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what sacd/cd to match cyrus system which at present is cd7 q separate power psx with pre amp and 4 mono x power amps bi amped through at present spender s8 speakers. any suggestions for a good musical source.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
i use a Denon DVD2800 for CD/SACD and its great and was cheap S/H. have a look at some of the Teac gear also there may be some of the uber high end Sony SACD players on the S/H market. do you have lots of SACD's?
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I have one or two but, as iam looking for a more engaging musical sound iam not sure to go for sacd or vinyl. I would be looking at the second hand market.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
SACD is great but theres not much about. i would try and get a really good quality CD only player then look in to vinyl in IMO the latter is much better and more engaging. do you have a turntable atr the mo? if no would you be looking at S/H for that or brand new? my turntable is the best thing I've bought so much better then CD now I'm looking to upgrade it to see what more i can get.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Hi what syustem setup have you got? What sacd and what turntable would you recommend?
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I REALLY want to hate turntables - old fashioned, cumbersome, impractical, unreliable, expensive and IMO ugly...but there's nothing as fun as music on a turntable - something is just...right about them! I would recommend the Rega P3-24 with a Ortofon 2M Blue.

As for SACD, just get a good normal CD player and play SACDs on it (the only reason IMHO that SACD is better, is that it is aimed at audiophiles and so the recording quality is better on them) nothing to due with the much higher sampling rate and what not. Just make sure the CD player will accept SACD, but it doesn't have to be a dedicated SACD player.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
There's a better solution: both Marantz and Pioneer make top-notch cd players at the moment which also play SACD. I have the Marantz SA7001 in my system, and the CD performance is excellent. SACD performance is even better, and it can remind you of vinyl at its best.

That said, if you don't like Classical music or Jazz, then most of the SACDs available tend to be remasters of older material. Most pop/rock etc seems to come out on CD only, which restricts the choice markedly. I'm also a bit iffy about the whole re-mastering of old favorites anyway, in that if, for example, Dark side of the Moon came out sounding a certain way in the 1970s, then that's the way I would want to hear it now.

If you have a look at Amazon you'll see there are still plenty of titles available, but SACD is never going to be a huge format in terms of choice.

Vinyl sounds different, but, if you go down that route, be aware that the quality of the pressing plays an important part. Unless the master has been recently re-cut and the LP re-released, you will find that the more popular the record, the harder it is to get a good quality pressing. And that's without considering wear an tear.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
At the end of the day can the best sacd recodings beat the best vinyl recordings played on hi end, equally priced equipment? I know its all a matter of taste but, its the involvement and enjoyment of the music that counts. At present I dont seem to be moved emotionaly with digital. Maybe its because iam older and dont hear the full frequencey range as i did when younger. Or am i just thinking I got more out of my music when i was younger. Ha, I sound like an old fart remembering "the good old days" {54 by the way} but, playing the siver stuff at present is simply not giving me that "good feeling" any more as it did when playing the black stuff. Any one got any similar experiences?
 
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Anonymous

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snakeybyrne:Any one got any similar experiences?

Here, here! But I find a well mastered CD is just as good as vinyl - just they are so few and far between! Pink Floyd - The Wall sounds SUPERB on the silver stuff (partly because it is recorded quieter.) I think a bit of harmonic distortion on the player makes it much more friendly and all warm and cosy...and the drive from the black stuff is just so much better than that of the silver stuff IMO.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
i have a Cyrus aca7 and power, dvd2800(as CD player) Pro-Ject 2 xpression, CA 640p, 11l2. you say you have a Cyrus CD player at the mo? i think you might be able to send it back to Cyrus and have them upgrade it to the latest model. what is your budget? maybe look at a S/H lp12, new Clearaudio emotion (thats the one i want to up grade to) or any new or S/H Rega's. as for CD players have a look at the CA 840c, top end Arcam, and Cyrus DAC and transport
 
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the record spot

Guest
Alternatives to the aforementioned vinyl: used Nottingham Analogue Horizon - £400, Project RPM 5.1 (is it - very distinctive looking deck for about £450), if funds allow, used Project X-Pack which now retails new for £800, secondhand aim for about £500-650 (higher price maybe an ex-display rate). The X-Pack is good value - project Xperience 2 deck, offboard power supply and Ortofon Rondo Red cartridge (this normally goes for £300 alone) - so finding a good used or ex-display version in good condition is worth considering.

If the budget is lower, consider Rega P1 (£185) or Rega P2 (£230) and the Goldring GR2 - effectively a Rega clone they did for Goldring. Comes with an RB250 arm and Goldring 1012GX cartridge, both of which normally sell individually for about £100-£120 each, and you can get the deck on online deals for about £200.

SACD players - Pioneer PD-D6-J (£350), Marantz SA7001 (£350), Marantz SA7001 KI-Signature edition (£599), Oppo-980 universal player (£160). The Oppo is a bit unique at its' price level being the only player which will offer all of the upgraded music formats; HDCD, DVD-A and SACD. To get all three otherwise, you need to look at the higher end universal players starting from around £800.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Hughes123:snakeybyrne:Any one got any similar experiences?

Here, here! But I find a well mastered CD is just as good as vinyl - just they are so few and far between! Pink Floyd - The Wall sounds SUPERB on the silver stuff (partly because it is recorded quieter.) I think a bit of harmonic distortion on the player makes it much more friendly and all warm and cosy...and the drive from the black stuff is just so much better than that of the silver stuff IMO.

Pink Floyd 'The Wall' is probably the best sounding CD in my collection. Absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, most CD's are mastered very poorly, which is so frutrating. Why do they do this?? It is very rare that I buy a new CD, get it home, put it in the machine and think....Wow. I probably only have a handful of discs in my whole collection that sound superb. As a result, I have often considered the Vinyl as an alternative. However, as already mentioned, Vyinyl is only as good as it has been produced and cut. As a DJ, I would often buy 12" white labels that just sounded awful over a club system. On a audiophile system, they would have been totally unlistenable.

I think with Vinyl, there are manufacturers such as MFSL that have a decent back catalogue of music, and you know you are getting quality recordings. These also seem much cheaper than their CD equivelents, making the purchase of a record player easier to justify. The problem with Vinyl, is that it is heavy, bulky to store, easily damaged and you will probably end up replacing your CD's with it a great expense. Perhaps we should all buy an IPOD and a pair of those AVI 9 thingy me bobs that seem to be getting rave reviews and have done with all this CD vs Vinyl malarky?????

If there are any CD producers reading this, please for everyons sake, sort out the quality of CD production, please! I would also pay double what a cd currently costs if it was produced to the same standard of Pink Floyds 'The Wall'
 
T

the record spot

Guest
Well, vinyl is only easy to damage if you're less than careful handling it. It's no more expensive to buy than blu-ray discs and good quality secondhand vinyl is easily sourced and competitively priced.

Having owned some vinyl dating back over 30 years and one or two pieces over 40 years old, it lasts provided it is looked after. Not obsessively so either.

I think it's horses for courses - all formats are capable of truly jaw dropping sound, but that want is at the mercy of the artist, the producer and the mastering engineer.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I have a dedicated Sony multi-channel SACD player which is hooked up to my Meridian system. As a classical music and jazz listener I have managed to accumulate quite a collection of SACDs (check out sacd-net) and I have to say I have been having a wonderful listening experience. First-class labels i can list are Telarc, PentaTone and Chesky, to name but 3, where you feel you are actually in the concert hall or studio experiencing the concert, plus the whole spatial, soundstage thing. At the end of the day you are very dependent on the engineering/production like anything else. But when it's done properly there's nothing to touch it in my opinion. Examples: two McCoy Tyner albums or Junior Wells all on Telarc - terrific!
 
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Anonymous

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Collectus,

You have hit the nail on the head. Also, think I read in another forum that Telarc are committed to SACD, because the quality of the recording is better than CD, so even if the disc isn't SACD, it will still theoretically sound better. Availability is OK at the moment - Amazon show about 4000 titles at the moment.

Notice a couple of people have been commenting on Dark Side of the Moon, which I have on SACD. Sounds very good - but I'd point out that it was recorded on tape then transferred to a vinyl master, so it isn't the recording that makes it sound quieter as someone said, it's the post-recording digital processing. An original vinyl pressing should sound better, albeit with a raised level of background noise, which is inherent in the format (quality of vinyl, tape hiss, cartridge, rumble, static electricity etc).

If you do a search for SACD on Amazon you'll find
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Marantz SA7001 in my system, and the CD performance is excellent. SACD performance is even better, and it can remind you of vinyl at its best. my be you exagerate a bit out perform a good turntable ?
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Hmm - have just done a quick test comparing CD to vinyl, and the result isn't quite what was expected.

Have to say first that the vinyl setup was the Pro-ject Debut 3 phone straight out of the box with only rudimentary anti-skate and weight setting. The CD player was a venerable Rega Planet. Both went into a Naim 5i/Quad 12L2 system. Test material was Tracey Chapman's first album and the Police Regatta de Blanc - OK, OK, but it's all I could find in the cellar where the only sound was that of the rats beginning to mass....

Let me say first that the Debut is a fine turntable, and the cartridge isn't half bad. I'll certainly be keeping it for my LP collection, though will change the cartridge for a Grado I have on hand. I'll also take the trouble to set it all up properly. Even so, on this first listen the CD came out well ahead. The vinyl fared better with the Tracey Chapman - warmer, a bit, slightly restrained, but also (and this was the surprise) less full. Yes, the CD was brighter, but not as much as I remember, and the bass more expanded than the limitations of the format would lead you to expect. With the Police, there was no comparison, but I remember the so-called audiophile vinyl version I have to be lacking in almost every respect, and it played as I'd remembered.

I can certainly see that, with a cartridge upgrade, proper setting up and better quality source material the vinyl would sound as good as CD. With a better turntable, cartridge, phono amp etc it might sound better, but then you are looking at a rig going into the thousands for a format which is becoming less easy to find and whose benefits - well, simply may not be worth the extra. I'll persevere, however, since the test was hardly ideal.

In the interests of research I also compared the SACD version of the Stones greatest hits with the CD version. Hate eating my words, but both versions were re-mastered and sounded terrific - it's early sixties here, and you can hear the band go from the rawness of the first recordings to the mastery of the later material. With SACD you were in the studio with the band, with the CD you were sitting further back. Both more than good, however, and I'll never complain about re-mastering again.

So there it is. I'll keep going with the vinyl, but a the moment I'd advise going for the SACD option or a good CD player unless you already have a good collection of vinyl.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I think you may be right but you always have to take into consideration everybodys ear and what is engaging to someone may mean it lacks detail to someone else. But as i have not done a recent comparison btw sacd and the newer decks and cartridges. I can only go with what i remember from my vinyl days and listening to the latest digital players i have heard. cds seem cold and 2 dimensional to may ears so maybe your right and sacd is the way to go. Its certanly easer to handel put in the player and forget about it. All iam after is to be able to be more emotionally involved with my music {he says as if its that simple}
 
T

the record spot

Guest
The debut III is alright, very decent in fact, but comparing with a highly regarded CD player over twice the price, I'm not surprised the Rega came through!

Try comparing a P3-24, Clearaudio Emotion or Project 5.2 and you might be a little less sure of the outcome. You don't need to spend thousands on a rig either; you'll get that level of performance with £500-£750 on the table. That and a bit of planning and reading up on the sonic capabilities offered by each deck and cartridge combination to ensure it matches what you like to hear.

I think the great thing is we're living at a time where we're getting some truly astounding CD players and turntables coming out that take a LOT of beating.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Actually, the original Planet isn't that great a CD player, but the point was more that, unless you already have a lot of LPs (I have about 20-30), then a better option is to choose SACD/CD. Yes, you certainly can juggle each component of a turntable to achieve great sound, but buying a good SACD/CD player will give you near equivalence without the need to mix and match.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I think my choice is confirmed i will go for a sacd/cd player. Any one think of the most musical sacd/cd player secondhand for around £1500 maybe a tad more. thankyou for all your well rounded and empirical knowledge much appreciated.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
T+A SACD 1250R if you can find one - website is http://www.taelektroakustik.de/eng/index.htm
 
T

the record spot

Guest
Taksinridgeback:
Actually, the original Planet isn't that great a CD player, but the point was more that, unless you already have a lot of LPs (I have about 20-30), then a better option is to choose SACD/CD. Yes, you certainly can juggle each component of a turntable to achieve great sound, but buying a good SACD/CD player will give you near equivalence without the need to mix and match.

I'd agree you can go ahead and just buy a CD player, but I think you still need to consider the audio quality of that player and it's suitability for your ears. Not all SACD/CD machines have the same sonic qualities; some will be warmer, others more forthright.

The only extra legwork you need to do with vinyl is ensuring your partnering the deck with the cartridge, other than that, the process involved in the choice/decision-making is near identical.

That said, you will definitely get some great players for £1500, new or used. Happy hunting!
 

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