[Brighten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMan007 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Know what isn't high-end? Your contributions to this thread.

The irony in this post is astounding.

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by omigawsh_lollercoaster /img/forum/go_quote.gif My $340 SACD/CDP does digital out to my DAC just fine.

Reading this and looking at the kit in your sig, I suspect that your idea of 'Cheap' differs somewhat from many on Head-Fi. Can you imagine someone paying 1200 USD for a pair of speakers and wanting to drive them from a $90 source ? Sounds like I am exaggerating, but isnt that what we are talking about when someone tries to drive the Edition 8/HD800 from a DAP ?

This is a different kettle of fish, and I'm sure that many DVD players could be pressed into service as CDTs, despite the low esteem in which they are viewed by folks like Cambridge Audio. Probably means throwing the thing away as soon as the laser or drive mechanism starts to play up, but thats much the same situation as I find myself in with my Marantz SACD player atm : everything has a use-by date.

 

[ABathingApe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by estreeter /img/forum/go_quote.gif Reading this and looking at the kit in your sig, I suspect that your idea of 'Cheap' differs somewhat from many on Head-Fi. Can you imagine someone paying 1200 USD for a pair of speakers and wanting to drive them from a $90 source ? Sounds like I am exaggerating, but isnt that what we are talking about when someone tries to drive the Edition 8/HD800 from a DAP ? This is a different kettle of fish, and I'm sure that many DVD players could be pressed into service as CDTs, despite the low esteem in which they are viewed by folks like Cambridge Audio. Probably means throwing the thing away as soon as the laser or drive mechanism starts to play up, but thats much the same situation as I find myself in with my Marantz SACD player atm : everything has a use-by date.

I think 340 is kind of cheap for an SACD player. But if you want to go cheaper, you can get a 1st or 2nd gen PS3 that will play SACDs and give you a digital out. Probably find one locally and low ball them for like 150 bucks?

As for someone paying 1200 for speakers and using a 90 dollar source...well at least with the speakers they can resolve just how crappy their source really is and may be moved to upgrade that. Mind you one of the local guys here runs his HD800's out of anything and still enjoys it.

 

[omigawsh_lollercoaster]

Wonder if these would work, you could stock up.

 

[wavoman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ABathingApe /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think 340 is kind of cheap for an SACD player. But if you want to go cheaper, you can get a 1st or 2nd gen PS3 that will play SACDs and give you a digital out. Probably find one locally and low ball them for like 150 bucks?...

Yep, that was going to be my suggestion too. The complete guide to which older PS3 models will work can be found at

PS3SACD.com - the Super Audio CD resource for PlayStation3 users

These have been bid up so the price will be more like $250 than $150, but the product is fantastic.

As many have said here, you don't get DSD, you get downsampled LPCM at your choice of bitrate: 88.2, 176.4, etc. Anything higher than 44.1 or 48 will be on the HDMI output only, and you need a splitter that gives you SPDIF on coax from HDMI, another $75, details in another thread:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/rip...-4-ps3-455769/

Lots of sources to buy the splitter and other advice in that thread.

Many SACDs are mastered at 176.4 so you lose nothing for 2-channel listening. Sony engineers got this all right, the results are great, and the PS3 purchase gives you a BluRay and gaming box "for free".

 

[wavoman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chesebert /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...MBL, dCS, EMM, Nagra, Theta (not an exclusive list) are hi-end. Without hearing their top of the line digital source, you don't have a frame of ref as to what hi-end is.

I didn't think Nagra did SACD. A great redbook player, I listened at Goodwin's High End in the Boston area -- fantastic SQ.

But Chese, no love for Wadia, just down the road from you (take Ann Arbor - Saline Rd) in Saline, where I used to live (one of the big farms they sold off for houses). Man if I still lived in Ann Arbor I would dumpster dive at the Wadia factory late at night to see what I could recover!

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavoman /img/forum/go_quote.gif I didn't think Nagra did SACD. A great redbook player, I listened at Goodwin's High End in the Boston area -- fantastic SQ. But Chese, no love for Wadia, just down the road from you (take Ann Arbor - Saline Rd) in Saline, where I used to live (one of the big farms they sold off for houses). Man if I still lived in Ann Arbor I would dumpster dive at the Wadia factory late at night to see what I could recover!

They are close alright. Perhaps I will swing by and see if they got anything interesting over the holiday seasons

 

[estreeter]

To many with serious speaker kits, the total most Head-Fiers spend on audio will seem pretty miserly. I think its great that we can get VFM, but I have a lot of respect for the guys who get ten years+ out of a single, well-matched speaker rig. Many are probably thinking 'sure, if I had 5-6K tomorrow, I'd have an absolutely future-proof headphone rig !'. Churn seems to be a bigger issue when something new and 'sexy' is forever on the horizon and rejigging involves moving some gear around on your desk. Focal make speakers that require a *crane* to be lifted into position .....

fwiw, I'll give that Tosh DVD player a whirl tonite in the position normally occupied by the Macbook Pro - breathtaking report tomorrow AM

 

[ert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Marantz SA-8260

This is my primary transport. I use the analog out for SACD and coax to a DAC1 for Redbook. The Redbook playback of the 8260 is itself pretty good. One thing to note about this model is that it has been plagued with bizarro read errors that I don't think have every been solved. It will work fine for weeks on end, and then all of a sudden start taking forever to read TOC and do track changes. The only way to fix it is to do a cold reboot.

 

[ABathingApe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavoman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yep, that was going to be my suggestion too. The complete guide to which older PS3 models will work can be found at PS3SACD.com - the Super Audio CD resource for PlayStation3 users These have been bid up so the price will be more like $250 than $150, but the product is fantastic. As many have said here, you don't get DSD, you get downsampled LPCM at your choice of bitrate: 88.2, 176.4, etc. Anything higher than 44.1 or 48 will be on the HDMI output only, and you need a splitter that gives you SPDIF on coax from HDMI, another $75, details in another thread: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/rip...-4-ps3-455769/ Lots of sources to buy the splitter and other advice in that thread. Many SACDs are mastered at 176.4 so you lose nothing for 2-channel listening. Sony engineers got this all right, the results are great, and the PS3 purchase gives you a BluRay and gaming box "for free".

Thanks for the resources wavoman. I'm using a 2nd gen 80GB and have always wanted to play SACDs but never bothered to buy any. Hopefully I can give it an A/B later.

 

[omigawsh_lollercoaster]

Is digital out from an SACD player only CD quality?

 

[MadMan007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brighten /img/forum/go_quote.gif The irony in this post is astounding.

Heh yes, but if you mean that I didn't make any contributions to the thread it's for a good reason - I didn't have any useful input or advice to add to the thread topic as opposed to just practically threadcrapping and insulting a reasonably skilled designer like Kingawa without contributing any useful information for the topic. Maybe chesebert was just having a bad day

Anyway sorry for the threadjack. I'm reading this because I'm looking in to SACD but really want a modable player so that I can output high quality PCM to 'rip' SACDs without putting a great deal of money in to it. I don't have a lot of SACDs now and likely won't ever compared to Redbook.

 

[ABathingApe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by omigawsh_lollercoaster /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is digital out from an SACD player only CD quality?

In the PS3's case yes, I can't say for other players, but I don't think that's the case. It would depend on if spdif had enough bandwidth.

 

[estreeter]

My own SACD experience made me wonder if you need really good kit to be able to hear the difference. Reading some of the magazine reviews confirmed that, with some even going so far as to say that they preferred Redbook CDs on some of the universal players.

The Toshiba DVD player experiment went well - a bit bright through my phones, but indistinguishable from my Marantz from the speakers with the CDs I sampled. For someone with golden ears and a better amp, I expect that the differences would be much more significant, but for casual listening I thought it was OK.

 

[koruki]

Nice feedback. Been looking at used 60gb PS3's too as my 40gb had almost nothing.

As for the high end argument. It really matter if what DAC I get is considered, I only meant a seperate DAC from the players which is possibly higher quality. The brand doesn't matter for thus discussion =)