I, for one, am sceptical that Sony is interested in anything more than ensuring DVD-Audio is a failure - simply because they lose their royalty stream from the CD technology if DVD-Audio succeeds. If Sony manages to despatch DVD-Audio early on, then will Sony have sufficient motivation to push for better/cheaper SACD? If it does not succeed, then perhaps it would have been better to wait for DVD-Audio. Can someone give me any reason why I should be less sceptical about Sony's SACD?
SACD players. Owner progress report
I have had my SCD-777ES one week now and am playing it ,non stop. As posted elsewhere both cd and sacd modes need individual burn in time.A maximum of up to 400 hours has been posted as required time for optimum sound improvement. At 55#,this is one serious component, and the SCD-1 weighs in at 58#.The biggest differences between the two are, that the SCD-1 also has balanced outputs,and a 5th support at the base of unit.There is a couple of other minor differences but the internal components appear to be all the same and all specs are identical,as well as the sacd playback sound.All things being equal,the cd playback should be basically the same.At this early stage,the cd playback has an edge of smoothness and detail over my Cal Alpha/Delta combo.The sound of sacd at this early stage is incredible and finally the digital format is dead on ,less all of its short comings.This has one serious newly innovative transport, and with the digital output for cd this could allow for great flexibility,teamed up with better, great bang for the bucks upsampling dac.The best of both worlds.While no specific dealers have been mentioned,the SCD-1 has been bought for $3800.(list$5000.) and the SCD-777ES for $2500.(list$3500.)There are at least 46 SACDs available and at least 3 discs will be released each month. Any other owner feedback is greatly welcomed.