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Downgrading Help

OK, so I have come to realize that I cannot afford to keep neither high end CD player I own, mostly because a lot of that cash came from credit.

I picked up the Philips SACD1000 player as my replacement for a digital front end. Last night, comparing the Philips to the Wadia 860x I currently own (not for long!), was truly tough for me. The Wadia is just so much better on redbook CD (the Philips I thought was better on SACD vs. the Wadia on CD).

I don't have much $$ to spend ($600) on an improvement: here are my options:

1) get the Philips player modded somewhere; which mods though, and will this really give me an increase in detail (blackness?), dynamics, soundstage depth, and naturalness?

2) get a DAC?

3) wait until I get some more cash, and get a better DAC or more mods later?

I'd prefer to make this player work, rather than getting another seperate CD player....

Thx
128x128dennis_the_menace
glen's avatar
glen
714 posts
 
Dennis,

My 1000 will be in at the end of the week, I'm curious to see how it compares to my Theta DaViD/Classe Dac-1 combo. Heck I paid more for the Digital cable than I did for the Philips player.

What I really want to see is how the SACD's in the Philips player stack up to redbook on my other front end. If they sound as good I'll be impressed. Maybe when my SACD collection gets up around 100 I could dump the digital front end in my bedroom, maybe not.

I still have my H/T system to play redbook if I went that route. We'll see, I'll post after I've had a few weeks to check things out.

Say does the philips play DTS CD's? I read an article that said no, HUMMM.... thats odd.
pardales
652 posts
 
Do some mods to the philips.
jond's avatar
jond
3,400 posts
 
Dennis,
Why not just keep the BAT for redbook, the Phillips for SACD, and sell the Wadia?
dennis_the_menace's avatar
dennis_the_menace OP
467 posts
 
Ideally, I'll be able to sell the BAT as well. I did the typical American "spend what I don't have" in a mad pursuit for great sound. Maybe I can hang on to the BAT for a little while. No one seemed interested in buying that player anyway.

Glen, the SACD on the Philips sounded awesome right out of the box. Just as good as the Wadia playing redbook. I was definitely impressed. It wasn't "hyper" detailed and sterile; more like DEEP and wide soundstage, and really great dynamics. Full of life. Filled the room.

Thanks for the suggestions..
glen's avatar
glen
714 posts
 
Cool, Maybe the format will catch on. Kind of reminds me when DVD's first came out. The selection was awful for the first couple of years and DTS was still a pipe dream. Now look at it. Guess we'll have to keep are fingers crossed and hope SACD catches on. Worse case cinario is one of my kids gets a DVD player in there room. OH DARN...

Please report back after the player has had some time to settle in.

I still need to pick up some interconnects, I don't have any RCA's in the house. Also, I need to figure out how to add six analog signals into my Casa-Blanca II pre-amp.

I definetly want to give those multi channel discs a try.

Take care
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