Buy a hi-end CD player/transport now?

Well...here's my 2 cents...I got all excited over SACD and two years ago, or whatever, popped for a SCD-1. O.K., so I overlooked that it took the better part of an evening to cue up a CD, I wanted that SACD sound I had read about.A year later I sold it due to total lack of software, unless you are totally into classical and remakes of the bangles. Now another year later and still squat for software, plus now you have multichannel SACD and DVD-A and even less than squat for music to play on that hardware. Soooo what to do...how about I bought an EMC-1 with MK 11 upgrade and holy mackeral andy, I can play the software I already own and it sounds great. Get the point? I hope someday when the electronics industry apologizes to us ,the consumer, that they don't wreck a good apology with a poor excuse.

I agree with those who have commented above re SACD and DVD-A. I recently heard SACD in a friends new Sony 777ES SACD player w/3.6 Maggies. Nice sound, but VERY limited software, and quite frankly I prefer music through my own Levinson M37 transport and M360S DAC that just plays regular ol' redbook CDs-- but I have 1000+. Well recorded CDs these days are very good, and I wanted the best front-end I could afford-- no regrets with the Levinson gear. Cheers. Craig.

I debated this issue myself last summer and went with a quality redbook-only CD player. I can play all of my existing titles and have thousands more to choose from. And the sound is outstanding! I found that many people who have high-end SACD players also use an OUTBOARD DAC to get better redbook performance out of their players so I wasn't convinced that there were any SACD players that also had redbook playback on par with the best redbook-only players. I don't see regular CD's going away anytime soon and I'm happy with my decision. Good luck!

the $3k resolution audio cd-50 & its replacement, the $3.5k cd-55 are well-respected single-box units. i wouldn't trade my modded art di/o for one of 'em, tho. if you can diy, it'll cost ~$200-$250; otherwise, get one already modded, for $300-$350. if ya got money to burn, sure, go ahead & spend more... ;~)

doug s.

Regarding the modded ART DI/O...From what I've been lead to believe over at the AudioAsylum forums is that the modded DI/O is an absolute STEAL for the money invested, but it's no giant killer. I've never seem anyone stack it up against digital front ends above $2k, for example. Do you have evidence to the contrary?

I would expect a Kern or Ric Schultz modded SACD player to "hand the DI/O it's arse" for $1-2k invested, no?