wadia making mistake?

I agree w/ Jaybo. The tragedy of SACD is that it could have been the digital playback standard from the beginning, but nobody at Sony-Phillips wanted to rock the boat, even back when the "boat" was just an innertube! So we're stuck with Redbook.

The good news is that:

A. DACs (and even transports) are improving, and frankly, I don't believe Wadia's proprietary Digimaster algorhithm software has been updated since the original company was taken over by the investors 10 years ago (the brains were not included in the takeover!) That's why GNSC (Steve Huntley was one of those brains) is able do do "miracle mods" on the new Wadia stuff. But there's some really great digital source equipment out there now that can equal even modified Wadia gear.

B. The reproduction available from HDCDs and XRCDs through the best Redbook DACs (even without HDCD chips) rivals that of SACD, and both of those formats are being improved further.

C. The discoveries made recently by the Reality Check re-recording folks, along with the increasing popularity of HDD (server-based) sources will continue add fidelity and convenience to the current digital (Redbook) standard.

And I'm an analog guy! Too bad about the collapse of SACD though. The DSD (Direct Stream Digital) technique should have been the way digital was done from the outset.

.

Jaybo nailed it...

Cheers,

Chris

I recently read that SACD is extremly simple to "piggyback" onto a redbook circuit.
Seems DVD-A is not.

I just shipped my Sony DVP-9000ES for repairs.
The clerk at the UPS store remaked how heavy a DVD player it was. I explained that it was the first SACD player and very well built.
She said: "What is SACD?" (she seemd truly interested).

I think the reason SACD failed among the masses is that Sony did not spend the $$$ to get the word out.
Did anyone see the Superbowl commercials touting SACD?
Score another for the bean counters...

Wadia + SACD simply means Wadia bringing in some funding to keep the company going... A mistake? No, its all about the benjamins, and being they have had tons of difficulty keeping a steady business its probably a good move for them, just cause they see sony can market a 5000.00 machine obviously they know the potential for the hard core audiophiles to buy an even better machine from them with the Wadia name on it which will hold pretty good value in the high end market. Technologicaly speaking will it be a good move for Wadia? Don't know, we will see if they can compete with the best SACD players as they do in the redbook, but that will be up to us I guess in the end, however I would say it is a little late in the game to jump the SACD gun, cause the market is already saturated in overpriced players for this format as well.

Nsgarch - Not only is there a consensus that Steve Huntley does phenomenol rework on ARC and Wadia gear, but this last week I was able to witness his magic on just the first pass of him tweaking my Manley Ref DAC. It's not just an issue of replacing one part with another, but rather to know what type and possible value-change of a component to use. And not only was he able to identify what to change when he first popped the cover on the unit, but the results were absolutely stunning with just a handful of changes. It says much about the stock Manley unit but it says as much about Steve when he could bring on so much improvement with a little bit of effort. Now that's talent.

Compared to his Wadia DAC (actually, 270SE/27 combo), the stock Manley did very well in the mids but fell quite short at the extremes. But after the first round of mods, there was extension and openness on the top that I truly never would have thought possible with this unit. To get even half of the impreovements that Steve achieved would have been wonderful. Other than more definition in the bass with the Wadia, the modified Manley was right there and in fact excelled in many areas.

Next week when Steve completes the other half of the rework, if he can bring on the same degree of extension in the low-end, I will have a unit that performs at the level of all the DAC-of-the-month club models that are getting all the praise today. With this kind of performance, I am content to stay with redbook CDs. And I too am an analog guy which is why I like the Manley so much.

Until Steve's update, I was about to let go of the Manley and seek a "modern" model. And Steve's Virtual Dynamics PC did not allow the Manley to do its magic. Fortunately the Purist Dominus PC came to the rescue or this too could have been the end of the Manley. The Wadia is a nice setup but ohhhhhhhhhhh man, the updated Manley with the Dominus. Thanks a million Steve.

John