Can I replace/repair a Phillips SACD transport?

Hi Kiplandh,

I can't answer your question directly, but I was also caught up in the MF Tri-Vista/Phillips transport debacle back in 2004/5.

The generation of SACD transport used in the Tri-Vista was universally unreliable. They all go bad at some time. Yours has lasted much longer than most.

The situation was compounded by Phillips who refused to support that drive with replacements and parts. MF and a number of smaller high end manufacturers were left badly in the lurch.

MF didn't handle the situation particularly well, in that they insisted they would repair the drives in-house, while at the same time (in a letter I received from Antony Michaelson) stating that Phillips would not support the drive with parts.

I was left without music for the best part of a year while this played out. My Tri-Vista was "repaired" by the local distributor but remained faulty. I refused to accept it after a second repair, because I didn't want to be stuck with a $12,000 boat anchor were the drive to fail again (something I considered inevitable) once the warranty had expired.

The impasse was resolved by a direct exchange of the Tri-Vista for the then new kW 500 amplifier, which I still own and love. I don't want to be too hard on MF: the blame in this case rests firmly with Phillips while MF (and their distributor) came through for me in the end.

Unfortunately, you are in exactly the situation I was anxious to avoid. Your dealer is right in what they have told you. I would however try emailing MF directly to see what they say.

You could try to chase a replacement in the general market. I know that most spares of this particular unit were used up as replacements for the many early failures but there may be some out there.

The problem you will have is to verify that the unit is genuinely new and not a failed unit. The second problem is that even a genuine new unit may fail within a year.

The best option would be if someone is able to replace the unit with a later generation SACD drive from Phillips, Sony or TEAC. However I don't know if anyone is doing this.

I hope someone else can add something positive to the thread. You have my sympathy, for whatever that's worth.

In my experience, Philips is no worse than Sony in this regard. In fact, I've personally found the Philips CD transports night and day better than the Sony units of the past few years, though I can't speak to the Philips SACD units.

Like Gtfour45, you have my sympathy. Being the former importer/distributor of a line of high-end audio components showed me first hand the absolute frustration that CD transports/lasers truly are. In fact, it was one of the factors in my decision to give up the line. I consider them the achilles heel of the high-end audio hobby, and do not recommend costly CD players in most instances, as one is simply buying a glamorous case and (hopefully) well designed/implemented power supply and output section all wrapped around a cheap piece of junk that is more than likely destined for the type of failure that leaves one's machine not much beyond a large, expensive doorstop.

I agree with the advice to contact the manufacturer. Make some noise, and hopefully, they will consider your plight in a favorable and sympathetic light.

Buy an Oppo and use it for SACD. You might find it good for other formats too.

Sony's certainly not as good as they used to be. At one time they made the best transports available. Phillips has been crap from day one.

Rwwear...The first CD player I bought was a Mission, which was actually a rebranded Phillips with an upgraded audio output module. The damn transport crapped out after only abour fifteen years!