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.

mattsca

I have a Sony 5400ES, and my streaming setup is much superior sounding (Quboz/N200/Yggdrasil). Bypassing the Sony’s internal DAC greatly improves performance, but the streaming is still better. My two cents.

I ordered the Onix that @milpai referenced earlier this week primarily due to the I2S output and the fact that it is a top loader.  I have a large SACD collection and liked the idea of being able to use an external DAC rather than whatever chipset is included in a player.  

 

Where can you order the Onix Zenith XST20 SACD transport and what is the price and shipping cost?  Is this unit now shipping or is it in preorder status?

I recently picked up one of these and used it to send the audio HDMI out signal from my Oppo UDP-203 to my Rockna DAC's i2s input.  The Rockna is showing that it's a DSD signal.  Sound quality is fantastic.