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Cheap SACD player?

G

Guest432

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Can anyone recommend a cheap SACD transport? It's going to be plugged into my Rega DAC so I'm not bothered about onboard analogue.

Budget is up to £200

How do these players rate?

Sony SCD-XB790
Pioneer PD10-K
 
Wondering why you would want an SACD player to use as a transport? It will only output the CD layer to the DAC.
 
Just thought it would be cheaper to get a transport and use my DAC.

So I can only listen to sacd if I use the analogue out on the player?
 
alanbeeb said:
Afraid so. no digital outputs from SACDs unless you get into some very specialized hardware.
Click to expand...

All it needs is an HDMI output from the SACD player to get the full glory of DSD out of it. Unfortunately most of the "me too" DACs on the market don't have an HDMI input.
 
ciderglider said:
All it needs is an HDMI output from the SACD player to get the full glory of DSD out of it. Unfortunately most of the "me too" DACs on the market don't have an HDMI input.
Click to expand...

Could you input HDMI into laptop and output via USB ? or would any gain be lost en route.
 
tomek said:
@thebiglebowski - Rega DAC can't play dsd, only pcm.
Click to expand...

Although the Rega DAC sounds great I'm beginning to think it is extremely lacking in features/support.

I've just bought a hiface2 because the USB on the DAC sounds crap and keeps losing sync and clicks like buggery.

Think I'll just buy the Sony SACD player and try the analogue out for a while.
 
ciderglider said:
All it needs is an HDMI output from the SACD player to get the full glory of DSD out of it
Click to expand...

Are there any players that you know, for a fact, do this? AFAIK it would be contrary to the terms of the Scarlet Book license, to which all SACD players must conform. Those terms prohibit any digital output beyond 16/48.

There are many devices (e.g. Oppo) that output converted PCM via the HDMI route. But DSD?
 
thebiglebowski said:
Although the Rega DAC sounds great I'm beginning to think it is extremely lacking in features/support.

I've just bought a hiface2 because the USB on the DAC sounds crap and keeps losing sync and clicks like buggery.

Think I'll just buy the Sony SACD player and try the analogue out for a while.
Click to expand...

Buying SACD Player is not a problem, SACDs are a problem. Do you have a lot of SACDs ? ?

Rega DAC sounds good, but USB input is not async and this is probably a reason for problems. Good USB-SPDIF interface can help :

http://www.m2tech.biz/hiface2.html

You can connect it directly to your Notebook - no USB cable needed :) :) :)
 
tomek said:
Buying SACD Player is not a problem, SACDs are a problem. Do you have a lot of SACDs ? ?

Rega DAC sounds good, but USB input is not async and this is probably a reason for problems. Good USB-SPDIF interface can help :

http://www.m2tech.biz/hiface2.html

You can connect it directly to your Notebook - no USB cable needed :) :) :)
Click to expand...

thebiglebowski said:
I've just bought a hiface2 because the USB on the DAC sounds crap and keeps losing sync and clicks like buggery.
Click to expand...

Don't have any SACD's but there's loads on ebay, read it's supposed to be good for classical.
 
It is. I use a sony blue ray player for sacd and also the new high definition format for classical. Mine cost 90€ here and the analogue out is fine.
 
avole said:
It is. I use a sony blue ray player for sacd and also the new high definition format for classical. Mine cost 90€ here and the analogue out is fine.
Click to expand...
£100 Sony BR for me for SACD too, and I agree with you regarding sound quality.
 
My CD player plays SACD's but I think I've actually only got the one SACD disk. It's ability to play SACD's wasn't why I got it though!

Any particularily recommended SACD's I should look out for one.
 
avole said:
It is. I use a sony blue ray player for sacd and also the new high definition format for classical. Mine cost 90€ here and the analogue out is fine.
Click to expand...

Same here. A Sony BDP590s - source costing less that 1% of the system and sounding excellent. No wonder so many HiFi storts are closing :(

Most AV receivers and BluRay players will transfer and read SACD's via HDMI.

They are of course relatively inexpensive. The problem for small companies like Rega is they simply couldn't afford the licences - either for HDMI or for the proprietry code that Sony use.

But it's highly questionable whether an external dac is really worthwhile here. Having said that. I do have one of the unmodded Sony PS3's ;) I'm just not enough of a boffin to load the hack and rip my SACD's. Anyone out there up for it?
 
Seems relatively simple from what I read and is just a case of doing a recovery with the hacked firmware copied onto a USB stick and then installing the ripping package.
 
Way beyond an old codger like me I'm afraid :)

I received all the bits and bobs in a file from a helpful chap and had absolutely no idea what I was looking at so gave up. I don't do hacking and that sort of thing - I'm an Apple user so there's no need to understand anything like that!

On a side note, the PS3 via HDMI is the best CD transport I have ever heard. Remarkable. Just not that many HDMI Dacs out there, but if I owned a NAD M51 I would seek out a launch PS3.
 
Interesting comment. I've recently acquired a PS3 for mostly for films, but found it sounds with CDs just as good as files streamed to my dac. Haven't done a direct comparison, though.
 
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