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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
hifipassion
23 posts
 

@gimmer 

I'm running the Zenith into the original Terminator via i2s.  Also tried the Zenith paired with the Laiv Harmony DAC via i2s.

bergenma
5 posts
 

@richardbrand 

Thanks for the keystrokes. I mistakenly thot you had the junior Reavon. My bad sir. And yes I am familiar with the Magnetar.

Still waiting for what others have to say, but given the guts of the X110 are inferior to the model you have I might lean more to the Onix (Shanling) as I anticipate Blu-ray players will be manufactured for some time to come.

Honestly, all of this would just be so much simpler if Oppo would just start up transport production again and roll out another audio flagship. Like what's the big deal, it's not like it's soooo much to ask!

f1a
202 posts
 
I can confirm mahler’s assertion. My OPPO UDP-205 sends DSD via HDMI to my ARCAM AVR30 receiver. ARCAM display shows “DSD” at 2.8 MHz, both for stereo and multichannel. Sounds great!😊
bergenma
5 posts
 

@f1a thanks for the confirm. Appreciated.

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
526 posts
 

@bergenma 

but given the guts of the X110 are inferior to the model you have

To be fair to Raevon, most of the internals of the X110 and X200 are identical.  The X200 has the addition of analogue audio outputs and it looks to me that the power supply has been upgraded to suit analogue, with a well shielded toroidal transformer.

Both boxes have a pretty low component count which should enhance reliability of the electronics.  The MediaTek chips are in the highest classification of integrated circuit densities.

The Magnetar UDP800 is essentially a Raevon X200 without the second Burr Brown DAC, which delivers 7.1 and 5.1 channel analogue over RCA interconnects.  Raevon and Magnetar are a bit like Marantz and Denon - sister companies.

According to Reavon’s website

"DSD is natively transported via HDMI as a fully digital signal up to 5.1 multichanel"

But the website also claims

"The best possible picture and sound technologies for an incredible home cinema experience"

Down-converting SACD to CD quality on analogue playback is not the best possible sound technology but full SACD quality is delivered over HDMI to a suitable DAC or pre-amplifier. No disc player should output full volume noise though

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