CD/SACD player Under $4000


Looking for a new player. My Sony XA5400 won't play sacd's. Tried a new laser assembly but still won't play sacd's. Like to find something at least as good as the Sony. Does not need to be a network player. Open for suggestions!

johnc5

@boltapuresource I stand corrected.. you are getting DSD that is wrapped around PCM... Usually referred to as DoP.. But your player is still an A/V product, not a pure SACD audio product.  I prefer to keep my higher quality audio  and all video separate as much as possible as I have a totally dedicated system for just two channel with no VIDEO capabilities at all..  

Hey @yyzsantabarbara have you tried the Onyx transport with the Meitner DAC? I’m very curious about how that transport sounds. 

For Christmas, my wife "accidentally" gave me two volumes of the Blue Note reissue series on SACD. On our Christmas lists, I had requested them on vinyl, and didn't have the heart to point out the error. But it had the effect of making me want to up my disc spinning experience. I had a perfectly acceptable Oppo 105, and wondered what might be an upgrade in the $3,000 to $4,000 range. 

 

After doing some reading (here and other places), I thought that the PS Audio DirectStream Memory Player, and the DirectStream DAC (used, from The Music Room) might be that upgrade. Turns out, it really was. I play mostly vinyl, but I have a lot of discs, too. This new combo has allowed me to enjoy my numerous box sets (the wonderful Glenn Gould box was part of my morning concert today), and all those SACDs I got from Berkshire Record Outlet. I'm not saying it is close to state of the art, but it was a sizable bump in richness, detail and musical feeling over the Oppo 105 - which I liked (but wasn't playing much). 

Yes, the Marantz 30N.  The Japanese use and listen to much more DSD than we do and make excellent SACD analog converters.  My regular DAC is a dCS Bartok. The SQ of the Marantz for SACD conversion is not noticeably lower.  Both output to a C-J ART88 preamp, ART27a amp and Wilson Yvettes.

@audphile1 I did not try it with the Onyx (do not own it yet) however I did try it with the equivalent D.BOB + Oppo player. The Onyx is a cleaner solution since it is one box. The Meitner MA3i was excellent with the D.BOIB. In a few hours I will be able to test the same thing with my imersiv D-1 DAC. The SACD's sounded so good on the Meitner MA3i that I kept bugging the designer of the D-1 to get DoP on SPDIF working. 

The USA based sellers of the Onyx have return policies while the eBay sellers are lower cost.