Request opinions on SACD/CD Players.


I am currently concidering buying an Ayre C-5xe, or an Marantz SA7-S1, or an Sony SCD-1, or perhaps just a Cambridge 840C. I hope I got it right that the Ayre, Marantz, and the Sony can play both SACD and CD. Would like to hear opinions on how these players perform with both SACD and CD compared to each other. Would like to know how CD playback compares to the Cambridge 840c. Would like to know how each one of these players upsamples or oversamples CD to what sampling rate and what type of DAC is utilized for CD playback. Would like to know, based on this knowledge and sound quality for CD and SACD, CD for Cambridge, which provides the best value for the money. Please include details on the technical as well as sound quality of the equation.
pettyofficer
Thanks for your response.
It was my understanding that most combo players don't
convert PCM to DSD for CD playback, except for maybe the most expensive ones like DCS, which is way out of my budget. I also thought that the OPPO was a combo player?
Isn't it a curse that for recordings of ANY format, some
are excellent recordings, most are not? Still, these are excellent suggestions. I supose that the safest bet would
be to keep SACD and CD on separate players. There might be
the ultimate combo player out there, but the odds of me
picking the right one are not good. Still, there are alot of good sounding CD players and SACD players, odds of
picking a decent sounding pair might be a little bit better. Perhaps putting all of my eggs ( Formats ) in one
basket would be a bad idea. Thanks for the input.
Let me add two to your list. The Exemplar/Shanling SCD-3000 mod is outstanding and costs $6500 and the Lindemann 820S which includes a linestage is $20k. I cannot afford the Lindemann but have the Exemplar. It is superior to my Esoteric X-1 LE.
Another word on units with no replacement parts
marantz and lexicon lazor parts become a problem
to get,,
I have heard the players in question, and I'll raise you one....have a listen to the McIntosh MCD500 - then you'll forget the others, I kid you not!