An SACD question

hi dvb:

you made an interesting comment about the sacd medium, when you mentioned "all things being equal".

do you therefore acknowledge that given the population of sacd players, it may be possible to achieve better sound from the hybrid layer when using a particular redbook player or dac/transport combination ?

for example, my favorite cd playing device is the original zanden dac.

it may be possible that the zanden, with a suitable transport could produce better sound than an sacd disc with an sacd player.

i realize "better" is subjective, but perhaps, some redbook digital hardware can exceed the quality obtainable from an sacd disc.

let me throw out the gauntlet.

let someone provide a good quality sacd player. i am confident i can find a tubed player or dac, which is redbook based over a most solid state sacd players.

if the sacd player is tube based, perhaps i would prefer the sacd medium.

if the sacd player is a solid state device, i think i could find tubed digital hardware using the hybrid layer.

perhaps an example would be the original zanden dac, which i find hard to beat.

hi tbg:

do you recall the "sound" of the original zanden??

if so, why do you prefer the exemplar ??

i have heard some of the earlier exemplar dacs. i would agree that they are high quality components, but as a matter of taste, i don't recall hearing a "classic" tube sound.

i think some of the early wavelength dacs are worthy competition for exemplar.

with regard to bringing up the "old" issue of tubes vs solid state, i thought that the context of the sonic superiority of sacd over pcm, could be overcome by a properly selected tubed dac with a nos tube.