Sony SCD-555ES Review (SACD & CD Player)

[Owl]

Thanks for spending the time experimenting and explaining the DSD process in greater detail. Sony all but stopped making single red book cd players at that time, and campaigned hard on super audio.

 

[NTTY]

You're welcome, especially as I owe you so much!

You're welcome and I'm thinking about a version 7.3 of the test CD with some of the tests you suggested and used for this review. And, influenced by @Vintage02, I'm thinking about a commercial copy from a glass master which would make it more widely accepted by CD/SACD/DVD players (some don't read a burnt CD).

To the best of my knowledge, I cannot perform the "max resolution" test with the System One software. The only method which would resembles your test would be to add a sharp analogue band-limiting filter @ 6 kHz in the analogue analyzer signal path before the distortion residual is measured by the reading meter. That may be done.

Yes, that would probably work.

For all test, I let the System One in "Auto ranging". I try to range the input manually on few tests. Sometimes I got better figures, sometimes not.

Ah ok, it has an auto-ranger, which explains the good reading of the 3DC. Nice.

 

[Scytales]

You're welcome and I'm thinking about a version 7.3 of the test CD with some of the tests you suggested and used for this review. And, influenced by @Vintage02, I'm thinking about a commercial copy from a glass master which would make it more widely accepted by CD/SACD/DVD players (some don't read a burnt CD).

That would be awesome!

I cannot but resist to take the opportunity to publicly out-loud the dream I have speak about to you privately: the realization of not only a test CD, but a hybrid test CD/SACD with the help of @pkane's Multitone software for the DSD part.

I am confident Polyhymnia or Super Audio Mastering in Europe, or Bolo Digital or 5/4 Productions in the States, or other third parties, would be able to produce the digital master for the SACD layer.

I am in the belief that a new proper SACD test disc could interest many engineers, hi-fi brands, journalists, reviewers, researchers or hobbyists (notably in the ASR community) around the world because the only two test SACDs ever made have been out of print for decades.

Ah ok, it has an auto-ranger, which explains the good reading of the 3DC. Nice.

When there is no disc in the tray, the SCD-555ES outputs are muted by relays. In that case, the inputs of the Audio Precision are short-circuited to ground at the player's side through 62 ohms output resistors on the Sony outputs. In this situation, the AP auto-ranges on its highest sensitive setting and measures about 0.9 µV RMS (unweighted) of noise in a 22 Hz to 20 kHz bandwidth.

 

[WilliamfromParis]

That would be awesome!

I cannot but resist to take the opportunity to publicly out-loud the dream I have speak about to you privately: the realization of not only a test CD, but a hybrid test CD/SACD with the help of @pkane's Multitone software for the DSD part.

I am confident Polyhymnia or Super Audio Mastering in Europe, or Bolo Digital or 5/4 Productions in the States, or other third parties, would be able to produce the digital master for the SACD layer.

I am in the belief that a new proper SACD test disc could interest many engineers, hi-fi brands, journalists, reviewers, researchers or hobbyists (notably in the ASR community) around the world because the only two test SACDs ever made have been out of print for decades.



When there is no disc in the tray, the SCD-555ES outputs are muted by relays. In that case, the inputs of the Audio Precision are short-circuited to ground at the player's side through 62 ohms output resistors on the Sony outputs. In this situation, the AP auto-ranges on its highest sensitive setting and measures about 0.9 µV RMS (unweighed) of noise in a 22 Hz to 20 kHz bandwidth.

Guys, you are creasy but I like that so much.

 

[AnalogSteph]

I would consider the following steps important before a venture like that could go ahead:
1. Make the tracklist 100% airtight first, so that absolutely everything one could possibly want on a test CD is on there. Even a -90.31 dBFS undithered and a fullscale square wave (maybe 1 min + another 1 min at 6 dB lower).

2. Research economics of making what is invariably going to be a small run of either CDs or hybrid SACDs. Stampers have a certain lifetime, which according to Google is about 10,000 discs and 3-7 years. I would expect initial tooling cost to be substantial, while material cost per unit is likely to be low, so at the kind of run sizes we are likely to be looking at (maybe a few hundred), making some extra discs is going to be almost free up to the stamper lifetime limit. I might target a run of maybe 500 and see what unit cost comes out as.

Don't forget the cost of creating disc and album artwork and printing. A basic 1980s looks seems appropriate for the disc anyway, the back and cover don't really need to be a whole lot more fancy.

If you don't fancy storing hundreds of finished CDs in jewelcases, I would inquire about delivery on spindles or the like. Assembling a few dozen cases by hand as orders come in seems manageable enough.

I would expect making hybrid SACDs to be more expensive at all stages for a number of obvious reasons.

 

[Deleted member 89070]

Thanks for the review and all the work on it. My trusted Sony feels a lot better now

View attachment 497944

that rack looks nice too. Brand/make? I'm just wondering

 

[BeeKay]

that rack looks nice too. Brand/make? I'm just wondering

That’s by ‚solidsteel‘. But quite an older, discontinued series.

 

[Haskil]

Guys, you are creasy but I like that so much.

As we say in France: they were rocked too close to the wall when they were babies.

 

[Vintage02]

That would be awesome!

I cannot but resist to take the opportunity to publicly out-loud the dream I have speak about to you privately: the realization of not only a test CD, but a hybrid test CD/SACD with the help of @pkane's Multitone software for the DSD part.

I am confident Polyhymnia or Super Audio Mastering in Europe, or Bolo Digital or 5/4 Productions in the States, or other third parties, would be able to produce the digital master for the SACD layer.

I am in the belief that a new proper SACD test disc could interest many engineers, hi-fi brands, journalists, reviewers, researchers or hobbyists (notably in the ASR community) around the world because the only two test SACDs ever made have been out of print for decades.



When there is no disc in the tray, the SCD-555ES outputs are muted by relays. In that case, the inputs of the Audio Precision are short-circuited to ground at the player's side through 62 ohms output resistors on the Sony outputs. In this situation, the AP auto-ranges on its highest sensitive setting and measures about 0.9 µV RMS (unweighted) of noise in a 22 Hz to 20 kHz bandwidth.

Good evening,

Regarding the production of a test CD that is pressed and not burned, there is no problem at all. Doing this on a SACD is an almost impossible task because there are practically no industrial SACD production lines left and the standard requires an expensive license. The few companies you mentioned reserve their production capabilities for projects that are much more profitable than a test SACD. Let's not forget that even though the SACD on paper was technically a success, the CD format lock-in caused its downfall. We will have to be content with a test CD that will be made according to the rules to be recognized by all players; at least that is the goal of this project. It will then be available for those who feel they need it to test their CD players.

 

[Sale64]

Great rewiev. Do you have any experience with changing laser in this player? I have mine boxed since reading problems started and replaced with Denon Scd3000n. Bought new laser from China, but heard the change succes is not garanted, because some fine tuning with dedicated sony disk is needed.

 

[Scytales]

Great rewiev. Do you have any experience with changing laser in this player? I have mine boxed since reading problems started and replaced with Denon Scd3000n. Bought new laser from China, but heard the change succes is not garanted, because some fine tuning with dedicated sony disk is needed.

The service manual of the Sony SCD-555ES states that the player servo-board performs auto adjustments after any replacement of parts, but a check of performance is recommended. It is that checking procedure that mandates the use of specific test CD and SACD from Sony: the YEDS-18 or PATD-012 (CD) and the SATD-S4 (single layer SACD).

So, it is possible to try to replace a laser optical pick-up with a new one. However, without these test discs, it is impossible to perform the necessary measurements to verify that the device is functioning according to specifications.