Help me choose a new SACD player - Dynamic Turtle

Hi folks,

Any decent SACD players I've missed off my list? CD playback is also pretty important (but I'll probably get a DAC for that later). DVD-V performance (if applicable) is not important.

BTW, I can't seem to find ANY SACD players, at ANY price with a 110 Ohm balanced digital output & balanced stereo outputs

Denons not welcome! Price: up to £500 (old/used models fine).

Philips DVP9000 ("DSD upsampling of CD" sounds interesting)
Marantz SA8400 (current fave - great build & sound quality)
Pioneer 868AVi (best all-rounder?)
Sony NS999ES / XA3000ES / 555ES (555ES has a great reputation)

Cheers,
DT

 

The recording industry view is that SACD is on its way out. Think carefully before not buying a universal player.

 

I'm currently using the Marantz for CD/SACD playback, and I've never been anything but extremely happy with it. Considering that my main source is a far, far superior TT front end, I still do a surprisingly large amount of CD/SACD listening. The Sony's are very, very good also - a friend has one and it sounds damn good. Awesome build and very good value. As a direct musical comparison, I'd be crossing the Pioneer off your list - good all-rounder as you say, but at a cost to the music playback. No experience of the Philips. Hope this helps DT...

 

I disagree about the Pioneer DV-868, its a far better SACD player than the Sony SCD-XA3000ES which is too soft and undynamic by a long way. The Sony is a good CD player though.

 

Also.... I think the Primare DVD-30 Universal has balanced outs and AES/EBU digital out. But its one of the few components I've seen get a bad review....

 

Yep, and its about £2k, which is slightly out of my price range!

Mr. C (are you the guy from The Shaman?!) I'm glad to hear you're happy with the Marantz SA8400. Everyone who's listened to it, seems to like it. Haven't seen a bad review either.

Re the 868 - the fact that its also a great dvdp and has dvd-audio (limited software issues aside), means it has to stay in the running. FWIW I'm very impressed with the 565 and would be more than happy owning another pio.

Also, I haven't forgotten about shanling & consonance - they're just bloody difficult to find, and I'm not mad keen on importing.

DT

 

And the winner is......

none of the above!

I bid waaaaaay over the odds for the last 555ES (that player is built) on eBay - almost £600 - only to be outbid by a (wealthy!) German

Anyway, I decided that I should perhaps spend less. I did think long & hard about getting another 565, but in the end, plumped for a Sony NS900V. I've heard nothing but good things about it (barring RGB issues - but so many players suffer from that). There's plenty of budget left for boy-racer mods, should it fall short of expectations.

BTW, I'm going to get the 565 modded by Chevin Audio (references anyone?) - they can upgrade almost everything for £150 - much better value than those Audiocom/Trichord rip-off merchants imo! Caps, PSU, Clock, OP amps & case damping - I'm hoping it will make an audible improvement to what is already a fine-sounding hi-res deck....

DT

 

Any specific source of info regards this comment?

 

I can see it happening in the course of time, but why that means you should buy a universal player I don't understand - DVD-A is in a far worse position than SACD.

 

PLEASE! let's not turn this into a "future of sacd thread" or "sacd vs. dvda thread".

Been there & done that a hundred times over......

 

"I've told you a million times - stop exaggerating"

It's hardly off topic.

 

It is off-topic imo - let's keep this thread hardware-only please.

 

But you've made a decision on the hardware so surely now we can descend into a pointless debate about the future of SACD, how SACD is (or isnt "twittery" and how Red Book is everything you could ever need, etc, etc?

 

Fo what it's worth I'd hold out to get a 777ES, sooner or later a bargain would pop up (around £850/£900), above your price range I know, but what I would do.

 

They are rare, and I'd be lucky to get one for less than £900. Initial budget was up to £500 (which, on reflection, was a bit too high). I think in the context of my ancilliaries, the 555/777ES might have been overkill anyway...

DT

 

IIRC they are authorised to perform the vacuumstate mods. I will eventually (when funds allow) get my SCD-1 mod'd - rather than send it vacuumstate in Germany I plan to send it to Chevin.

 

I have just bought a Inca Design SACD player. It seems to be a new version of http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/review_print.asp?ID=2799
as it is also a SACD player, and it has balanced outputs. It is only a 2 channel one though which is why I bought a Sony NS900v DVD player for multichannel disks.
I auditioned The Inca SACD player on my stereo and also the Shanling T200 of which I expected great things. The Shanling really did need more running in time as was pretty much out the box where as the Inca had been used for a very limited time. The Shanling struggled with things the Inca played flawlessly. I would like to think that the Shanling just needed some time and would have improved but I fail to see how it could improve to such a degree to warrant being double the price. Even if they were the same price the Inca won hands down! (came as a huge shock to me) I have not seen ANY information on the Inca SACD player, it was luck that I encountered it. I got it through 'Chinese hifi' chap who was great (and is also based in Sheffield) it just happened to be there when I went round to see the Shanling player as it had been returned as the remote was faulty. I can't recommend the Inca enough, the build quality is stunning and EVERYTHING I put through it sounded wonderful. Most disks I played were standard CD's as did not have access to many SACD's but have bought a few since and the player is amazing. Best of all it costs under £500

 

I assume this new sacd katana replaces the standard cd katana then?

Given the price, I also assume it was the "OEM" version of the player, rather than the "optimised" UK distributor version?

I say this beacause the OEM katana CD can be bought very cheap - less than £300 from HK, but does not have the same spec/components as the UK dist. model, afaik.

11kg & blanced outputs too. Looks very interesting: http://www.jungson.com/content/product_pages/sacd.htm

However, the NS900V was £130, and saves me having to buy a seperate dvd-video player, so I couldn't really say no.

DT

 

I assume a "vacuumstate" modification involves replacing the ss op amps with valve op amps?

Very expensive mod too, (£500+ afaik). Enough valves in the amp anyway

 

I don't think it replaces the standard one as they are both available. This one is considerably more expensive, the basic Katana can be bought quite cheaply. I am sceptical about this having lower grade components in it, the sound and build quality are second to none. I am more inclined to believe that the UK distributors are concerned about people importing products for considerably less. I ran this unit and the Shanling t200 at the same time, connected using the same cables, this player astounded both me and my more musically inclined friend.