Dumb Question


Recently I have been playing and buying more SACD.s than CD because I think they sound better. I am using an Oppo 205 to play the SACD’s and would like to up-grade from the 205, which was only a $1300.00 player when I bought it. It seems like Esoteric keeps coming up as one of the better SACD players, however at pricing which starts at $12,000 for their lower line player. Will their players be an up-grade over the Oppo and which model do you recommend. I am big into streaming as well,  but think the SACD is superb. Thanks for any feedback. Sam

128x128samgar2

Showing 1 response by ghdprentice

I see you named your system but put no info under it. To respond helpfully we will need to know your system and venue. That would be really helpful. But I’ll try and say a few things.

 

A SACD or CD player is a physical transport, streamer and DAC in one box. 
 

Will the Esoteric sound better than the OPPO? Yes absolutely, and if the rest of your system is comparable spectacularly beter. The Esoteric are great sounding.

 

But let’s look at what you are buying with it… this is a guess… a $2K transport, $2K streamer and a $8K DAC. Ok, something like that. Well, your streaming system also uses a DAC and a streamer… so you are spending most of your money on redundant equipment.

 

I would invest in a better DAC and streamer to bring your streaming up to what the SACD player can do. Then there is no reason to collect discs at all and music acquisition drops to almost nothing.

 

I am fortunate to have a system where my analog and digital ends (all formates) have the same sound quality. I just listen to streaming… why play a disk when it sounds no better?