mironathetin
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2010
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Many thanks for this insight. But what about using DACs and the all mighty flacs, alacs, DSD, & DXD? Why would you still invest in a SACD player, isn't it all digital without the need for the hardware?
Yes, I think this makes sense. A really good DAC and a computer that rips your sources in high quality should replace a SACD player or at least come very close.
I investigated SACD against CD before I got my latest CD player. All SACD players were audibly inferior with the CD layer to the best only-CD players. Also switching from SACD to CD layer was no real revelation.
It is also important to make this comparison with recordings where the CD layer and the SACD layer contain the same master. To let the SACDs shine, their CD layers often contain an old master.
Another thing to know is that an SACD optics must be adjusted more often. The blue laser needs a more precise tracking than the red CD laser.
Those are the reasons why I went for a CD player with external access to the DAC inside. Using this DAC with digital files, provided a clean signal path with high quality cables, sounds as good as the CD player. I must even say that the latest version of apples airport express, also connected with a high quality cable to the amp, gives me a hard time doing a blind comparison to my (3400 Euro) CD player. I compare to a ripped version of that same CD, ripped with XLD to 320 kbit mp3.