SACD - what gives?

Eddartfort, although I remain sceptical, I hope that you are right and yes, RCprince, I had hoped that you might come in here, because I wondered how happy you are with your highly modded gear and Mes, glad, that you are back in the game, never to do things at half measures. Wished, I could come over and listen to your Meitner and that goes for RCprince too. Alas, too much water inbetween. I have the same modded player which Mes used to have. Was quite happy at first, but got more and more disappointed, when directly comparing with LP renderings. Had the latest DCS gear at home to try out and still was not convinced, though it bettered my player in overall transparency and sounded wonderful in upsampling normal CDs. Is the Meitner even better than the Brits stuff? Anyone compared directly? Still a doubting Thomas but cheers to all,

Hi Detlof- I had the dCS Delius/Purcell combo, which didn't do SACD, so I can't compare it to the Meitner on SACD. On redbook, the Meitner is superior, it doesn't upsample but does convert redbook to DSD with the results being similar, but not quite on par, to SACD. The combination of microdynamics, resolution and detail with a relaxed, non-edgy presentation is something I'd not heard before in digital. Players that were relaxed were on the warm and rolled off side, players that were resolute and detailed were edgy and suffered from digititis. This is the first time I've experienced this combination, with the exception of high end vinyl. The Meitner is unlike anything I've heard. Don't let a little H2O stop you.

Agree, Detlof, you're always welcome here as well, it's not that long a flight (although there are many things I prefer about your side of the pond). The Audio Logic DAC also changes the pcm signal to DSD, that's why I like it so much. At some point I'd like to hear the Meitner, as I think my modded unit might give it a run for the money.

Detlof, I do remember that some early DSD recordings I heard seemed a little reticent or rolled in the highs (a fault I initially attributed to my equipment but still there even after my latest upgrades which have improved the system's high frequency extension markedly), but the recent SACDs I mentioned in an earlier post have high frequency extension galore that is extremely natural and adds to the openness of the format's presentation. It's easy to hear Telarc's sonic evolution in their DSD recordings, perhaps that may be a part of it as well as the playback mechanisms.

Rcprince, you make a very good point, which Telarc do you suggest I should listen to and thanks, also to Mes, for your kind words.
Cheers,

Definitely try the Vaughn Williams Sea Symphony (I'd have preferred a different VW symphony, although this one is growing on me) with the Atlanta Symphony and chorus conducted by Spano, whose work I like a lot and who I wish was available for our orchestra here in New Jersey. It won a Grammy and actually deserved that award. Tough to reproduce the massed voices well on a home stereo system, and it was only when I had the transformer upgrade for my player that I realized just how good this recording is. Telarc's Mahler cycle with Zander is quite good too, although a friend of mine felt at least the Mahler 5 sounds too much like B&W speakers, which he doesn't like. The Debussy/Turina and Berloz discs with the Cincinnati Orchestra are also quite good, although it's a drier acoustic so not as spacious-sounding as the VW--if you compare these discs with the early-DSD Dukas disc with the same orchestra I think you'll hear a bit of a difference in the sonics, perhaps some changes made to the hall, perhaps the recording stream. I also think you might like the SFO's Mahler cycle, which is a bit closer miked than the Telarc recordings but has tremendous dynamic range, very transparent and natural sound and good performances, in my view.