SACD transport

[ksporry]

guys,
I'm looking for a high quality but cheap SACD transport. I'm considering using one of those tube DACs for it when I hook it up to a tube amp.
Any advice would be appreciated!

[ksporry]

anyone?

[kevinkr]

Not sure what you are trying to do exactly.

If you are trying to purchase an sacd mechanism you need to have a license.

SACD transports do not generally provide digital outputs for SACD mode that can be used with an external redbook (pcm) compliant dac, many do support standard cd playback through spdif. Some machines from DCS and Meitner do use external dsd dacs, but you would not want to know what they cost.

It's all about DRM - there are machines like the Oppo which can send native dsd over hdmi to a receiver or pre-amp designed to receive dsd over HDMI. This data is encrypted until decoded in the receiving device.

Your best option depending on budget is to buy an inexpensive universal player that supports SACD and improve its audio path. Pioneer, Oppo and Sony all make machines that you can mod.

One other comment is that in my limited experience the combination of cheap, quality and SACD are not achievable in real machines, you can have SACD and one of the other two, but not both.

I have several Sony SACD players; one, a heavily modd'ed SCD-777ES is quite good, the other a modd'ed SCD-770 is not that great.

I would respectfully suggest that a reasonably good cd player (new or used) is achievable at a lower price point and would be a better investment.

[SoNic_real_one]

I have bought relativelly cheap a Denon DVD-2390CI - great transport (till now). Also I have an older Toshiba SD-6980. Other universal players are available but... quality and cheap is hard to find.
All have usually DAC's that decode DSD nativelly and you could tap into those DAC's to improve that part.
Denon universal players are sometimes able to send DSD digitally over DenonLinkIII connection to a Denon receiver (I have AVR-3805), so you can say there are used as transports in that case.
You might be able to find one similar online.

[ksporry]

Hmm, i prefer quality over cheap, but I don't want to lash out many hundreds of pounds. I already have a good player, a standard 555ES from sony, which still amazes me when i play any kind of music, even normal CD.
I'd like to have a second unit for another room, where I have my analogue stuff. I think an SACD player would be well paired with the small-ish tube amp I got.

[Eric Juaneda]

Originally Posted by ksporry

Hmm, i prefer quality over cheap, but I don't want to lash out many hundreds of pounds.

Let's try to give a funny and simplistic definition. SACD have ten time more definition than CD player. So, the player must be tent time more precise than CD player and probably ten time more expensive than CD player.

Most of SACD player are only commercial product, because they are less precise than high end CD player. Even if SACD is 1 bit stream, we can say that the 16 MSB are more important than the 8 LSB. A cheap and real SACD is a myth. Building a SACD sounding worse than CD player is a non sense (except for business)!

SACD or 24 bit 192KHz resolution is only for top end audio systems with top-end amplifier, top-end loudspeakers, top-end acoustic... If exist(?), only few persons can reach this quality level.

[ksporry]

here's a thought, just for fun:
Hwo about getting a relatively well reviewed budget player, the oppo DP-980H, and fit the SACD output with a tube output.
Is this possible? Is it worth the effort (considering that the Oppo costs peanuts, and parts are probably not expensive either...). If so, how would we go about modifying such a unit?

[SoNic_real_one]

Oppo sounds good as it is. Sure it can be tweaked with, but... using a tube amp for SACD is just a waste of bandwidth and dynamic.

[audiodesign]

see
Hi-Resolution System 192KHz 24bit

[SoNic_real_one]

"We must exclude also all the multi format DVD/SACD because these use a switching power supply" and "About the analog output stage all the op-amp are terrible for the sound so it will be changed." - fallacies.

My universal Denon has a main switched PS, but for the analog/DAC/DSP module has two supplementar analog regulators. I think others might be similar.
OpAmps that provided in stock players are sometimes bad, I have replaced all mine with LM 4562 and I am sure that any tube-based solution will have more noise and TDH than that.