Are Sony SACD Machine Owners Crazy??

This crazy had his 777's audio board and power supply caps and resistors upgraded (no circuit modification) for $480 and moved his modified 24/96 DAC to a secondary system after determining that the upgraded 777 did Red Book noticeably better. On a side note, the more I listen, the more I'm convinced that the three most critical contributors to superior CD (and SACD) reproduction are transport, transport, transport.

Oh, and owning a SACD player or not has nothing to do with my being crazy. I think it was something in the water where I grew up, yea, yea, the water,and my parents, and the school system, and my brother, yea my brother, that's the ticket.....

I bought a (demo) 777 as a way of killing 2 birds with one stone - get a fairly high-end redbook player and be able to play sacd. There's the added benefit that it's an excellent transport (for redbook) but that wasn't my objective. At any rate, I agree that the available catalog of sacds is pathetic. I have an LP12 so I don't need to rebuy "Tapestry". That being said, I had to at least go rebuy something just to hear what sacd can do, so I got "Sketches of Spain", and the difference is not subtle - it is pretty much on a par with good analog. Supposedly the 777 can be mod-ed to improve its sound a good bit for about $450 - maybe when the warranty runs out - but in the meantime let us pray that the 'format war' results in sacd being a new standard because it kills redbook. And if not, I'll have a great transport.....

Thanks guys...I think? Sorry if some of you may have
thought I was questioning SACD...I'm not. Both SACD and
DVD-A have real merit. The question was talking about
the 1-bit type of D/A and the use of OP-AMPS rather than
discrete components for the audio section. When Sony made
the XA-7ES they were very verbal about the Class A discrete
FET audio section...and now all of their units are using
OP-AMPS. I don't recall there being people offering
mods for the XA-7ES..and now there are several people
offering mods for the Sony SACD units. I have stated this
is threads before..that if OP-AMPS were so great..shouldn't
ARC, Conrad Johnson, Krell, Levinson...etc be using these
"great" OP-AMPS in their pre-amps? The reason people are
doing these mods..is that the audio section of these units
are not where they should be. Nothing wrong with OP-AMPS in
and entry level SACD changer...but in the $5000.00 reference
unit?
So.....what I was questioning was the 1-bit/redbook side of
these players...where most high-end units have gone to 24/96
upsampling...and the audio section being OP-AMPS...and
OP-AMPS generally not being thought of as "State-of-the-Art"
for audio amplification.

Can't say I know why, but the redbook CD playback on my Sony 9000-ES is certainly of a high caliber. I haven't made direct comparisons myself yet, but some very respected members have, and they are satisfied that the Sony CD playback is good enough to lead them to selling their high end CD rig. Without paying a lot of extra cash for upsamplers, outboard dac's, etc. the cd playback of my 9000-ES gives me just about as much as the CD format allows. I think that perhaps it has been wishful thinking on my part in regards to SACD being the next format. Both DVD-A, and SACD represent a refinement of an existing format, and not a true innovation, like the Walkman or the compact disc itself. People that have a decent, if not high end system will hear a subtle improvement in sound quality, but nothing so fantastic as to make them run to the store and buy one. DVD was an obvious winner, CD convenience for video playback, but I suspect that SACD will become the digital format of choice for audiophiles, and not the general public, unless every record company releases all their titles with both CD and SACD capability, for maybe a dollar more than current prices.