SACD recommendation
On Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:07:23 -0800, Ed Presson wrote
(in article ):
My Sony SCD-C2000ES SACD changer has decided to read only SACDs, and balks
on CDs (skips, stops dead, or won't read at all). It looks like I can ship
it off to Sony for repair for a minimum fee of $119 (goes up if there is
abuse or moisture damage), or I can start looking for a replacement.
The Oppo BDP-95 seems like a well-built option-it's gotten good reviews.
Does anyone have experience using the BDP-95 as a CD/SACD player in a
standard stereo system? Is the user-interface clumsy without a video
screen? Are there more attractive options?
I'd appreciate your comments and advice.
Ed Presson
I don't know if this is important to you or not, Ed, but for what it's worth,
the ESS "SabreDAC" (the best sounding IC-based DAC on the market, BTW) used
in the BDP-95 doesn't actually "decode" SACD. What it does is take SACD data
in from the disc transport and CONVERT it to Linear Pulse Code Modulation
(PCM). I do not know what the bit rate of the converted PCM is but if it's
16-bit, 44.1 KHz as some writers have suggested, then there's no sense in
playing the SACD layer at all, you might as well just listen to the CD layer
on all of your SACDs and by extension, there's no reason to buy new SACDs
since the player converts the SACD data into regular CD data anyway.
Your Sony has a real single-bit DSD (SACD) processor in it and it actually
processes the SACD data directly and correctly, rather than down-converting
it the way some players do. In fact, Sony players actually convert regular
CDs to DSD (SACD) data before converting them to audio - probably a better
solution. Now, I don't know if all non-Sony SACD players such as those from
Marantz do what the OPPO/SabreDAC combo do, but if real SACD playback is your
goal, then be careful what you buy.
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