Upgrade CD transport/player vs. Sacd transport/player

@richardbrand 

Hi Richard -

My bad, I sarcastically asked a question and left it a little too broad.  I was complaining about hardware, not software.  

I am NYC born and raised and 7 decades later still live here.  

I adopted to SACD pretty much from the start 25 plus years ago.  I have assembled a decent enough library of SACD titles, which I would guess at close to 500 SACD titles between single layer and hybrid titles, give or take.  As for total number of CDs in my collection, somewhere between 7 and 10 thousand.  A lot of paychecks were spent at J&R Music, Tower, and Virgin Records in NYC, add HMV if we include London, Sonic Records if we throw in Toronto.  

I never went down the digital separates road; all in one players for me.  I dislike having to acquire the detailed understanding of an engineer, when all I wish to do is press the 'play' button.  

And then along the way, manufacturers change up their product offerings and support models and reasonably priced all in one SACD players are not so common anymore.  If you have one of the classic SACD players from the early 2000's, whistling is perhaps the best you can do if you require factory parts and service.  There were enough horror stories coming out of SONY's Laredo SACD repair facility, that it could make a boy rethink his SACD strategy, assuming he wanted to protect his investment in SACDs.  SONY sure as schiit wasn't doing the thinking.

So, a new strategy of digital separates seems reasonable, until you have to navigate the DSD and PCM nonsense and what pins in a HDMI connector unlock the Da Vinci, sorry, the DSD code.  Add to this, what manufacturers out there still use or make their own drives, will they make or stockpile enough of them, and will  the $5k Brand X SACD player be serviceable in a decade's time?

All I want to do is press the damn 'play' button. 

So, when I faced this decision point for myself, I went with PS Audio, realizing after I purchased the SACD transport, I would need to purchase a PSA DAC to make it all work.  Unless, I was up to noodling around with connection pins, etc.

So, no rabbit hole, far from it.   I know all I am interested in doing is hitting the 'play' button.  

And streaming is not something I wish to do and the referenced inexpensive SONY universal player sounds like crap.

Rich 

@rar1 

the referenced inexpensive SONY universal player sounds like crap

Hi Rick

Seems we are about the same age!  I never mind a good bit of sarcasm, whether dishing it out or taking it.  Forgive me for thinking the embodiment of NYC is T-rex.

Have you actually listened to said Sony transport (not player)?

I have two of them and they sound exactly like the dacs they feed via HDMI!  That's the benefit of a transport rather than a player!

Try A/B testing against a known quality SACD transport that outputs native HDMI..

Now the inexpensive Sonys obviously do not have the build quality of high-end Sony gear, and the remote is missing features like direct track access, but they do the exact same delivery job as any digital transport, in my opinion as a scientist / engineer.  All for a couple of hundred bucks.

For the purists, they do have an external wall-wart power supply delivering 12-Volts but this could easily be supplanted by an automotive battery for the ultimate in clean power supply.

Meanwhile close relatives of the Oppo universal disk players keep popping up, like Magnetar and Reavon, though I think Reavon has dropped theirs now.

By the way, the dacs in my Reavon player really are crap for playing SACDs.  They down-convert to CD quality.  Digital output over HDMI is just fine, though

Seasons greetings!

@larsman 

some prefer analog watches to digital for aesthetic reasons, not nostalgic

These days, i wear one of each (sort of).

My doctor convinced me I needed a smart watch to replace my credit cards, so I obliged him.  It takes and makes telephone calls and tells me how unfit I am.  Reputedly it will text my parter if I fall over or just die.  It does this several times a month!  It even keeps dead accurate time, thanks to its GPS connection.  

But its battery capacity is so poor I am not allowed to die during the half-an-hour a day it is charging.  To preserve the battery the screen is usually off, so I cannot even see the time at a glance.

So on the other hand (literally) I have an analogue-looking watch, though it has a quartz (digital) clock.  Unlike most battery powered watches, I have never had the back off in the decade or more I have owned it.  That's because its face is a solar cell that recharges its internal battery.  It just keeps going, non-stop.

I used to have a real analogue watch - a Rolex Oyster Perpetual no less.  Powered by movements of my wrist (don't go there).  But it needed cleaning, and oiling.  And every time it was serviced, jewels in the movement came loose weeks later.

People have tried to interest me in Swiss analogue watches that cost as much as a Porsche so I accept their champagne, swoon over their watches, then casually ask how often they need servicing, and where this is done.  Then I ask how much a service.  Could get a decent new Hyundai every two years for less.

I am not into bling.  I'd prefer to pay a reasonable amount for something that does the job it is supposed to perform!

Seasons greetings

@richardbrand - thank you for that, Richard, and a very amusing write-up - Happy Holidays to you, and I hope you don't get a Rolex for Christmas! 

@kjl1065 It's what they say-- that the Onix Zenith will pass along DSD, and as long as the DAC supports DSD, it will give you true DSD in its native format.  At least that is the way I understand it.