Many audiophiles have discovered (unfortunately) that all is not well in SACD land. The problem is two-fold.
Firstly, Sony (like all Japanese digital player manufacturers) use very mediocre sounding output devices, which greatly hinder the true sonic ability of their players. Additionaly, they could learn a thing or two about employing ultra-quality sounding power supplies. These engineering oversights have always been the downfall of all Japanese players, and I am still surprised of the ignorance of the audio reveiwer community, and their inability to recognize this problem. (Maybe they do know, and are not telling us for some reason)
Secondly, although the new SACD format has a certain sonic "fluidity" that is superior sounding as compared to standard CD's. SACD also has a noise overlay problem in the digital section, that creates its own set of sonic problems. This can be heard by doing an A/B comparison against a properly executed and designed standard 24/96 machine, which does not have to deal with such severe digital noise. Again, why doesn't the reveiwer community recognize this other engineering problem?
If you do decide to buy any SACD player, I strongly suggest that you have the output devices stripped out and replaced by a competant modifier, like Stan Warren.
It is my humble opinion that virtually all high end digital companies would damn near go out of business, if companies like Sony just did a little more homework on their choice of power supply componentry and output devices.
Firstly, Sony (like all Japanese digital player manufacturers) use very mediocre sounding output devices, which greatly hinder the true sonic ability of their players. Additionaly, they could learn a thing or two about employing ultra-quality sounding power supplies. These engineering oversights have always been the downfall of all Japanese players, and I am still surprised of the ignorance of the audio reveiwer community, and their inability to recognize this problem. (Maybe they do know, and are not telling us for some reason)
Secondly, although the new SACD format has a certain sonic "fluidity" that is superior sounding as compared to standard CD's. SACD also has a noise overlay problem in the digital section, that creates its own set of sonic problems. This can be heard by doing an A/B comparison against a properly executed and designed standard 24/96 machine, which does not have to deal with such severe digital noise. Again, why doesn't the reveiwer community recognize this other engineering problem?
If you do decide to buy any SACD player, I strongly suggest that you have the output devices stripped out and replaced by a competant modifier, like Stan Warren.
It is my humble opinion that virtually all high end digital companies would damn near go out of business, if companies like Sony just did a little more homework on their choice of power supply componentry and output devices.