SACD Players

You might check out Michael Gindi's review in the Winter issue of Ultimate Audio where he and Lars Fredell compared the Sony SCD-1 and the new Marantz SA-1 SACD/CD players.

Anyone know if the 9000ES has Redbook CD digital out? Not clear from the literature I saw.

If I might respectfully disagree with Simon: 1. History has taught us that the best product a company like Sony makes is in general, their first, flagship, product. After that, it's how can can the product be made more cheaply. 2. This is a fact: the combi drives out there today as used in the Sony are no where near the equal of the best drives available or the SCD-1 drive. The leading designers who have tried the new "universal" drives all tell me they are sadly lacking in quality. Then look inside the SCD-1 and check out the build quality, transport isolation and case -- and compare that with the 9000ES. 3. I'm wondering how the 9000ES, which converts DSD to PCM in the course of processing, can be better than the SCD-1? 4. The WL PO is THE worst CD Kavi has ever made. 5. Since you don't detail your vinyl system, it's hard to tell your reference point but the SCD-1 does not equal my TNT V/JMW-12.5 and either Parnassus DCt or Clearaudio Discovery. The only area where the the SACD player comes close is in low frequency dynamics -- but it still falls down when it comes timbre eg. listen to a piano and how all the low frequency registers sound the same. The SCD-1 is clearly bested in the most critical midrange area where it's still lean and lacking in three dimensionality.

Myles, That you know of, are any of the high end manfacturers currently proposing the production of SACD players? If so, which ones and when? Or, are they waiting the format war out. What do you mean by "the low frequency registers sound the same", please explain. Do you find the lack of anti-skating to be a concern or problem with the JMW-12.5? I'm going to upgrade my arm and cartridge andseveral people have recommended the JMW-10. I'm mounting to a HW-19 MkIV and lack of anti-skating just seems to go against conventional wisdom and engineering. Thanks, Doug

Doug, Accuphase has an (outrageously) expensive SACD transport/DAC on the market, and my understanding from my local dealer is that dCs is working on a universal transport. I'm interested by your final question, because the concern you speak of is the reason a friend of mine, after much consideration, went with the Graham arm for his TNT a few years ago over the JMW arm. Quite frankly, I don't think he could have lost whichever way he went, they're both superb products.