SACD player?

[groundie]

hi folks
i recently purchased couple of SACD disks and they do sound better than standard CDs
even on my ancient CD player. so, naturally, i'm wondering if i should get one of those
universal players, e.g., oppo 970/971.

how about DVD-A disks? are they comparable to SACD?
any advise or insight would be great, thanks...

[Kal Rubinson]

DVD-As are pretty good, too. Try the Oppo 980 for all.

Kal

[mdrake]

You could also look at the Yamaha C-950. It plays both formats + plus a 5 disc carousel.

Matt

[nathanso]

I've got the Oppo 980 and SACD's sound smooth as glass compared to Redbook versions. Great CDP for the money, imho.

[groundie]

after much research, it looks like oppo 980H is the one i will purchase.
but i have one more question for the owners:
for strictly audio playback of cd and sacd disks (i.e., no video),
is it required that a tv be hooked up in order to set various audio settings?
hopefully, all can be done at the base unit and/or the remote.

[dave7]

If your current player is just a CD player and not a SACD capable player, then all you're hearing is the CD layer of your SACD disk...not the higher resolution SACD layer of the disk.

So- any improvement you hear would be because of a better mastered CD, not because it is a SACD.

Having a video monitor helps simplify things a great deal IMO - especially for DVD-A. I got an old used Alpine mobile video screen off eBay years ago and it works perfectly in my gear closet. Otherwise I'd have to turn my projector on everytime I wanted to get to special tracks on my DVD-As. SACDs are much simpler thank goodness.

[Coltrane]

I have the Oppo 981 and have been using it for playing the hi-rez formats. A few months ago I got the rotel rcd-1072 cd player. I found that it sounded better than the Oppo when playing back the stereo cd layer against the stereo sacd layer. I've recently bought an Elite DV-79AVi and although I haven't done many serious listening comparisons I think it is an improvement over the Oppo in sacd playback. I have to admit I was a bit surprised at how well red book cds could sound when played using the Rotel cd player. I'm using a NAD T753 receiver and Boston Acoustics VR-3 speakers in the setup.

[Kal Rubinson]

groundie wrote:

after much research, it looks like oppo 980H is the one i will purchase.
but i have one more question for the owners:
for strictly audio playback of cd and sacd disks (i.e., no video),
is it required that a tv be hooked up in order to set various audio settings?
hopefully, all can be done at the base unit and/or the remote.

You need a monitor.

Kal

[beuchelt]

A couple of comments -

So far you have actually only been hearing the CD compatibility layer and not SACD content. Many (but not all!!) SACDs have two layers: one with a Redbook compliant CD Digital Audio layer (44kHz/16bit PCM) and one SACD layer (2.8 MHz/1bit DSD) with at least a stereo track and often surround.

For most SACD players you absolutely do not any kind of monitor, tv, or similar. They operate very similar to a traditional CD player. DVD-Audio, however, typically require some sorft of video output, since you have to navigate through on-screen menus. Nevertheless, if the DVD-A firmware is properly implemented, a DVD-A disc will directly go to the highest resolution track and start playing, IF you press the PLAY button when inserting the disc. This feature saves me 8 out of 10 times to turn on the TV.

As far as recommendations go, I would take a very close look at Denon - they have decent sound and build quality, and you can get them at a reasonable price at B-stock stores such as eCost.

[Kal Rubinson]

beuchelt wrote:

For most SACD players you absolutely do not any kind of monitor, tv, or similar. They operate very similar to a traditional CD player. DVD-Audio, however, typically require some sorft of video output, since you have to navigate through on-screen menus.

My response was specifically about the 980H which requires access to the OSD menus to choose which track on the SACD is the default and how many channels are output (the default is 2). You general statement is true but not in this case.

[groundie]

folks,
just a quick update:
i did purchase 980H and i'm quite happy with it.
yes, as kal states, it pretty much requires a monitor hooked up in order
to navigate the menus; in my case, to select one of several usb "devices"
which are in reality just partitions on my 250gb iomega drive.

my only issue with 980H is its "audio only" feature;
it is not a sticky option and must be set each time a disc is played.
and to be honest, i cannot hear the difference in audio quality
with the feature set on or off. can you?

[jackfish]

I have the Oppo DV-970HD and cannot tell the difference in the "Audio Only" mode so I don't use it.

[superchad]

Oppo is a great all around player that really shines for video but for a great audio unit that also has hi quality video the Lexicon RT10 is a awesome player with far superior build quality. These units are selling used for peanuts and if its more of an audio concern you should take a look. You cant go wrong with the Oppo either way.

[MatrixDweller]

The PS3 80GB version plays SACD...you'd get a SACD, CD, DVD, bluray player, media streamer, browser, and game system all in one if you went that route.

[deacongreg]

SACD`s are excellent. I have a few myself, and some Hybrids from Telarc. Mostly jazz. DVD-A`s are great as well. And, depending on your universal player, DVD-As have some video material as well, something SACD does not offer. But, as titles and availability of these formats continue to suffer, you need to get your player pretty fast, if you really expect to invest in some more titles.

Though at Telarc, all their Jazz and Classical titles are Hybrid SACDs. I hope that helped some.

[groundie]

yes, i am also pleased with generally higher quality of audio with sacd.
but i've found that audio quality of plain old cd's can vary quite a bit; e.g.,
lately i have been listening to Patricia Barber whose cd's sound nearly as good as
her sacd's. i'd be very interested in your views on this. of course, i realize that
it's not so much the cd but how the original recording was done.

have any of you listened to sacd disc in true dsd format?
i understand that dsd is as close to the original recording as possible.

[deacongreg]

groundie wrote:

yes, i am also pleased with generally higher quality of audio with sacd.
but i've found that audio quality of plain old cd's can vary quite a bit; e.g.,
lately i have been listening to Patricia Barber whose cd's sound nearly as good as
her sacd's. i'd be very interested in your views on this. of course, i realize that
it's not so much the cd but how the original recording was done.

have any of you listened to sacd disc in true dsd format?
i understand that dsd is as close to the original recording as possible.

I have, and its quite good. I`ve heard Patricia Barber on SACD only. And once at the hifi show here in Ny. It was a demo featuring Anthem electronics, and Paradigm speakers. Excellent!! Enjoy the listening. Continue to buy them, and overall you should be very pleased.
Like I said, with the exception of telarc, who seems to be still commtted to making SACDS, we don`t know how much longer we have to purchase this high rez media.

[Kal Rubinson]

deacongreg wrote:

Like I said, with the exception of telarc, who seems to be still commtted to making SACDS, we don`t know how much longer we have to purchase this high rez media.

There are many, many classical labels releasing SACDs today although little comes from the major companies. That's not a problem for me since their repertoire has become ossified in recent years. However, Pentatone, BIS, Chandos, HarmoniaMundi, Praga, etc and all the nice performer-owned labels are keeping things going.

Kal

[deacongreg]

Kal Rubinson wrote:

There are many, many classical labels releasing SACDs today although little comes from the major companies. That's not a problem for me since their repertoire has become ossified in recent years. However, Pentatone, BIS, Chandos, HarmoniaMundi, Praga, etc and all the nice performer-owned labels are keeping things going.

Kal

That is good Kal. It does seem more of the music is in Classical. Which i like as well. But, I listen to a lot of Jazz, both standard and contemporary, some soul music, and gospel. Some old Chicago, Blood, sweat and tears, Yes, jimi Hendrix, Rare earth, Santana, and some gospel. Not much of this is available.

www.hometheaterreview.com.

[Amfibius]

I should probably point out that most lower priced players that advertise SACD capability do NOT have a DSD DAC. Instead, they convert the DSD to PCM for conversion in a normal delta-sigma DAC. Why should they go through the expense of catering for such a niche market? If you want to hear what SACD really sounds like, have a listen to a player which has a true DSD 2.822MHz one bit DAC.