SACD players?

[thxdave]

Now that the door is opening a little wider for SACD titles (Stones, Steve H, etc) how many of us in here either have an SACD player, will be getting one soon or have no interest in getting one? Which one do you/will you have? I bought my Sony 9000ES over a year ago based on the need for a progressive scan DVD player and on the word-of-mouth that this player had for its regular CD reproduction.....and knowing that Steve liked the SACD format didn't hurt, either ;)

dave

[Richard Feirstein]

I picked up an SACD/DVD-A DVD Apex player and loved the sound but returned 4 units because they were very very poorly built and designed. I now have a Sony 500V and find that it is a superb DVD player and a great multi-channel SACD player. The only limitation is its less then steller power supply, basic bass management and no SACD timing alignment adjustments. No bass management for stereo at all. Love the sound on SACD and CD, and it now sells for about $180.00.

[thxdave]

Richard,
Help me out here..."SACD timing alignment adjustments"? Also, unless I've missed my guess, bass management is purely a product of the multichannel part of audio and video, not stereo, no? I thought the sole purpose of bass management was to redirect bass info away from smaller surround-only speakers and reroute it into either your large, front speakers or into the sub, if your system has one.

dave

[Richard Feirstein]

In a multi-channel 5.1 speaker setup one usually does not sit at an equal distance from each speaker. Yet the program is mastered with the intention that one be centered at an equal distance between each speaker. Timing alignment adjustments (standard with most Dolby Digital and DTS setup) lets the user vary the timing between the speakers by telling the program how far one sits from each speaker. Philips and Sony will be adding this adjustment to most SACD players for 2003. Today most if not all SACD and DVD-A players lack this essential adjustment.

As for bass management, yes, it is intended to allow the user to redirect the bass if not all speakers are full range speakers and to take advantage of an available sub woofer. The 500V has only basic adjustments for SACD and is not flexible in the selection of speaker types or crossover frequencies. If you play in stereo, and have a sub to carry the very low end, the 500V will not let you include your sub; you had better have full range stereo speakers! Other models are more flexible and more flexible adjustments for SACD will be added in many 2003 models.

[thxdave]

Okay, so we ARE in agreement. I thought I had lost it all for a minute. My Sony 9000 was released before everything started going multichannel so it has a stereo-only output. Of course, I don't see Steve doing any multichannel remixes any time soon, so I'm sure I'll be happy with the quality of his remastered SACD's.

dave

[Richard Feirstein]

And in my opinion many, no make that all, of the remixed vintage material into multi-channel SACD and DVD-A material is not worth the effort. Sometimes mono and stereo are the way to go.

[Todd Fredericks]

I have the option to listen to SACD in multi-channel (which I haven't bothered to hook up yet) but I'm very happy listening to great music with higher resolution in stereo/mono...

[Togo]

Well, I'm happy with my new player (Sony ns900v SACD/DVD combo) as mentioned in other threads... but to be honest I have played pretty much red book CD's exclusively so far.

It is good that new software is starting to appear more frequently, but I have to say there is a long, long way to go before there is real choice out there.

Classic albums are very fine, but what about the Top 50 and new releases in general? These must be released in the format IMHO if it is to succeed in the long run...and I really hope it does because I like SACD based on the little I've heard (Sony sampler discs) and I will support it in 2 channel stereo at least - I'm not really "a whizz bang surround sound kinda guy" even for my movies.

I think upcoming 'Stones releases will help the cause overall because they are so high profile. I can't wait for new stuff (and classics) to follow...

:)

[krabapple]

Originally posted by Richard Feirstein
In a multi-channel 5.1 speaker setup one usually does not sit at an equal distance from each speaker. Yet the program is mastered with the intention that one be centered at an equal distance between each speaker. Timing alignment adjustments (standard with most Dolby Digital and DTS setup) lets the user vary the timing between the speakers by telling the program how far one sits from each speaker. Philips and Sony will be adding this adjustment to most SACD players for 2003. Today most if not all SACD and DVD-A players lack this essential adjustment.

As for bass management, yes, it is intended to allow the user to redirect the bass if not all speakers are full range speakers and to take advantage of an available sub woofer. The 500V has only basic adjustments for SACD and is not flexible in the selection of speaker types or crossover frequencies. If you play in stereo, and have a sub to carry the very low end, the 500V will not let you include your sub; you had better have full range stereo speakers! Other models are more flexible and more flexible adjustments for SACD will be added in many 2003 models.

If you have a home theater receiver, it can possibly do bass management of the stereo analog output for SACDs (but not the multichannel analog output). I run the stereo analog jacks (which are distinct from the 5.1 outputs) of my DVD-A player into the stereo DVD or CD input jacks of my HT receiver, and set the receiver's speaker setup to 'small' for the mains and 'subwoofer' for the low frequencies, and this works.

In this instance , with my player (Toshiba SD-5700) it doesn't matter what the *player's* speaker settings are; they only come into play for analog 6-channel output (i;e., DVD-A surround output). All the frequency management is being done by the receiver, whihc doesn't care if the input is from a CD player, DVD player, SACD player, etc.

I don't know if all HT receivers are able to do such 'bass management' of analog stereo input , but my receiver isn't exotic (it's a cheap-ish Yamaha) so I suspect they can.

If yours can't, one other solution would be to place the subwoofer in series with the speakers (assuming the sub has speaker-level connections, or your receiver and sub have pre-out and main-in connections) and let the sub's filters do the work.

[feinstein]

I currently have the Sony SCD-1. It's a great CD and SACD deck (probably one of the best out there) but its ergonomics stink (extremely slow load times). My question is, has anything come out since that's as good sound-wise as the SCD-1 (two channel only hardware please).

[Dave]

You might want to check out the Classe' SACD. Heard one at the dealers. WOW!

Claus has heard this one as well and said that it was in his top 2 choices.

[Khorn]

Originally posted by feinstein
I currently have the Sony SCD-1. It's a great CD and SACD deck (probably one of the best out there) but its ergonomics stink (extremely slow load times). My question is, has anything come out since that's as good sound-wise as the SCD-1 (two channel only hardware please).

Just how slow is it, I'm thinking of getting one. Must be really annoying if that's the reason you want to change.

There isn't a heck of a lot of info out there about upcoming higher end SACD players. Most of the stuff seems to be heading in the multi-channel direction and what's worse combined with video circuitry that I firmly believe compromises the ultimate audio quality as well as screwing with the ergonomics especially the set up. I firmly believe in keeping serious audio and video separated eg: different players.

Keep us posted if you hear anything and I'll do the same although I am moving in about three weeks and will need to act on a purchase around that time.

[Metralla]

Originally posted by feinstein
I currently have the Sony SCD-1 ... but its ergonomics stink (extremely slow load times).
Does it bother you much? I never thought this was much of an issue as an outside observer, but you have lived with the player. There are some nice mods available for the SCD-1 that may help keep it among the very top players for a good 5-7 years. Do you use it for CDs too?

Regards,
Geoff

[Richard Feirstein]

My reading of the various Sony and Philips press releases is that top end SACD players will hit the street this Fall.

[Todd Fredericks]

Richard,

Could you post some details about these upcoming players or provide a link?

Thanks,
Todd