SACD drive sources


With the passing of Oppo, it seems that the manufacture of SACD drives is disappearing. PS Audio has discontinued their current transport and the new transport this fall won’t support SACD (their drive was from Oppo. As someone who has a large SACD library I am concerned about the future of this format.

Other than Marantz and Esoteric, is there anyone currently building SACD drives? Also, they do not output DSD over HDMI.

Sony appears to be out. Pioneer and Yamaha still have machines with HDMI output for DSD. But who makes their drives? 

Any way to know where drives are sourced from?
128x128smetzger72
Not sure why you are worried about the drives. As long as the manufacturers are making SACD players, you should be able to play your SACD. Technics is coming out with a new SACD player SL-G700. I think new SACD titles are being released every month - though the content (recordings) may be old. So there is a niche market for SACD players. I believe that SACD players will continue to be made at least for the foreseeable future. And one the SACD patent expires who knows what other devices will come up next.
If you have an Oppo SACD player, send a note to Oppo service desk and obtain 1-2 replacement LASER sleds. These probably cost $60 or so. I'm planning to do the same.
Sony Blu Ray Players Play SACDs.  Sony and Pioneer also sell Universal Players and perhaps others as well.  They can’t be used as streamers, as Oppo machines can, otherwise they have similar functionality.
smetzger72

Esoteric/Teac, Marantz and Yamaha all build their own drives/transports, especially, those machines that are made in Japan (Marantz and Yamaha).  I believe that Pioneer made a new SACD spinner recently.
I will keep my eyes watching for newer machines in 2019.

Happy Listening!
smetzger72 said..."PS Audio has discontinued their current transport and the new transport this fall won’t support SACD (their drive was from Oppo. As someone who has a large SACD library I am concerned about the future of this format."

Just for an FYI...PS Audio bought all of the existing OPPO drives for the now discontinued DMP sacd transport before the demise of OPPO audio/video. Paul McGowan has made public that the stock he has on hand for the DMP replacement drives will last a very long time. If one should ever need a replacement drive for the DMP..they will be available.