! Right, Dave?

Next purchase....her "Live in Paris" album!

The tweak, btw, consisted of front ending my phono stage with microphone transformers used as moving-coil step-up transformers, and yes, I know, the "technical experts" (sigh!) will tell you that transformers are limited in bandwidth....don't need that discussion, btw!

 

[amey01]

Adam, don't knock the "quaint" little trade with vinyl.

No Bernard - not knocking the vinyl trade at all. I was using it as a poignant reminder of how niche the record stores have become.

 

[Bernard]

No Bernard - not knocking the vinyl trade at all. I was using it as a poignant reminder of how niche the record stores have become.

Yes, you've always been a gentleman in our discussions, Adam; I appreciate that!

I was reading recently about a record pressing plant in the Czech Republic that did not close down when the business slowed to a trickle. They just serviced the minimal business they received, but diversified into printing. Now that the record pressing business has picked up for them, they print the album covers as well. They now run a 24/7 operation, and have opened a new plant somewhere here in Ontario, Canada. Most of their product is shipped to the US.

 

[Gordon Gray]

LOL Tim, as I said before I have ZERO interest in zipping, ripping, tweeting, texting, twaddling or whatever !!!! ...........as for streaming, at my age I regard that as being able to take a good **** (leak) !

You're a very funny man my friend. I'm with you on this and on taking a "good leak". How difficult is it to push the open drawer button, take the CD out of the case, put it in the drawer, and push the play button?

 

[Rich]

How difficult is it to push the open drawer button, take the CD out of the case, put it in the drawer, and push the play button?

Not difficult. To me, the bigger issues are storage of thousands of discs, retrieval of that one disc you want to hear out of those thousands, and also the inability to make playlists from multiple cds. I absolutely hate getting up every few minutes to retrieve, play, and then put back multiple discs because I want to listen to a single song on each. I still haven’t undertaken the effort to copy my SACD’s to hard drive though, even though I have an oppo I can use to do it. Maybe this winter...

 

[amey01]

How difficult is it to push the open drawer button, take the CD out of the case, put it in the drawer, and push the play button?

Answer: Not very hard.

Conversely, how difficult is it to store and curate thousands of cheap-plastic, bulky disc cases. Find what you want, when you want it? Colossal waste of listening time. Not to mention having a spinning disc in the listening room - which can always be heard no matter how well engineered the transport. Getting up constantly.

It all seems a little "last century" to me.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Answer: Not very hard.

Conversely, how difficult is it to store and curate thousands of cheap-plastic, bulky disc cases. Find what you want, when you want it? Colossal waste of listening time. Not to mention having a spinning disc in the listening room - which can always be heard no matter how well engineered the transport. Getting up constantly.

It all seems a little "last century" to me.

I've got a large CD/DVD/BD shelf unit in my media room and I'm about to take all the CD's and put them in storage to make room for other stuff. They just collect dust. JRiver is a full multimedia server, but as often as I go for a BD these days which is very rare, it's not that big a deal to put a movie in to play for a couple hours. Still this is something I only do every month or so.

 

[TomDac]

i love having everything ripped. Rip them all and never worry about it again.
I can't imagine looking for or even handling media anymore.

^^ bingo ^^

 

[Gordon Gray]

Answer: Not very hard.

Conversely, how difficult is it to store and curate thousands of cheap-plastic, bulky disc cases. Find what you want, when you want it? Colossal waste of listening time. Not to mention having a spinning disc in the listening room - which can always be heard no matter how well engineered the transport. Getting up constantly.

It all seems a little "last century" to me.

Hi Adam,

To answer your questions, not very hard.

Waste of listening time? Not for me. My discs are well organized by genre and alphabetically arranged so I can find the CD I want quite quickly and oftentimes a CD that I find (while searching) to add to the list of "want to listen to this". And I have about 630 discs which is more than enough to meet my needs.

Transport noise? In my case, very low and totally inaudible if music is playing. In my current setup, my left ear is less than four feet from my CDP.

Last century? For folks who are way into computers like you, probably true. For me, I am technically challenged and don't have the acuity or desire to become computer literate.

Getting up constantly? A non-issue. A twist on "couch potato" which is a term here in the US for someone who sits and watches TV for a long time. I'll call it "server potato" for audiotypes that are glued to their seats while searching for music. And as Dave and I have been discussing, it gives one the opportunity to take a "good leak" between discs.

Bottom line. Whatever the media, enjoy listening to the music. In the end, that's all that matters.

Best,

Gordon

PS: I fail to understand why techie type people who rip / store music on their computer are so dogmatic (almost preachy) on this server issue.

 

[amey01]

PS: I fail to understand why techie type people who rip / store music on their computer are so dogmatic (almost preachy) on this server issue.

Because it's so damned good !! It's why you can hardly find a new CD player any more - there is a wider array of turntables available than CD players.

Come on Gordon - you've mastered MLO - ripping music is not that much harder (although I admit - there is a significant time-consuming "PITA" component in doing the initial rip). You don't really need to be technically literate because there are integrated ripping/storage solutions available (from audiphile companies, no less). You don't have to build your own server and configure your own software. Although doing so gives you a lot more flexibility if you do happen to be "into computers". It's your choice though.

Naim HDX
Bluesound Vault
......that sort of thing.

For me personally, sometimes we find technology is solving problems we didn't even know we had. Technology for technology's sake.

For music ripping, not so. I have always abhorred the physical media concept since I was a kid. Like I'd imagine most people here on this forum, my musical taste extends beyond the latest Madonna or One Direction single. Finding what I wanted - on physical discs, in crowded shopping centres - was always a challenge for me. So was storing the piles of cheap plastic. And finding stuff to play - wondering what disc a particular track was on, etc.

Ripping has solved all of this - my music collection is far more useful, interactive and enjoyable. It serves me instead of me serving it.

I initially had my doubts too (15 years ago)...... and there are certainly some downsides. I'd be lying if I didn't point out that keeping appropriate backups and taking disks offsite is not an insignificant piece of work. Setting up and configuring a new server is a bit of work as well (and as my current server has been running for over 6 years now, it's a job I am trying to put off tackling - even though I know I'm going to have to deal with it soon). But it pales into insignificance when I think of the challenge of curating a large disc collection.

 

[Rich]

Come on Gordon - you've mastered MLO -

Ummm, you might be overstating your argument there, Adam. :ROFL:

Sorry Gordon, couldn’t resist.

 

[Bernard]

Adam, setting up a new server is trivial......but you have to be a MAC guy!

 

[amey01]

Adam, setting up a new server is trivial......but you have to be a MAC guy!

Thanks Bernard, but naah. I'll stick to servers that do what I want them to do. That means Linux.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

There are obviously different mindsets involved here.

For example the idea of playlists, vs listening to an entire album.

There are some albums that have ONE good song on them and the rest are tracks I won't ever like.

I have playlists that go on for a few hours. I have the entire John Coltrane collection and everything ever created by RUSH. Then I have demo playlists for showing off my stereo that are in amp volume order. They start off with my stereo down low and work their way up to Live Rock tracks that shake the house.

You can slice and dice your music collection in creative ways. You can sort by year recorded, type of music, artist.

How about tracks in a genre that you've rated at least 4 out of 5 ?

There is no right or wrong way to listen to music.

However once you've gotten used to this level of flexibility, it adds a new dimension to your music. That's why everyone who has done this is so enthusiastic about it.

 

[Rich]

Well said, Mark.

 

[Northy]

Hi Dave,

I have a CXU from Cambridge and I love it. It is a universal player with emphasis on the audio side. It spins my DVD-Audios and SACDs in a very sweet way. It has got that Great British Sound as the sticker on the unit indicates! Several professional reviewers prefer Cambridge over OPPO when it comes to the audio purity.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Hi Northy,

Cambridge is a very unappreciated brand. Very good cost / value ratio company.

Gordon

 

[twich54]

Hi Dave,

I have a CXU from Cambridge and I love it. It is a universal player with emphasis on the audio side. It spins my DVD-Audios and SACDs in a very sweet way. It has got that Great British Sound as the sticker on the unit indicates! Several professional reviewers prefer Cambridge over OPPO when it comes to the audio purity.

interesting ..............

on another front I'm wondering about this new release ............

https://www.pioneeraudio.com.au/products/pd-70ae-super-audio-cd-player

 

[Northy]

interesting ..............

on another front I'm wondering about this new release ............

https://www.pioneeraudio.com.au/products/pd-70ae-super-audio-cd-player

Dave, I clicked on the link and took a peek at the back panel. There are no multi-channel analogue outputs. Moreover, it does not play DVD-Audio format. These two were very important for me. You may not care about these two features. Let us know what you end up with.

 

[hifinutt]

i like marantz sacd players . they are pretty good vfm and good build quality and easy to sell on when you upgrade . currently using a humble sa8005 but its not bad at all