Beyond SACD with Redbook: Price No Object

Good grief Twl, your post makes WAY too much sense. There is bound to be a fight break out any minute now.

For what it is worth, I do not doubt that the comments from A Sanctuary of Sound are honest and correct. Ultimately each of us must decide if the limited bandwidth of Redbook CD's are worthy of a 10K band aid.

I decided on the Sony ES 9000 SACD player because it has great Redbook playback and EXCELLENT SACD.

At it's current street price, this unit is worth buying for it's DVD playback alone.

Mikelavigne, excellent post with great insight to your thinking and system preferences. I must say I wish more than anything that we were in the same city.

I and others in my audio group appear to have a great deal in common with you when it comes to musical priorities.

And to Audio999, nice short and to the point !

My take on this is that every post here is correct in some way.

Redbook CD is the format for right now, lots of software and availability of the latest releases. Makes sense for those who are digital as an only source to get the best they can from their expensive system.

SACD is potentially a far superior format. It has not had time to evolve to it's ultimate capability. Some of us have heard the potential and are hoping for it's success.

My reference is analog. Still the ultimate performer at cost no object for high end audio consumers. Analogs problems are obvious. Requires great mechanical skill to make it work at its maximum potential, limited software for newer releases and expensive when your goal is the ultimate.

My reason for buying a CD / SACD / DVD player is because every time in the past that I bought state of the art Redbook digital, I got screwed.

Two things happen with ultra high end Redbook rigs. First you pay a lot of money to get what is the ultimate. Second you are outdated as quickly as buying a new computer.

It is not just the money that bothers me. I would pay almost any amount to get digital perfection. Buy the best and have it perform as well or better than my analog. I would have no regrets. I can tell you that based on trying dozens of digital play back systems that is simply not going to happen. At least with Redbook technology.

So, in the end, you can pay $10K, $20K, or more for Redbook playback and still not get state of the art. You can buy analog and get state of the art and not be able to access the latest software.

Or you can buy state of the art analog, a inexpensive CD / SACD and listen only to your favorite music that is unavailable on LP, and wait for things to get better.

If things don't get better, having $900.00 invested for both CD ( flawed ) and SACD ( not evolved ) formats is a comfortable place to be.

Now where is that 45 RPM single sided, virgin vinyl, 180 gram pressing of "Kind Of Blue?" The one that actually sounds like Miles.

Cwlondon, I will catch heck for this comment, but in a test in my own system the Sony SCD-1 and the Sony ES 9000 were more a personality issue than a real performance issue.

In the deepest bass, particularly classical music, the SCD-1 does go deeper and with slightly more accurate timbre. The 9000 actually excelled in soundstage depth and midrange resolution, Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Couldn't Stand The Weather" comes immediately to mind.

The looser in the contest was the two year old Levinson transport and converter that was bettered by both players. The owner of the SCD-1 kept his unit, I kept my ES 9000, and the Levinson owner sold his gear on Audiogon the very next week. Used the cash to buy a used VPI turntable and arm and a new Sony just like mine.

Of course he got to hear all this in a direct comparison. Makes the decision much easier than talking about it.