Is it worth buying an SACD player?

OK. It can play SACD via the analog outputs and via HDMI. It is never available via coax or toslink.

I suspect that the LPCM setting is irrelevant to SACD since (1) DSD is not PCM and (2) none of those values represent the sample rate for DSD. (DSD, btw, is the common data format for SACD.)

Since most SACDs are hybrids, you should be able to compare SACD with the CD layer on the same disc.

Kal

Kal, thanks so much!
If I get your drift correctly; those LPCM settings have nothing to do with the SACD quality, and it (SACD) should work fine through my analogs, GREAT!
However the SACD I bought, Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" says right on the CD, "For Use with SACD Players only".
It doesn't seem to be a hybrid, it's marked as a 1997 print, if that means anything.
Again thanks!
I just might keep this thing!
I'll go buy another SACD, a hybrid this time and play with the settings (play SACD or as CD) to see what differences I hear.

Many of the early Sony SACDs were single-layer, that is, SACD only.

Kal

Go to www.acousticsounds.com and look at the SACD collection. Does owning a good bit of that float your boat? If so, then get a player and start buying software while you still can. If anything is reissued on Blu-ray it'll be the same ole stuff and I doubt that it'll sound better, in two-channel.

If you want to go multi-channel, then it's a whole different story. When I've heard multi-channel I've been unimpressed. It always seems contrived to me. Some like it, so it's a personal thing.

I really doubt that two-channel Blu-ray is going to sonically beat two-channel SACD. With a great player, the two-channel SACDs are my favorite format vs. CD and LP. (I buy a lot of all three, but I lean toward SACD when given a choice).

Dave

Go to www.sa-cd.net for a more comprehensive listing.

Kal