SACD what to look for

[mikesbytes]

Planning to pick up a DVD player that has SACD. What should I be looking for?

[ROF]

A player that has SACD Playback listed in it's specs.

[greymalkin]

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=562984&store=ecost&source=ECOSTPG&srcc...=email,ECOSTPG

[Cornucopia]

For a slightly less flip answer,

There isn't that much variation between features in SACD players, although it might be that some have better support for SACD-Text than others. Either they support it or they don't.
The main difference is in the quality of the decoding/D-to-A stage. Better clock/timebase = lower jitter = cleaner sound. Full support for DVD-Audio's 96 or higher sample rates in the same player may be an indication that the timebase/jitter is higher quality, but it's not always a 1-to-1 situation.
Also, some players can support multichannel SACD, whereas some may only support 2-channel SACD (the CD-compatibility layer would always be 2-channel).

HTH,

Scott

[greymalkin]

I'm just giving you an example of a newer version of my pioneer DVD-Audio/SACD Player. I really like it and the other Universal players shoot up to like 600+ Dollars. As with most audio equipment..the price/performance ratio always tends to skew into a tangent at some point. I'm not doubting for a minute that the 600 dollar units have better DAC's, but $400-500 better? If you believe it I've got some $150 "monster" cables to sell you as well ..yes yes it looks like regular OFC, but it's been monsterized through a top secret monsterization process....

[ROF]

If anyone pays more than $100 for a DVD player there is either severe price gouging in your location or you haven't heard of DVD recorders. If you pay more than $400 for DVD player I'd recommend therapy.

[greymalkin]

well..i mean the sacd and dvd-audio requires seperate DAC's...so i'm not trying to say that paying over 100 or 150 dollars for a player that does it all is dumb...i'm just saying that when you start paying the bigger money you usually get less and less for your money. If you pay hundreds of dollars for copper wire though...you are dumb. :P

[mikesbytes]

$229 in Aus for the pioneer.

http://www.pioneer.com.au/home_entertainment/dvdplayersandrecorders/dv686/index.html

[Cornucopia]

Did you get a look at the creepy guy in the corner of that link?

Scott

[mikesbytes]

so much for free speach

[ebenton]

Look for an AV receiver that has discrete 6-channel inputs.

[mikesbytes]

Look for an AV receiver that has discrete 6-channel inputs.

as distinct to the 5.1 that we normally get ?

[ebenton]

What I mean is, SACD (and DVD Audio) players do not encode the surround sound, and your AV receiver should have 6 separate RCA input jacks for the output of your SACD player. You'll probably need to make sure you have 6 extra RCA cables as well. Most/many SACD players don't come with those 6 cables.
Many SACD "hybrid" disks have a layer that can be read by regular CD players and contains 2-channel data, so you can play them in your car, or elsewher, as well as in your SACD/DVD player. Don't think that this is SACD sound. The only way you will get surround sound is to connect the 6 jacks from your SACD/DVD player to the 6 inputs on your AV receiver, and then, obviously, make sure your AV receiver is using those input jacks instead of the usual optical or coax digital audio connector that you would use for movies.
The switch to using these jacks for your AV receiver input will probably not be automatic. Every time you insert an SACD disk into your SACD/DVD player, you will have change your AV receiver input to the 6 discrete analog input jacks connected to your player. Then switch it back to optical/coax for movies so it can decode Dolby Digital or DTS.

[davideck]

I really like my SONY 5 disc CD/DVD/SACD carousels.
They typically sell for a small premium over the standard CD/DVD carousel, but are well worth it IMHO. They have built in SACD, Dolby Digital, and DTS decoders and pretty nice speaker setup menus, so I just leave my A/V receiver in 6 Channel Mode. I know that many here are mad at Sony right now, but I have always preferred their DVD players.
And for listening to music, I got addicted to a carousel long ago.