Just got a CDP that can play SACD. I do not have one SACD. What would be some good one to get started? I like smooth jazz and classical. Thank you for your help.
SACD, as a medium, has a strong Classical music catalog. Jazz titles as well. For smooth Jazz, check out Bob James 'Espresso'. For classical- start with your fave composer. I am a big fan of SACD with around 200 titles in my collection. Have fun and enjoy the Music!
Congrats if your system is revealing you should notice a big improvement. Pure SACD recordings are best, but a lot of music is hybrid, meaning the music is available on those discs in multiple layers. The deeper layers MAY not play back as clearly as one would like
some (all?) are hybrid, (standard and sacd versions same disc), like this Billy Joel, but you need to have control of your player to keep it from automatically playing the SACD version, or, use your old player to hear the standard version, new player for SACD version.
Eventually, concentrated comparisons, I decided the difference was lowering the noise beyond dark dark dark dark gray to black if that makes any sense. Music from nothingness. When not concentrating, not listening for that, there is no readily apparent difference, I stopped buying them.
So, don’t leap in, you might find the difference so slight, and taking too much concentration to hear the difference that is actually detrimental. buy a few, of discs you already own, or two layer ones that can play either CD or SACD quality.
you may hear differences that escape me. .........................................
after all is said and done, I stopped buying CD’s, I buy LP’s! A good clean used LP sounds better than CD or SACD, and I properly clean my many old ones now.
Junior Brown -- Down Home Chrome, on Telarc. I saw him live!
Dmitry Shostakovich -- Preludes & Ballet Suites, on Caro Mitis. Giuliano Carmignola -- Late Vivaldi Concertos, on Sony Classical. Anna Moffo - Arias from Faust, etc., on RCA Living Stereo.
I have 3 SACD Disks I would be happy to send you at absolutely no charge. They are all on the Telarc Label. 1. Copland, Hindemith Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 2. Classical Brubeck London Symphony Orchestra 3. City Scape Concerto Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Disk 2 is still sealed. The other two are not. They have never been played. Please send me a PM with name, address and zip And I will send via USPS.
I’ve got dozens of SACDs but these are my recommendations: For smooth jazz - Najee (the only sacd he has). For classical. - Micheal Tilson, Mahler recordings. My favourite SACD, however, is Brothers in Arms. Fantastic and relatively cheap.
The most ear appealing, for me SACD, is Gaucho by Steely Dan. The music erupts from a very black silence and surrounds you with crisp clear sound. Steely Dan has always been known for some of the best studio to record/disc sound quality. Fleetwood Mac Rumors also stands out as sound quality better than the CD version. Need to get some Greig SACDs. The quality of the studio mix determines the ultimate sound quality. For me, SACD sounds so much better than the 1970's four channel or quad sound.
Maybe someone else can verify, but I believe you need to make sure you are not using an external DAC with your sacd player. I believe if you do go digital out of your player into your DAC it won’t send the DSD information. I think a company or two migh make a work around for this but not sure. Maybe others here can jump in and clarify.
You are right. Most of the SACD players will not output DSD to an outboard DAC via optical/coaxial/USB connection. There are ways to circumvent that by transferring the .dsf file from SACD onto a hard drive and then playing it via a DAC of own choice. Some, probably universal, players may do it via HDMI. I have heard of a few SACD machines that would output DSD digitally but not via HDMI and those have been, I think, in the upper tier of price and performance. I have never heard one.
So, for OP, it is probably SACD played via internal DAC and output analog via RCA connection. Good news is that many SACD players are just fine with their own DACs. This being an audiophile forum, that statement may be a blasphemy, though.
You can find 268 SACD titles (as of today) at Berkshire Record Outlet to choose from at heavily discounted prices. I've ordered many titles from them over the years, they're a great resource for classical music collectors. Audite, Chandos, CSO Resound, BIS, Channel Classics, Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Linn, & Pentatone are all labels that have excellent SACD audio quality in my experience.
If you like female jazz vocalists pick up Rebecca Pidgeon’s The Raven from Chesky Records. Her rendition of Spanish Harlem will blow you away. This is my go-to track for demonstrating my system. The whole album is good, IMO, and it will also show off your new CDP
I second The Steely Dan Gaucho. What I have found is understanding the many types of SACD helps. Also that not all SACD's are created equal.(Journey Sounds about the same as the cd version) So ones that I found that made a huge difference are in this list that when played on SACD in surround really caught my attention:
Fleetwood Mac Rumors Dire Straits Brothers in arms Eagles Hotel California Moody Blues Days Of future Past Stevie Ray Vaughn The Sky Is Crying Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon The Doors - L.A. Woman Yes- Big Generator Yes-Fragile Chet Baker Bakers Holiday Miles Davis Some Kind Of Blue Miles Davis Bitch's Brew Donald Fagen Nightfly Marillion Fear Alan Pasrsons I Robot Jazz at the Pawnshop Dimeola,Mclaughlin,Delucia One Night in San Francisco Not Multichannel but amazing
You may need to go to the menu and set SACD default layer to "SACD". Sometimes it defaults to a CD layer. It may also depend what output you are using.
Page 71 of the manual explains it. Maybe that is the problem.
A major pitfall with SACDs since they can be so much more revealing with much deeper noise floors is the rest of the system.
Last night I played Moody Blues, Blood Sweat and Tears and Elton John Madman Across the Water (I have Gaucho but it's DVD-A). Lots more to play before going back to red book
My system is simple; Oppo 105 with DIY eBay aftermarket Linear Power Module, Rhodium IEC with heavy gauge pure silver wire to the LPM (these are well known weaknesses in the 105)and 2 days ago I removed the cover, WireWorld Series 8 XLRs straight into my RIc Schultz EVS 1200 (dual mono 600/1200 wpc class D with lots of tweaks to the surrounding parts
To get the full experience, I cranked my volume to a point where I quickly learned my speakers are now my weakest link
The SA-10 is very fine indeed. This player was on my short-list, except, I could not score a demo here in the Southeast U.S. Keep me posted as it settles into your room/system.
@twoleftears ,You can pick one of the following Sony players from eBay/Amazon for $50 and rip your SACD, as .dsf files. BDP-S390 (or BX39), BDP-S490, BDP-S590 (or BX59), BDP-S4100, BDP-S5100 (or BX510) I did this over the past couple of weeks. Did not realize that over a few years I had collected about 140 SACDs.
Is it just me or does it seem that Amazon only has garbage sacd titles in classical?
Who wants to listen to some ancient recording in sacd? ie living stereo stuff. The rest seems to be samplers and recordings or performances that were not well regarded in the first place.
Has all the good stuff been taken? Or something else?
I enjoy multichannel playback if instruments are distinctly separated or a more holographic image is created, but the latter can be achieved in stereo with a proper set up; The former occurring mostly in smaller bands or groups.
For that matter, has anyone perceived an advantage in using multichannel with large orchestras or symphonies?
Any specialized SACD online store in US you guys recommend? I am aware of Elusive Disc, but that's about it. Amazon's SACD catalogue is not good at all. And I try to avoid buying from eBay as you never know what you'll get.
Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct sell SACDs. These are the online stores for Analogue Productions and Mobile Fidelity, both of whom produce SACDs, but not very many of them. Music Direct has sales 10 - 15% off around holidays.
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