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In Reply to: Fair enough........ posted by Sordidman on December 22, 2004 at 09:47:06:
... at that time i couldn't care less about SACD (if anything, i would probably have preferred to support DVD-A as I already owned two DVD-A discs and have yet to own a single SACD due to my perception that it was a proprietary format unlikely to survive long). i know a few people who even today primarily use their xa777es as a cd player and seldom play sacds on it - they seem to think the price was worth it compared to cd-only players.looking at the design of this player, i don't think it has any design or performance compromises for cd playing - in other words, it seems to be as well designed as a pure cd player as it possibly could be at it's price point - the signal path for cd is separate from dsd all the way to the DAC, even to the inclusion of a very good digital filter that supports 0dBFS+ that is used only for cd playback.
There are much more expensive cd only players out there that do not handle 0dBFS+ (for example, apparently the burr brown digital filters, which are used in high end players like wadia and cary, do NOT support 0dBFS+). i liked the fact that sony cared enough about the issue to put in special effort to resolve it for a player primarily marketed as a m-ch sacd player.
Follow Ups:
Most audiophiles who frequent here are not ready to accept the sound of CD as what it is. They have a different definition of what "better" means.
... a friend of mine said to me the usual story "SACD is crap. doesn't sound as good as CDs."so i politely asked "in what way?" And I got the usual "velvet curtain" answer: "too soft, high frequencies are muffled and sound wrong, must be DSD ultrasonic noise blah blah blah"
i said "ok, show me." and he played some jazz material featuring lots of cymbals on a hybrid disc on his system.
to be sure, compared to the CD, the SACD did sound less harmonically rich, and less thrilling. however, i noticed that the "richness" of the cymbals on CD sounded artificial, almost like "ringing" artefacts from PCM playback, and in fact the sound on SACD was more detailed despite sounding less impressive.
my friend wouldn't buy this explanation until i dragged him to a musical instruments store, struck a real cymbal and said "there! that's the sound of a real, unamplified, cymbal. and it doesn't contain any of the artefacts that you hear (and like) on the cd that are missing on the sacd."
but guess what, he still prefers the rich sound on cd. it's what he's become used to, and that is his "reality."
even later still, i discovered he had bass management engaged the whole time. it was a denon player, and i think on this model DSD is converted to PCM when bass management is turned on.
but all SACD reproduction and recordings are NOT created equal...Some SACD recordings or SACD remasters from the orginal analog tapes can be bad.
Also, - there's CAN BE a huge difference between SACD decks.
IMO, - your average $1K price point SACD, - playing SACDs, - can't get close to a SOTA redbook only CDP like the Audio Aero. And, - the AA bests even some $6K players, - like the MF Trivista running SACD, - IMO.
My issue, - is the redbook section. I have to listen more to the Sony 777, - as I have heard the redbook section and felt at the time that it didn't stack up to my Arcam, the Ayre, the NAIM or some of the other well regarded $2K to $3K players. I have compared the MF Trivista redbook section to my Arcam directly, as well as the Krell and Marantz, - and the Arcam blew those away, - quite decidedly in my mind...
is this the real me, or a mere facsimile?
absolutely agree, it all depends on the recording. i have some cds that sound decidedly better than the sacd equivalent.did you listen to the sony 777es or xa777es? two completely different players, with two completely different designs for cd playback ... the 777es converts PCM to DSD, the xa777es uses a completely different architecture.
my xa777es sounds better than all the arcams i have listened to. i can't find any cd player better than it that's lower in price. the denon dvd-a1 sounds slightly better, but it's around the same price. the linn unidisk sounds much better, but at twice the price.
i didn't really like the MF trivista all that much either. haven't heard the krell - that should be interesting.
I'll have to remember that.....Maybe that's the way I should go. I was thinking about getting a player that also did DVD video as I don't have one. I don't care about DVD video quality because I rarely watch movies or TV, and have an old crappy Sony CRT. But, - I thought that it would be a bonus and save space on the rack by not having two units. But, - maybe I should get a Toshiba 3960 just to save the space and get a better audio player...
Thanks again,
Cheers,
is this the real me, or a mere facsimile?
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