SACD Dominates Recommended List


Stereophile just placed 4 CD players in it's top-rated A-Plus Recommendation List. Three were SACD players: the Marantz SA-1, Sony SCD-1, and Sony 777ES. The fourth was a $15,000 Meridian.
tommart
Well, I did buy the Marantz SA-1 player a couple weeks ago, and it sounds wonderful. Once you hear the Red Rose or Chesky sampler sacd, you will be a believer. I am blown away
with the sound. Regular CD sound on the Marantz is better than my $10K Wadia setup. SACD will survive because it speaks for itself. They said the samething about CD in 1983.
With the Sony-Phillips 1-2 punch and software selection widening with hardware coming under the $1K. SACD is the way to go, especially if you love analog sound in a digital package.
I bought a DVD-a player 'cuz I wanted a DVD player and the Technics seemed a fair price for the near tank build at a budget price. Now I got me a SACD demo 'fer the price of a good CD transport (everyone agrees the 777 is at minimum a decent redbook transport) at 1,700 bucks. So do you think I care about the DVD-A and the SACD??? NO!!!!! When they get some music I 'wanna hear, and the prices get real... maybe I'll buy a bit 'o new software. Thats all I got to say.
And I agree that the A-10 is a wonderful player for under $400. It's Redbook play is superior to comparabilty priced DVD players.

I also agree that the 777 redbook play is superior to the S9000ES and 333ES.

I own a S9000ES, and also bought two DVD-A players during the same weekend. The S9000ES CD play was superior to DVD-A play--not to mention Redbook CD play. I returned the DVD-A players.

The S9000ES has excellent CD play. Yes, it's not as good as some $1K plus stand alone CD players, but it is clearly superior to any DVD/DVD-A player which costs $1K or less.

Also the $600 (at www.JandR.com) 333ES has excellent Redbook CD play--far superior to the Technics. Yes, the 777ES is better, but let's keep things in prespective.

Software is my second comment. I understand that you want DVD-A, because there's more software for DVD-A, than SACD. There must be 10 times the software for SACD. Also, DVD-A has had a greater precentage of "poor" recordings than SACD.

I own 3 DVD-A software titles and someday will have a universal player, but right now, SACD has the better software choices. I own about 35 SACD titles. That would not be possible with DVD-A. If I owuld have bought a DVD-A player, I probably would have bought 5 or 6 titles--and been waiting for "promises".