I have an MCT 500 and love it. I am not aware of any other SACD transports, just players. It’s the proprietary nature of SACD that make a transport difficult to make without some sort of special connection like McIntosh provides. If I were looking for an SACD player of the highest quality I would shortlist both McIntosh and Esoteric.
SACD Player/Transport Choices
I am planning to acquire a McIntosh MCT500 to go with my C53 (proprietary MCT connection). But I am wondering if there are other good SACD transport choices that will send a true DSD stream to an external DAC on a non-proprietary basis, either through USB or I2S. I’m trying to research this, but it’s difficult to find definitive answers regarding the actual digital stream from SACD - often I discover that the stream is converted to PCM. I do know PSAudio has a scheme similar to McIntosh.
I realize simply purchasing DSD and streaming from an SSD is probably more practical these days. But I am sort of fixated on a physical disc player. Budget-wise, most interested in transports around or below that of the MCT500 (~$5K). Thanks for your thoughts and advice.