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2010 model SACD player from Sony. BDP-S370. "Bargain of the century!" -- Hi-Fi World Magazine

post #1 of 116
10/15/10 at 6:45am
Thread Starter 

 

 

Here is a 2010 model SACD player released from Sony.

 

 

On the audio side of things it has 192kHz/24bit Analog-to-Digital, Optical Out, SACD, Blu-Ray Audio, 7.1ch surround, etc.

 

Apart from all this it also has ethernet, USB, component, composite, Coax and HDMI.

 

Of course - as SACD player's always are - it is very expensive top-tier audio equipment as the specifications show, especially considering all these different features from far and wide combined in a single product which I've never seen before.

 

On the flip-side, some people spend $800+ on portable amps or headphone amps which have very limited features and make less than 4% difference in audio quality, whereas a SACD or Blu-Ray audio source will make a vast difference in audio quality, IMHO.

 

Here is the link, do not click if you are tempted, I can attest it is worth its weight in gold, but the price is exuberant:

 

 

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666077661#specifications

 

 

 

 

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post #2 of 116
10/15/10 at 11:45am

good god that price is insane.

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post #3 of 116
10/15/10 at 11:52am

I was pretty impressed by the capabilities of my Sony NS975... night and day difference between it and the ipod... and the NS975 was very close to the performance of my DacMagic. So, yeah, Sony knows what it's doing in terms of high-quality inexpensive players.

 

(I've got an XA5400ES now... It's the best CD player that I've ever used, but honestly, it's way overpriced given the relative performance of the other devices)

 

Though, what I'm really interested in seeing is reviews of the SCD-XE800. I can't seem to find any anywhere, but it's a moderately priced SACD player which shares much of the XA5400's internals.


Edited by gsilver - 10/15/10 at 11:55am
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post #4 of 116
10/15/10 at 12:23pm
Thread Starter 

I like how the SCD-XE800 only supports two-channel, as if to say the multi-channel feature of SACD is just a novelty.

 

how come the frequency response is 'only' 2Hz〜40kHz though,

I have my eye on an amp with 10Hz〜100kHz.

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post #5 of 116
10/15/10 at 12:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gsilver View Post

Though, what I'm really interested in seeing is reviews of the SCD-XE800. I can't seem to find any anywhere, but it's a moderately priced SACD player which shares much of the XA5400's internals.



"Many of us at Engadget -- being the audio geeks that we are -- have rooted for SACD
to take off as a format ever since its release in 1999. So we're more than happy
to see Sony release the entry level priced SCD-XE800 SACD player. We'd being
lying though if we didn't admit confusion over Sony's timing of this release, in
what seems to be the twilight years of the cherished audiophile format's life.
Even more befuddling perhaps is that this device isn't compatible with
multi-channel SACD discs, which was one of the most attractive selling points
the medium had going for it to begin with. So if this is some strange
underhanded way of Sony alerting the world they're resuscitating the format, it
looks like it was thought out over several bottles of sake. If we see a press
release about a new Beta Max player coming down the pipe soon, we'll know for
certain someone at the electronics giant has clearly lost their marbles."

 

 

 

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post #6 of 116
10/15/10 at 1:01pm

That's not really a review, just an article that was posted immediately after it was announced, and details were pretty sketchy back then.


The manuals online (Danish and Finnish; no English, yet) show a playing frequency range of 2 Hz to 100 kHz when used with SACDs.

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post #7 of 116
10/15/10 at 1:33pm

I'm actually intrigued at this price.  I was looking into a budget SACD player, but getting a blu ray player with it, may worth it. Price isn't bad either.

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post #8 of 116
10/15/10 at 1:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gsilver View Post

That's not really a review, just an article that was posted immediately after it was announced, and details were pretty sketchy back then.


The manuals online (Danish and Finnish; no English, yet) show a playing frequency range of 2 Hz to 100 kHz when used with SACDs.


OK I just read the entire Danish manual, it says

 

"Frequency area whilst playing: 10Hz - 100kHz

Frequency response: 10Hz - 40kHz"

 

Just to make sure I translated correctly here is "frekvensgang" http://www.proz.com/kudoz/english_to_danish/electronics_elect_eng/3146960-frequency_response.html

 

It also states in the manual that the COAX and OPTICAL out do not support SACD playback.  Even the PS3 optical out supports SACD playback, lame, next model please.

 

 

 

 

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post #9 of 116
10/15/10 at 1:47pm

Very interested also - thank you for sharing!

 

I'm (finally) getting around to setting up a video system at my new place.  I've been thinking about getting a Blu-Ray player.  Since this one spins SACD, it might be worth picking up.

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post #10 of 116
10/15/10 at 2:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by elwappo99 View Post

I'm actually intrigued at this price.  I was looking into a budget SACD player, but getting a blu ray player with it, may worth it. Price isn't bad either.


el wappo... you should buy it.  I'm in Indonesia right now and the BDP-S370 costs over $300 here.  There was a report that it doesn't have true DSD decoding components so it outputs 24/192 PCM instead but that reviewer seemed a bit fishy (he kept saying everything Denon is better).

Another reviewer compared the S370 to one of his older dedicated Sony SACD units and concluded that the S370 was better and he got rid of his older one.

 

I own the S370, I've just hardly had a chance to touch it yet, I bought it two days before I went overseas and haven't returned yet, when I get back I'm going to listen to it in depth and compare CD's with SACD's to verify how it sounds.

 

The S370 comes with such a plethora of features though, the blu-ray has received rave reviews, fastest loading times, excellent picture etc.  and it has a USB slot which you can use to play audio (not sure which formats) or video (officially .mp4 only, unofficially .avi and so on), and then it also has an ethernet cable connection, so you can just hook it up to the internet and start streaming.  Another bonus is DVD-upscaling, I've heard this is also really good quality, though I haven't had the chance to check yet.

 

I started this thread as a joke, something so feature-rich in audio and video for $140 is a steal,  it annoys me people buy useless portable amps for that price, I bought mine for $200 reduced from $250, that's in AUD btw, but the australian dollar and US dollar are exactly the same 1.00 as of today Lol.

 

 

 

 

 


Edited by kiteki - 10/15/10 at 2:06pm
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post #11 of 116
10/15/10 at 2:23pm

no sacd over digital output = no bueno. That's the primary interest for me.

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post #12 of 116
10/15/10 at 2:23pm
Thread Starter 

Great news, I just found another review of the SACD playback in this unit.

 

 

"I purchased an S370 a few weeks ago and it blows away my
Oppo 980H or
Pioneer 563a as far as sound quality for redbook CD or stereo
SACD. I don't
have the equipment (or the desire) to hook a HDMI cable up to
anything to test
multichannel SACD.

I suspect the S570 would be every
bit as good.

I'm not a cinemaphile so I'm not the guy to ask in regard to
video quality."

 

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post #13 of 116
10/15/10 at 2:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by elwappo99 View Post

no sacd over digital output = no bueno. That's the primary interest for me.


From SA-CD.net


"The coax or optical alternatives [on the S370] will only send lossy, low rez in Multi-channel, but they
can send stereo in thrilling resolution."

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post #14 of 116
10/15/10 at 2:40pm
Thread Starter 

 

More info here, seems correct to me:

 

"The Sony BDP-S370 provides audio out via the analogue RCA jacks in stereo only.  It works for playback of CD, DVD, SACD and HRx discs.  Internal DACS are Wolfson 192kHz / 24 bit.
Digital audio is possible via HDMI, but not analogue so it really needs to be routed via a HT receiver with HDMI where the receiver does the decoding.  Digital audio via HDMI is possible for all digital bitstreams including LPCM, dts, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital TrueHD, dts-MA and DSD.
Digital audio via SPDIF is limited to LPCM, dts and Dolby Digital.  CD will be outputed via SPDIF at 44.1kHz / 16 bits.  Higher sampling rates and bit depths will be downsampled to 48kHz / 16 bits.  SACD is digitally outputted as 44.1kHz / 16 bits.

For those with HT receivers which have HDMI but no DSD decoding, the player can be set to send multichannel and 2 channel stereo as 176.4kHz / 24 bit LPCM instead when playing SACDs.

Cheers,
Alan R."

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post #15 of 116
10/15/10 at 3:04pm
Thread Starter 

Right so from what I can tell so far on the BDP-S370 SACD playback.

 

 

Analogue RCA jacks result in 192kHz / 24 bit

 

Coax or Optical will result in  44.1kHz / 16 bits

 

HDMI to a receiver which can't decode DSD will result in 176.4kHz / 16 bit

 

HDMI to a receiver which can decode DSD will result in 2822.4kHz / 1 bit

 

 

So, where do I get a decent priced 'headphone amp' with HDMI input and DSD decoding then so I can upgrade from 192/24 to 2822/1?

 

 

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