2. digital
  3. 962761581

Is SACD really this lousy?

Bought a Sony SCD 1 and this is boring me in my system. Have had it for 2 weeks and just cannot get interested. Previously I had a CAL CL2o and we were astounded by how the DVD DAD's sounded-fall into the soundstage, reach out and touch the performers. Also the dynamic range used every bit of the VTL's 275 watts into the Maggies. The 44/16 side of the CL20 was at best lukewarm. This after coming off a Meridian 508 20. Then I tried the Wadia 270/27ix. In my system, all the write ups were proven wrong. Then I went to the Linn Ikemi. It was great except I couldn't forget that sound of the DVD's with the CL20. Sooooo....off I went to get the Sony SCD 1. I don't have a dealer here but trusted it wouldn't dissappoint. WRONNNG! I called Steve Huntley at Great Northern Sound to see if he could do anything. He said it was a great player, it's just that Sony missed the boat when it came to the analog section. He is in fact drawing up a mod to deal with this very thing that he says will approach the Accuphase. That however will cost anywhere from $1500 roonies for the SACD side to $3500 for both. Anybody have any comment on this or am I the only one experiencing disappointment?
jmazur402f
albertporter's avatar
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albertporter
4,949 posts
 
You are definitely entitled to your opinion, but I will accept the facts at an established music site over a person who is amused by silly comparisons. My effort was sincere, it appears you are following another agenda.
carl_eber
1,425 posts
 
Albert, I wonder if this guy is even worth the effort? He sure seems like an angry personality, feeling the need to bash important musicians and the like. Must be sour grapes on his part. One other observation, he does love number sequences, heh heh.
gino
101 posts
 
Listen to the new Accuphase 77V 24/192 playing Red Book CDs, particularly remastered 20-bit, XRCD, etc. Then tell me how great the SACD-1 sounds.
blues_man
133 posts
 
SACD has the POTENTIAL to rival or surpass analog for sound quality but will it. The mastering may still be the weak link. Base on many CDs that came from 96/24 masters, they sounded good unless you compare them to the originals. The so called remasterd CDs generally have 2 qualities to make them sound "better": 1 Less dynamics, (eventually we'll have monotone signals called music) and 2 less trebble. Take the RVG series from Blue Note. They had a small fraction of the dynamics and very little if any real highs of the previous versions of the CDs, yet at first people sucked them up like crazy. Eventually everyone dumped them. (Tower has been selling them for $7.99 each)The best CDs are those mastered using XRCD and HDCD. I prefer HDCD because they're much less expensive and contrary to popular belief, you don't need an HDCD player to get the major part of the benefit. (I have HDCD gear Spectral). That's another issue, Really inexpensive CD playback is just greatly lacking in being able to reproduce what's on the CD. Any recording studio software will allow you to analyze the output of a digital transport. If you think jitter is the only problem or the biggest problem, just analyze the output of a digital sine wave over 10kHz, and it gets worse as the frequency goes up. At home I'm 80% vinyl. (It was 95% until I got the Spectral). In the car and at work, I'm 100% digital. (It's hard to find a 57 Dodge with a record player, besides they only played 45s)
garfish
1,840 posts
 
3141510; Are you a music lover? If not, what are you doing on Audiogon's site?
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