SACD Player

Nope, not that I know of.  Though if you really want high quality tracks on-the-go, you can get a PMP that supports high resolution FLAC files, and buy the high-quality tracks from hdtracks.com

 

The SACD format seems to be pretty much dead though, it's getting harder and harder to find SACD players at a reasonable price nowadays.  Even Sony, the main backer of SACD, dropped PS3 support with the new PS3 slim.

Sony did make a SACD player for cars. If you really want to go nuts, you can adapt one into a semi-portable player with an external power supply.

Some places are offering 24/96 files now. Those are awfully good. Though I haven't stayed on top of which players will work with that.

Admittedly, I'm still listening to AAC files on an iPod through Shure e3c IEMs. That's good enough for travel. At home, I run SACD or a Michell Orbe/SME IV combination through a Zana Deux into the HD-800. I might get around to pimping my portable rig, but 90% of my serious listening is done at home.

Well, a new player that will be able to play high-resolution audio files is the Fiio X3 - but it hasn't been released yet and we don't know how it will sound.  But it does use high quality parts and even has a digital SPDIF output.

 

As far as new formats go, the only other physical disc format is DVD-Audio, which simply uses normal DVDs instead of a proprietary format.  But the two formats are kind of at war, so you won't be finding many players that can play both, and again, I don't think there are any portable players.  Discman-style players are practically defunct now.

http://www.adorama.com/AUMZPMD661.html?utm_term=Other&utm_medium=Shopping%20Site&utm_campaign=Other&utm_source=gbase

 

 

 

 

These type of recorders have bragged about being able to play back 24/96 downloads. There are still many questions as to what is the PCM sample rate played back. Many here at Head-Fi believe that 16 bit done right is still fine.

 

What are the battery life of these things?

 

You can read about the M Audio 24/96 portable recorder. Those are out there for $200.00 usd. Memory is getting cheap. Seems like a major player like Sony or Apple would make one with this existing technology and get sales just from the people who are early adapters. The record rips I play in Foobar2000 in 24/96 sound great. My Dac is only at 16/44!

 

We do know Apple will wait a while do to the low rez downloads in I tunes. Seems like memory being as low priced as it is someone would make a player to support the amount of 24/96 that is starting to emerge. We are seeing benefits of up-sampling out there so why they could not be implemented into portable is beyond me. The 24/96 DAC chips are starting to become lower priced too.

 

I figure it is just a matter of time. If anyone knows of a 24/96 portable player that is dedicated to audio, not recording, lets hear about it.

Edited by Redcarmoose - 4/30/11 at 7:09am

The SACD format is very much alive and kicking with approximately 50 new discs being released on a monthly basis and a back catalog of over 7,000 titles. Check out http://sa-cd.net/ for more info. As for hardware, people seem to be unaware that most new BD Universal Players are SACD capable and/or compatible, including reasonably low priced models from Sony, Denon, Maratnz, OPPO and so forth. Of course, a number of high-end models are available as well from the likes of Esoteric and Luxman. Actually there's a rather healthy number of Head-Fiers enjoying high-resolution SACDs with their headphone systems.

 

OTOH, the so-called format war with DVD-A has been over for quite a while now, with very few, if any, commercial DVD-A releases in the past few years.

Edited by Arnaldo - 4/30/11 at 5:16am

Fiio X3 and Hifiman 601, 602 and 801.

 

Haha, well, I'm not saying that I'm an expert in this - but for the most part, whenever I do searches for SACD players, I only find extremely expensive ones.  I never knew that most new BD players are SACD compatible though, especially considering that the PS3 dropped support with the newest models.

 

Of course, I would love to see SACD have a wider audience, but as it is right now, I don't think they're marketing it properly - I'm sure the discs don't cost much more to produce, but probably have the same issues that blu-ray discs have right now, that is, they're relatively new and supply/licensing is a problem.  I've always wanted a good SACD player, but they've always been out of my price range...

 

Fiio3 has no sample rate confirmation as yet? You know more?

I love my Re0s but do not know if I would buy a DAP from them. Maybe I am missing out?

Edited by Redcarmoose - 4/30/11 at 5:39am

Quote:

 

What are you using to record your vinyl rips? Do you have the M-Audio 24/96?

 

I don't want to brag. My rips have been produced from my records in the states with a custom modified digital recording device at the back of a big system I could not come near buying. I am very conservative and have spent many years with different computer audio recording applications. The M-Audio may work fine, I just think that there may be other products out there. I will post a photograph of the cart. so you can get the jest of  where I am going with this.

 

Actually don't think there's been a confirmation, but the DAC chip on the X3 is certainly capable of it.  I think James said they'd try their best to implement it, but as it is right now it's probably just whether or not they can get the firmware to support it that's the problem right now.  But even if it doesn't support it at launch there's a chance a later update could bring support.

 

And dunno, I've heard mixed things about the hifiman DAPs.  They usually cite excellent audio quality but rather expensive, and a laggy, antiquated interface.