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Perfect Solution for Hi Res Mayhem

As almost all of us here, I am tired of wasting my precious time (otherwise would have spent on listening to Music) researching and thinking where this new format war is taking us. Finally I drew the following conclusions:
1. Multi Channel will take at least two decades before they attain the maturity two channel music has attained. So, why ruin my taste, I will stick to two channel.
2. Since I have neither Vinyl gear nor software, going down that path is a totally new investment, which IMHO is not justified given the low availability of software.
3. SACD has clearly more titles compared to DVD-A and DSD seems to be promising technology and two channel SACDs I have listened to sound pretty good, Vinyl like.

So, am I gonna jump the guns and spend mega bucks on a Accuphase, Lindemann, dCs or a Meridien? No. I have come across two cheap but well built Chinese SACD players. Now do not get put off by the fact they are Chinese. Even though we do not like to admit, some of the highly regarded gear are now either made in China or parts are sourced from there.

The two contenders are Shanling SCD-T200 and Xindak SCD-2. and they both have Tube output stages, and the conventional wisdom says they will definitely sound better than the Solid State analogue output players.

Shanling appears to have spent lot of money on looks, and it is a top-loading player. So, I think Xindak is the way to go. SCD-2 retails around USD 1700.00 in US and is two channel. Only draw back is it has no up-sampling for Redbook cds.

Appreciate your valuable opinion on my conclusions and better yet, if there are any Xindak owners here please let us know how they sound.

Regards,
amal

Showing 1 response by amal

amal OP
34 posts
 
Dear Jcb,

Thanks and appreciate your view. My statement on Vinyl software availability reflects the situation where I live, Middle East. Sony is very strong here and they flood the market with cheap SACD/DVD combo players and at least three major stores here have started selling SACD titles.

While vinyl remains a very tempting choice, for practical reasons I had to adopt SACD. A friend of mine recently bought an entry level second generation Technics TT. He started buying 180g LPs on the net, but spends more time fighting insurance claims with courior companies for damaged records, than enjoying music.

Xindak SCD-2 has tube output, while SCD-1 has solid state.

As for top-loading, I have heard that most of the OEM transports are manufactured as front loading, and CDP manufacturers 'tinker around' to make them top-loading, which does not always produce good results. Please corret me if I am wrong. I assume the finest transports you are referring to are native top-loading drives.

Regards,
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