SACD drive sources

Not sure why you are worried about the drives. As long as the manufacturers are making SACD players, you should be able to play your SACD. Technics is coming out with a new SACD player SL-G700. I think new SACD titles are being released every month - though the content (recordings) may be old. So there is a niche market for SACD players. I believe that SACD players will continue to be made at least for the foreseeable future. And one the SACD patent expires who knows what other devices will come up next.

If you have an Oppo SACD player, send a note to Oppo service desk and obtain 1-2 replacement LASER sleds. These probably cost $60 or so. I'm planning to do the same.

Sony Blu Ray Players Play SACDs.  Sony and Pioneer also sell Universal Players and perhaps others as well.  They can’t be used as streamers, as Oppo machines can, otherwise they have similar functionality.

smetzger72

Esoteric/Teac, Marantz and Yamaha all build their own drives/transports, especially, those machines that are made in Japan (Marantz and Yamaha).  I believe that Pioneer made a new SACD spinner recently.
I will keep my eyes watching for newer machines in 2019.

Happy Listening!

smetzger72 said..."PS Audio has discontinued their current transport and the new transport this fall won’t support SACD (their drive was from Oppo. As someone who has a large SACD library I am concerned about the future of this format."

Just for an FYI...PS Audio bought all of the existing OPPO drives for the now discontinued DMP sacd transport before the demise of OPPO audio/video. Paul McGowan has made public that the stock he has on hand for the DMP replacement drives will last a very long time. If one should ever need a replacement drive for the DMP..they will be available.     

I have one of Paul's DirectStream transports (and DAC) and when I heard that Oppo was getting out of the disk drive business, I was not happy.

In my four years of being a PS Audio customer, I've enjoyed the best service from them, so when Paul says he has enough spare parts, he's one I'll trust.

I too have a nice collection of SACDs, shedding a tear that fewer players are being made to get the most from them.

I was planning on purchasing a PS audio player, but then this happened so been trying to figure out what to do longterm. I have a Bryston DAC with HDMI so at least I can use universal players, and may just buy one of the latest and be done with it. I listen exclusively to classical and love the releases coming out of Japan. Esoteric and Universla Japan, and of course our own Analogue Productions and BIS. I just like owning a physical copy.

You could ask the manufacturer about how many drives they will keep in reserve to service existing units (or how long they think they can continue to service current units).  All responsible manufacturers do keep extensive reserves of items that will no longer be supplied by the parts manufacturer.  You could also rely on the internet to find such drives; most of the older drives are still available as new items, although some have become pricey.

Luxman makes their own proprietary drives and have recently come out with a new SACD player.  They appear to be committed to offering "vintage" types of gear, such as CD players and turntables.  I recently spoke to a Luxman representative at a local store's open house featuring this brand, and he said that their SACD player is actually a hot item, even in the US (CD's remain popular in Asia) market.  He claimed that they are keeping a very healthy inventory of their proprietary drives, even though they have, so far, only had to make five replacements worldwide.

smetzger72

I knew that I was forgetting Accuphase and Luxman.  Although, I do not know if those guys builds their drive/transport(s)  from the ground up?

Happy Listening!

Arcam is still making their SACD player (dubbed CDS50) but I don’t know where they source their drives.

At some point, you may want to make DSD file copies of your SACDs. It should prolong the life of your SACD transport which you may use less then.

Other than that daunting idea of hacking a PS3 is there an easier way?

Cambridge Audio

Arcam CDS50 is a SACD player as well as very fine streamer and incredible value for quality. Have one in second lounge system feeding Leben amp and falcon LS3/5a

Smetzger

I also have the Bryston DAC3 and enjoy listening to the DSD of my classical SACDs outputted from my Oppo 105 and my my Sony 5400 ES over HDMI.  If either of those players die I will probably buy a Sony Universal to use as a transport 

richdirector:  +1 on the Arcam

The US Luxman distributor I spoke to said that the transport is their own design and build and not something outsourced.  I heard their top of the line player in an all-Luxman electronics system and the sound was quite good.