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SACD vs Regular CD's

I have a fairly good system, through which I have been listening to CD's with a Meridian G08 player which I have found to be fairly close to the analog sound. My question is, I am also thinking about getting a SACD player. I have NO experience with SACD's: are they worth the investment? is there really that much improvement? what are the pros and cons of SACD?

Any help would be appreciated, and I thank you, in advance, for any helpful comments.

Regards,

AEW
a_e_watkins

Showing 1 response by suteetat

suteetat
435 posts
 
On recordings that were recorded in DSD then downsampled to 16/44 for CD, I found the SACD to be significantly better (for example Perahia's Goldberg variation on Sony, Paavo Jarvi's Beethoven cycle ). Some SACD release from older analogue tape (Living stereo series etc), really depends on the remaster. Some are really good, some are not that much different from CD. Also there are some rip off ie SACD that was upsampled from 16/44 which was a waste.
Personally I found Pentatone SACD to sound significantly better through SACD layer than CD layer as well.
Some of the cheaper, universal player also convert DSD to PCM before going through AD converter which does not help SACD much.
I would look through SACD catalogues first and see if there are enough music in SACD catalogues (preferably with original DSD recordings) that interest you. If yes, it would be worthwhile investigating this option.
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