SACD/CD Drive Mechanism Replacement


Greetings!

I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question…

I’m  considering purchasing a used SACD/CD player.  I’m concerned that at some point the drive will give out. 
 

If I bought a replacement drive for it right away and just stored it; can anyone install it when the time comes, or must the original manufacturer do it?

 

I appreciate your help!

Best wishes,

Don

no_regrets

Showing 7 responses by ghdprentice

Yes, Aurender has an app for the Mac Pro. So you can use it to control the streamer.

 

I would recommend going with the transport you have vs buying something and setting back the date further of getting a good quality streamer. Life is too short. Although this comes from me… a 72 year old. 

Don,

You can use a phone to control your streamer if you don’t have an IPad. But, wow… not owning an iPad I can’t fathom that, we have about seven and most get hours of use a day. But that is a different story. Start with using your phone.

 

Getting a high end DAC as a starting place. Great idea. You can use your old transport, and for that matter you can use your MacBook as a streamer. With a really good DAC that will sound very good. It’s not going to compete with your analog rig, but it should sound very good. Lots of discussion here about using PCs because they can sound good and folks start claiming (without experiencing) you don’t need a streamer… after all there is a PC processor in it… until they experience one (or one in a good system), then jaw drop and they switch sides. I was reluctant at first (although not vocal) until I bought my first one… and that was the end of me ever using a PC.

 

On DACs… like analog… there are some detail scraping ones that will get you incredible detail an unnatural sound. You want a high end audio DAC that is natural and musical… if it is a high end one that is well reviewed as musical, it will have the detail. I really love my Audio Research Reference 9, very musical and natural. Used I am sure you can find at $5K

The streamer and DAC are equally important. Typically it is best to spend equally… similar to turntable and phonostage. I have extensive experience with both. I have this theory that the DAC tends to set the tonal balance and musicality and the streamer will limit the detail and reduce the noise floor. But, they both make a huge difference… and while you can use a Mac book or PC as a streamer do not let anyone tell you it sounds as good. Some technical people put enormous time and money into a MacBook and futzing with their network to get it close to the sound quality of the streamer. A streamer, like Aurrender is a piece of high end audio equipment. You plunk the heavy beast down and it plays high end audio grade sound quality, no futzing like with a PC.

Generally the streamer itself does everything… your iPad acts as a remote control to the streamer. The streamer box has internal software to directly connect with Qobuz or Tidal. There are other ways of doing it… especially in cheap streamers… you don’t want to do that.

Most streamers have internal memory because for a while (a while ago) storing ripped files was a thing. Now with Qobuz and Tidal, these are reliable and of equal quality to any other media.

You can actually purchase albums from Qobuz and download them to your streamer. Also, more or less something of no value any more. I have my ripped library on my streamer just in case my internet goes out. I have used those only a couple times in five years.

 

The streamed files are not actually kept in your library. What is stored is some data (like the album cover and name of album, artist etc… and a link that you do not see to the location of the album on Qobuz. So press the album and the streamer goes off and finds it and plays it.

 

A good streamer like Aurender will cashe the music before playing so it doesn’t have hiccups and isolates you from your network. This is why you (I do) can use a network extender plugged in next to your streamer and get top notch fidelity.

Don,

Monthly fee… like $14.99 you get assess to over ten million albums and thousands of internet channels. Yes, about the cost of one CD a month.

Streaming (assuming a good quality streamer) will sound the same as a red book CD or SACD if the same master and often HD versions may be available so the will sound better than a CD. On my system I can play a CD, stored file, streamed file and vinyl album they will sound the same. There is a bit of variability on the vinyl depending on what copy number it was on the master… later ones do not sound good.

I typically listen to full albums but you can search and find by albums, artists, songs or genre. There are lots of list (photos of album covers with artists and album name) of new releases and different kind of recommendations.

You can use an iPhone but you really want to use an iPad… you’ll start exploring a nearly infinite world of music quickly.

You also have a library… where any albums (or just songs) you like can be collected so you can easily find them. The streamer will go out and check and see if you have any albums on your network and copy them into your streamer if you want. There are playlists you can create of songs.

 

Whole new world… you want in.

 

Streaming is just like analog… the more you invest the better it sounds (subject to choosing wisely). Analog and digital sound and cost the same on my system. That can be accomplished at different price levels. See my systems.

A SACD player is a one box: transport, streamer (dedicated to the transport) and a DAC.

 

To stream, you need a Streamer and DAC. I own and recommend Aurrender streamers The lowest level sounds great and each higher tier sounds better. I have their flagship (recently discontinued, W20SE) and have had the Berkely DAC of which you heard… although surprisingly I prefer the sound of the Audio Research Reference DAC 9.

Once you have equivalent sound quality on streaming your world of music will change. Suddenly your library has over ten million albums. On Qobuz over half a million are high resolution. The world of music opens up. I have a collection of 2,000 albums and a great $45K analog end that I never listen to now.

 

It depends on the brand you buy. If you buy from a high end audio company they should have a stockroom of spares in case this happens to you in the future. On the other hand they probably have modified the drive to make it sound better, so, they will have to do the replacement.

 

If it is a budget drive. Well, not sure why you would want a spare. Playing discs is becoming less and less common with streaming sounding as good or better.