SACD - opinions

[admin_exported]

I'm toying with SACD and wondered if just buying a 'cheap' SACD dedicated player as another source would be reasonable sound, value for money and quality wise rather than buying something like the Arcam FMJ CD37? You can buy one for just over £100 a pop...........

Any thoughts welcomed.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I would say that a SACD player for £100approx would be of very doubtful quality. Although, I cannot say this categorically as I do not know specifically to which you refer.

There is, however, a lot of technology required to produce effective playback of SACDs and more still to make sure that normal cds are played as well on the same player and therefore find it hard to imagine that a player at the price of £100 could ever do an SACD justice.

After all, it would be a shame to buy a player that shows no real benefit over standard cds (in fact it would be a waster of £100)!

My suggesting would be to try and pay a good amount as I am sure it will be repayed over the years by hours of enjoyable listening! Firstly, I do not think that you need to pay as much as a £1000 which is what I believe the Arcam is. A new Marantz SACD player has just been released classified as a Marantz SA8003. This is priced at about £650-700 and considering the quality of most products by this company it should be superb. I have not had chance to listen to it yet but am hoping to audition it soon so I will try and report back when I do. The other good thing about this player is that it should play standard cds just as well as a stand alone player like the highly rated Cyrus CD6SE or similar.

Regards,

Mark

 

[DistortedVision]

The first thing I think you should ask yourself is whether the music you listen to is readily available on SACD. I have a rather expensive SACD/CD player and only a handful of SACDs.

 

[Anonymous]

DistortedVision:The first thing I think you should ask yourself is whether the music you listen to is readily available on SACD. I have a rather expensive SACD/CD player and only a handful of SACDs.

So, you didn't ask yourself that question...

 

[Anonymous]

Graham_Thomas:I'm toying with SACD and wondered if just buying a 'cheap' SACD dedicated player as another source would be reasonable sound, value for money and quality wise rather than buying something like the Arcam FMJ CD37? You can buy one for just over £100 a pop...........

Any thoughts welcomed.

Thanks

A cheap SACD player won't give you a good sound. In this case, the slight superiority of the SACD format over the CD format is not as important as the actual quality of the player.

With some friends we compared three players some time ago: one was a cheap Samsumg universal player (in my country, GBP 50). The other one was an entry level Marantz universal player. The Marantz retailed for GBP 200. The third one was the CA 640 V2. The Samsung sounded really crappy both in CD and SACD. The CA 640 was superior to the Marantz playing CDs. When comparing a hybrid recording, playing it through the Marantz in SACD mode, and through the CA as CD, some prefered the Marantz, some the CA. I myself prefered the CA, I think it was more articulate and dynamic.

 

[DistortedVision]

No because I bought it primarily as a CD player.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the thoughts so far. I like all kinds of music really, so SACD selection would not be a problem as anything from Genesis [some tasty SACDs there] via Tool, Rush and Vaughan Williams suits me, ambient trance to to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs via classical - very catholic.

I saw a Denon SACD for £345 or so, my thoughts on the ~£100 ones were Technics/Sony but just used as a discussion reference pricing point really. I had seen the Marantz 8003 and wondered, but doubt the CD playback would rival my Arcam CD192, but happy to be proved well wrong.....

 

[Anonymous]

Marantz CD/SACD players are very good indeed.

 

[the record spot]

Oppo-980H - it does SACD, DVD-A, HDCD and CD, although the latter is not a big deal for you with your dedicated player.

Well reviewed (Hi Fi World rated it highly) and available for about £160 direct from Oppo. Do check it out. I own a Samsung DVD-950H player which may or may not be the one previously referred to by another poster. Until I bought the Marantz recently, this was my main SACD source.

It has a very good substantial sound to it; not poor value at all (it originally retailed for about £150 I think) and hence I wouldn't write off the Oppo either, especially in light of a very positive review previously.

You might land a bargain in the standard SA7001 KI - this can be a little lean in the bass, but I recently removed the Nordost Blue Heaven interconnect and replaced it with an QudioQuest Copperhead (circa £60-65) and although half the price it made all the difference in bringing out a deeper and fuller bass. Bear this in mind if you get the SA7001. Superb player as a standard CD though - wonderful midrange, sweet treble. As near to analogue at the price as I think you'll find.

 

[the record spot]

Not seen any reviews of the SA8003 incidentally, but it is Ken Ishiwata tuned albeit not bearing the KI legend. There's no comparable "standard" 8003 - there's the 7003 instead - hence the missing suffix. I think it would be worth auditioning if you get the chance and want to spend £700.

 

[Dan Turner]

I bought an Arcam CD37 recently, on the strength of it's CD playback alone (replacing CD93). I have one SACD (Dark Side of the Moon) which sounds incredible. Haven't had much luck finding anything else I like on SACD, but am keeping my eyes peeled. My advice: get the CD player you like the sound of the most and if it has SACD then consider it a bonus. If you're happy with the CD play back of your 192 then don't worry about it I say, it is miles better with CD than the equivalent SACD played back on a £100 machine.

 

[the record spot]

The other thing to bear in mind is that SACD isn't automatically a panacea for digital's ills; bearing the SACD legend alone isn't a guarantee that you're also going to get a great recording.

The Genesis ones you mention (I've got the 1976-1982 boxset) are okay, but you'd be better to hand on to the original Virgin Charisma releases for an authentic and faithful capture of the albums. The best version of Trespass I've heard to date is an MCA import which trashes the rest including the original vinyl too. You can pick it up in HMV in London for about £9 and online for about the same delivered from the US or Canada. I got mine from a Stateside seller on recommendation from a guy on the Steve Hoffman forum.

 

[Anonymous]

The CD37 won a HFC Gold Award. And the guys at HFC know what they are talking about.

 

[Anonymous]

HFC reviewed the CD37 but WHF have still yet to, although CD17 got 4 stars.

Interesting thoughts guys, thanks for the advice, and interesting to note 'slight' superiority when I thought there might be a significant one.

 

[the record spot]

In fairness Graham, sometimes it is a significant difference; jaw dropping. Equally, there's times when it's like "that's it?" and a well recorded standard CD is as good. It's down to the system too of course, but I think it's as much keeping your ear to the ground about good recordings and following them up if you get the chance.

 

[Anonymous]

the record spot:In fairness Graham, sometimes it is a significant difference; jaw dropping. Equally, there's times when it's like "that's it?" and a well recorded standard CD is as good. It's down to the system too of course, but I think it's as much keeping your ear to the ground about good recordings and following them up if you get the chance.

Interesting and food for thought - thanks for that.......