When I got the Sony SCD-1 as an SACD player, I was using a Levinson 37 transport, which I still think was a great piece of equipment, for CD playback into a dCS Purcell upconverter and Elgar DAC. After the SCD-1 broke in (300 hours) I compared them side by side into the Purcell, using the same type of digital cable (NBS Monitor 0), the Sony using the RCA version, the Levinson the balanced. I was so impressed by the Sony as a transport that I sold the Levinson. The guy who bought it raved about how good it sounded in his system, and I had always agreed with him until I heard the Sony. I know there are people on Audiogon who disagree with this very same comparison, and I'm sure will tell you so, but I heard what I heard, and I wasn't alone when I made the judgment. Although Sony is no longer using the SCD-1's transport mechanism, Accuphase and Classe, both of which are intended as no-compromise designs, are still using it.
Quality of Sony SACD players as CD transports
To those who've used high quality redbook CD transports:
What do you think of the Sony SACD players as redbook transports going into an external DAC? I am thinking about the SCD-1, XA777ES and DVP-9000SE models.
Are these units, used for their digital out, in the same league as $3000-4000 transports like, say, the Levinson 37?
Thanks for the comments.
What do you think of the Sony SACD players as redbook transports going into an external DAC? I am thinking about the SCD-1, XA777ES and DVP-9000SE models.
Are these units, used for their digital out, in the same league as $3000-4000 transports like, say, the Levinson 37?
Thanks for the comments.
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