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218.186.10.11
In Reply to: Lindemann 820 Review....of sorts (long) posted by Waldteufel on March 26, 2007 at 13:11:21:
I'm really glad you eventually found a trouble-free player that you like! Remembering the nightmarish experience we shared with the Marantz during the early days of SACD still gives me the shudders.I heard the 680 some years back and it sounded marvellous - fluid, rich and smooth. This made me consider getting the 820 when it was about to be released a few years back , but went with a Meitner combo because the 820 was delayed in getting to the market by some months.
My first generation CDSD was problematic in reading SACD Hybrids as CDs, so it seemed for some time that I was being revisited by the spectre of the SA-1. I wished I had waited for the Lindemann which, like the Accuphase DP85, does not seem to suffer from loading problems, probably because they use the same drive. A year later, I received a 2nd generation CDSD which has proven 100% reliable, something I have learnt not to take for granted!
Thanks for the review, which I find captures aptly the Lindemann approach. Apart form sounding musical, the Lindemann has helped repair any damage flaky players like the Marantz SA-1 might have caused to SACD's reputation as a dependable medium.
Follow Ups:
...the 820 is among the new generation of players produced by small, dedicated manufacturers whose priorities are designing practical products that perform extraordinarily well on a continuing basis, rather than those of the big corporations in rushing "statement products" into production to showcase a new format. Certain aspects of their reliability seemed to have been left to chance, otherwise how could problems that cropped up with such regularity under normal consumer use not have been detected during (hopefully) rigorous developmental testing? Large corporations apparently have such a diversified product base that they must feel immune to the occasional lapse in releasing such dogs on the market.Looking back, I now see that I was a bit reckless in buying into such a new format, but then again we had no reason to believe that Sony, Philips and Marantz would have such problems in transitioning from one very similar digital disc format to another after CD had been on the market for nearly two decades.
Anyway, I'm just glad that conscientious and talented designers with small companies have boldly invested their time, energy and reputations in bringing these new players to market after the format got off to such a shaky start. I hear the new Ayre, Cary, and Meitner one-box machines are excellent performers, but I haven't any first-hand experience with them.
I can say with confidence that the Lindemann 820 has finally fulfilled all my expectations for SACD playback, and the new 820S must surely be extraordinary. No transports running amok, no half-baked firmware updates, no flickering displays. Someday we might be able to look back on those days and laugh at the absurdity of all us early adopters commiserating on AA and wondering whether we had been duped or had just taken a wrong turn, but the memory of repeatedly packing up that SA-1 and sending it off only to hold my breath upon its return in anticipation of its next malfunction is still too vivid. Reliability is, indeed, a very welcome luxury!
Good to hear from you!
W
.
When Sony gets it right, it's right. I bought a Sony 5-disc CD changer back in 88...used it 4 years then gave it to my Mother, who still listens to it regularly with no problems. Sony, however, didn't have it together at first with their SACD players; glad you got a good one. BTW, the Lindemann uses a Sony mechanism.Along with the usual firmware issues, I suspect that back in the early days of SACD many problems were hastened by the common practice among impatient owners to run their players 24/7 for as much as two weeks to burn them in.
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