SACD Players in 2025?

[PristineSound]

Which one ?

'HDMI to IIS/Coax DoP Converter' https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hdmi-to-iis-coax-dop-converter.54218/

 

[Sal1950]

'HDMI to IIS/Coax DoP Converter' https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hdmi-to-iis-coax-dop-converter.54218/

Ah, not a complete player but a add-on box.
Besides this, lots of hacks / scripts have been developed to get a DSD data stream from various players. I've used one to rip SACD's from a genuine Sony player for years. That said, I'm still surprised that Sony turns its head on what is AFAIK a violation of the SACD license, AFAIR, this is the first player or transport in the 25 years of the SACD history to do it.
In any case, I still stand by original statement, that this transport is a box of snake-oil, $2,500 for what?

Unless money means nothing to you, that's just stupid money to spend on a disc player. For $50 you can buy a used Sony & play everything from SACDs & CD to Atmos & BluRays. Plus none will sound one bit different from another unless something proves to be wrong with one of them.

 

[tineared]

Most likely all patents and licensing have expired for SACD by now meaning it's open season
What the real-world significance of that is I have no idea...

 

[PristineSound]

Ah, not a complete player but a add-on box.
Besides this, lots of hacks / scripts have been developed to get a DSD data stream from various players. I've used one to rip SACD's from a genuine Sony player for years. That said, I'm still surprised that Sony turns its head on what is AFAIK a violation of the SACD license, AFAIR, this is the first player or transport in the 25 years of the SACD history to do it.
In any case, I still stand by original statement, that this transport is a box of snake-oil, $2,500 for what?

I've been ripping SACD for years as well. It's hardly a challenge even when I had to compile the source code, now it's simply a download of the executable. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

 

[jhaider]

As far as I know, this only applies to Sony's TV division, not audio and home entertainment.

However, Sony released its last true SACD player in 2010, and the last high-quality Blu-ray player with SACD capability should have been the UBP-X800M2.

Is that one newer than X1100ES? Last time I needed a disk player I picked that one over X800N2. I don’t remember why? May have simply been that ES had a rack mount kit available, and at the time all the audio stuff was in a remote rack.

 

[Roland68]

Is that one newer than X1100ES? Last time I needed a disk player I picked that one over X800N2. I don’t remember why? May have simply been that ES had a rack mount kit available, and at the time all the audio stuff was in a remote rack.

The two devices are identical in construction. The X1100ES only had an additional small circuit board with analog and digital audio outputs behind the drive.

 

[Sal1950]

A bit scary, I checked at a couple local Best Buy's and none of the Sony or Panasonic BD players show as in-stock for pick-up at any of them. Putting in a order could have one shipped from a warehouse either to your home or to the local store for pick-up in about a week? Is the demand for BD players really that low that the stores won't stock them any more? The end for the medium really is near, SAD

 

[tineared]

Perhaps that explains why lately I have purchased several popular 4K movie discs for under $12.
But now the prices have returned to the $18-$24 normal price. Strange times...

 

[aagstn]

A bit scary, I checked at a couple local Best Buy's and none of the Sony or Panasonic BD players show as in-stock for pick-up at any of them. Putting in a order could have one shipped from a warehouse either to your home or to the local store for pick-up in about a week? Is the demand for BD players really that low that the stores won't stock them any more? The end for the medium really is near, SAD

My local store still offers three Sony players. UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD. Panasonic though seems to be gone. Not sure if that is temporary or not. Companies I support like Criterion, Warner Archive, and Kino are still putting out new discs so hopefully the support lasts. It does seem like more and more of a niche market every year.

 

[Robin L]

I've got about 85 SACDs, a handful of DVD-As and three Blu-Ray Audio titles. Managed to find the Sony BDP BX57 Blu Ray player at a thrift store for about $8, found a clone of the remote at Amazon for $10. Later found another for about $30. It's SACD capable, has coax and optical Toslink out along with a HDMI out. It's flimsy and no doubt cheap to begin with, but the one attached to my sound system functions quite well as a source. I access the Blu-Ray audio tracks via HDMI. The one downside is that the transport could be quieter. Otherwise, a bargain. I think it's from 2017. Ebay has them from about $25, shipped, to some fool asking $183. Most hover around $50:

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[Roland68]

A bit scary, I checked at a couple local Best Buy's and none of the Sony or Panasonic BD players show as in-stock for pick-up at any of them. Putting in a order could have one shipped from a warehouse either to your home or to the local store for pick-up in about a week? Is the demand for BD players really that low that the stores won't stock them any more? The end for the medium really is near, SAD

That's perfectly normal. These kinds of warehouse spaces are expensive, and these goods need to be sold in certain quantities each day or week.
These products are then sold by smaller retailers or online.

But that's been perfectly normal for two decades now, not just in the audio sector.

 

[Sal1950]

Managed to find the Sony BDP BX57 Blu Ray player at a thrift store for about $8, found a clone of the remote at Amazon for $10. Later found another for about $30.

Yep, that's the good news. The available used market will no doubt continue to grow and grow as many decide to just dump their old players on the cheap.

That's perfectly normal. These kinds of warehouse spaces are expensive, and these goods need to be sold in certain quantities each day or week.
These products are then sold by smaller retailers or online.

But that's been perfectly normal for two decades now, not just in the audio sector.

Maybe perfectly normal in Germany but not in the US. Up till about a year ago I could walk into my local Best Buy to find shelf's full of "new in the box" players of the models I just listed. I walked in and bought my Sony X800M2 in the same store I just listed maybe 2 years back when the price drop to $300 went into effect. Also walked in and bought my Samsung BD player the same way there a year or so before that.
On-demand stocking isn't SOP here.

 

[zenmastering]

This is true if ripped to DSD (which thus requires a downstream DSD DAC...which should have a low pass filter before final analog output, assuming the system conforms to spec)

But if you rip to, say, 192/24 PCM, high frequency hash up to 96 kHz is still there; even ripping to 88 kHz leaves some hash, typically above ~30kHz.




And therein lies the rub. If PCM-based formats, e.g., DVD-A and Dolby/DTS codecs, have the LFE offset -- which they are supposed to -- but SACD does not, this creates a potential inconsistency when ripping DSD to PCM. In fact, the foobar2000 plugin for ripping DSD has options for dealing with the LFE offset during DSD->PCM conversion.

RE: LFE offset with SACD DVD-A. This is a playback-only issue meant to be dealt with in the player / decoder and is not part of the encoded data on the disc itself. There is confusion about this, yes. The player/receiver should detect a Dolby / DTS bitstream and boost the LFE channel accordingly. Most (all that I've used) do this automatically. In practice, I rarely see such problems, especially at the 'files ripped from disc' level.

The biggest problem I see with multi-channel SACD projects that I master and/or author is that sometimes the LFE is printed at too low of a level because of in-studio subwoofer calibration issues and operator inexperience.

 

[Descartes]

Shanling SCD3.3 SACD Player ? Anyone​

 

[Jokke]

Shanling SCD3.3 SACD Player ? Anyone​

For that price, you're better off with the Marantz SACD 30n, which is a streamer also.

 

[Scytales]

Shanling SCD3.3 SACD Player ? Anyone​

Thank you to pointing to this new player.

Still not multichannel.

 

[aagstn]

Don't like the 4K US price for something that has an R2R DAC and a tube output stage. You are going to the trouble of playing an SACD in 2026 only to have it run through a noise and distortion machine before it gets to your ears. Knowing Shanling it probably doesn't support gapless either.

 

[Roland68]

Don't like the 4K US price for something that has an R2R DAC and a tube output stage. You are going to the trouble of playing an SACD in 2026 only to have it run through a noise and distortion machine before it gets to your ears. Knowing Shanling it probably doesn't support gapless either.

Then you're simply not part of the target audience for this player, which definitely exists.

There's also the SCD3.1, which is a bit cheaper.

And then there's the Zenith XST20 from Shanling via Onix, which outputs the complete DSD signal of the SACD.

 

[Scytales]

And then there's the Zenith XST20 from Shanling via Onix, which outputs the complete DSD signal of the SACD.

From the HDMI pin-out published on the Audiophonic website, the transport can only put 2 channels of DSD out. Still no multichannel capability.

 

[aagstn]

Then you're simply not part of the target audience for this player, which definitely exists.

I'm thankful to not be part of the fools and their money audience.