SACD Player Recomendations

[Gordon Gray]

Dave,

To repeat, Esoteric is very iffy from a hardware synergy perspective. Auditioning is an absolute must before purchasing.

The only reason I will sell my Cary is to recoup some minor resale value. Maybe $1,000 to $1,500 once serviced and checked out by Cary.

Although I have to think that the Luxman will outperform the 306 in some areas, I still find it very musically compelling / engaging. And it will be 10 years old this April.

Having said that, I don't do much "near field" listening anymore and sit about 20 feet or so away most of the time. The soundstage size is massive (except for minor height restrictions) and very satisfying at volume levels that are much lower than my previous listening levels.

Suffice to say I am a very happy camper.

Gordon

 

[kach22i]

........ I bought it from Jeff Dorgay (prior to pissing him off enough that he left the forum :angel..........

Wish I was there to see that happen, what a POS that boy was.

 

[Littleman]

Hi all, A little late to the party here...regarding sacd....I have had a recent revelation I wish to share...a few years ago I acquired a Sony XA 5400 ES with the Modright Truth upgrade. This upped SACD playback considerably....the surprising side benefit was that cd playback, especially earlier (pre-1992) or any well engineered cd (uncompressed) plays nearly as well as sacd (ex: early Leo Kottke). Until recently, I was satisfied with driving this with a Unison Research S6....until I learned of an older Sony proprietary technology going by the acronym of H.A.T.S. that the XA5400 was able to feed via HDMI. I recently happened across a 9 year old Sony STR-DA5700ES receiver that included HDMI input and H.A.T.S. processing. That was three weeks ago.....and the change has been....life changing as far as 2 channel music playback is concerned. Now one question for any readers....I currently use a pair of Opera Seconda speakers in a dedicated listeing room app 14' x 13', resulting so far in what I think is very good sound...clarity, soundstage depth and width...details, etc. Bass is a little shy at the lowest levels, so considering a small sub....but on the speakers, any ML speaker recommendations I should consider based on my current setup?...thank you for your feedback.

 

[Robert D]

I think nearly all Sony players do SACD? I had a bluray player that did. It wasn't an expensive player but sounded much better than regular cd.

 

[twich54]

Hi all, A little late to the party here...regarding sacd....I have had a recent revelation I wish to share...a few years ago I acquired a Sony XA 5400 ES with the Modright Truth upgrade. This upped SACD playback considerably....the surprising side benefit was that cd playback, especially earlier (pre-1992) or any well engineered cd (uncompressed) plays nearly as well as sacd (ex: early Leo Kottke). Until recently, I was satisfied with driving this with a Unison Research S6....until I learned of an older Sony proprietary technology going by the acronym of H.A.T.S. that the XA5400 was able to feed via HDMI. I recently happened across a 9 year old Sony STR-DA5700ES receiver that included HDMI input and H.A.T.S. processing. That was three weeks ago.....and the change has been....life changing as far as 2 channel music playback is concerned. Now one question for any readers....I currently use a pair of Opera Seconda speakers in a dedicated listeing room app 14' x 13', resulting so far in what I think is very good sound...clarity, soundstage depth and width...details, etc. Bass is a little shy at the lowest levels, so considering a small sub....but on the speakers, any ML speaker recommendations I should consider based on my current setup?...thank you for your feedback.

given your relatively small room size i would lean towards the ESL 9's or 11a's in stats and either the 60's or 40's in the 'Motion' series.

what is your amplification and your budget ?

 

[Gordon Gray]

If you end up buying a sub, the REL T7i is an amazing piece of gear. $1K and a full refund policy, with audition, at Music Direct. Will work with your current speakers or your new ML's.

 

[Littleman]

given your relatively small room size i would lean towards the ESL 9's or 11a's in stats and either the 60's or 40's in the 'Motion' series.

what is your amplification and your budget ?

As of now the amplification is the Sony STR DA5700ES....stereo mode, 130 wpc. Using this with the Sony SA XA 5400 w Modwright to get the HDMI/H.A.T.S. processing for cd/sacd. Also have and tried Unison Research S6 and Jolida 1501RC Hybrid w/ mods...all sound fine, nod go's to the Sony for much clearer definition. Budget up to 9K but needs to include speaker wire upgrade.

 

[Littleman]

If you end up buying a sub, the REL T7i is an amazing piece of gear. $1K and a full refund policy, with audition, at Music Direct. Will work with your current speakers or your new ML's.

Will Audition next week!....thanks for the heads up.

 

[twich54]

Budget up to 9K but needs to include speaker wire upgrade.

so, what is wrong with your present speaker wire that makes you feel you need to 'upgrade' it ?

You will be much further ahead by allocating your $$ towards your speakers as opposed to overpriced 'wire'

 

[Littleman]

so, what is wrong with your present speaker wire that makes you feel you need to 'upgrade' it ?

You will be much further ahead by allocating your $$ towards your speakers as opposed to overpriced 'wire'

Well, the speaker wire upgrade I am going to try is a low cost one....trying a couple lengths of Mogami 14 gauge speaker wire..under 100 bucks. Regarding ML speaker options...I'm looking into Used / new Montis, SummitX, Impression 11... The Impression with ARC is appealing due to ARC, and what appears to be the ability to bring the speakers closer to the front wall.

 

[Hear Here]

Since this thread started in 2017, I'm sure the OP has bought his SACD player by now, but others may be interested in another option that I don't think has yet been suggested.

Mark Levinson's new 5101 SACD / CD player / Streamer / DAC. A sort of modern day ML 390S (but sadly without the volume control), probably their best selling product ever. And for Mark Levinson, it's a sensible price.

 

[twich54]

Since this thread started in 2017, I'm sure the OP has bought his SACD player by now, but others may be interested in another option that I don't think has yet been suggested.

Mark Levinson's new 5101 SACD / CD player / Streamer / DAC. A sort of modern day ML 390S (but sadly without the volume control), probably their best selling product ever. And for Mark Levinson, it's a sensible price.

yes I've landed with a Marantz 'Ruby', hopefully it will be the last player I own.

As for the Levinson 5101, does seem like a nice unit .........

https://www.audioholics.com/blu-ray-and-dvd-player-reviews/5101-sacd-player

 

[Dan F.]

Marantz does SACD right - currently spinning Dire Straits on my SA-10. Previously had a Cambridge CD player that was very musical but I missed being able to play SACDs. My first SACD player was a Sony 777.

 

[BDH55]

yes I've landed with a Marantz 'Ruby', hopefully it will be the last player I own.

I'm right with ya... both on the Ruby, and hoping it will be the last player I own as well...

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I'd assume that players will go the way of the dodo bird, but record players had a resurgence and I've even heard some people swear by cassette tapes. I'm guessing they got used to the artifacts of tape and missed them.

But since there is no difference in the bits stored on a disk vs. a hard drive and since CD's have a lot less history and nostalgia associated with them, I can't imagine they will be produced much longer.

 

[Stereonerd]

I love CDs and SACDs and my Yamaha S2000 SACD player outshines any other comparable source I've compared. I did an A/B with Tidal the other day and CDs through my Yammy were noticeably cleaner, clearer and more dynamic. I'm looking forward to the day that I can go all-digital without needing a degree in electronics/technology to do so. But with a collection numbering around 5000 I've not yet found an easy way to load 'em and play 'em.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I got a copy of JRiver to both organize and rip my music, and yes it's a bit of a chore, but it will run at the maximum speed of your CD player. It doesn't handle SACD's, but I only had two of them.

The bottom line is that I finally broke down and did it. I just had my media server sitting next to my computer since I work at home and I had a pile of disks sitting next to it. It would suck a disk down match up the artwork with the album etc. and organize everything. So all I had to do was take a disk out when it spit it out and feed it a new disk until it's done.

 

[Northy]

Marantz does SACD right - currently spinning Dire Straits on my SA-10. Previously had a Cambridge CD player that was very musical but I missed being able to play SACDs. My first SACD player was a Sony 777.

I have a Cambridge CXU universal player. The sound quality is very good especially SACD and DVD Audio (remember those). Damn you Sony for killing that format. IMHO, DVD Audio sounds better than SACD. Anyway, the upgrade path is to add a Denafrip Terminator DAC soon. I have read a lot of amazing reviews about it.

 

[amey01]

and DVD Audio (remember those). Damn you Sony for killing that format. IMHO, DVD Audio sounds better than SACD.

What?????? DVD-Audio is just a 24/96 PCM file. The format is not dead.....just the stupid silver discs are.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

There is a lot of music available for download at even higher than 24/96 at least in terms of sample rate, although you would be hard pressed to hear the difference.