***Sony SACD Player- GREAT BUY!***

[BeatleFred]

I just wanted to report that I took the SACD plunge- picked up a Sony DVP-NS500V Player on Friday. The great news is it wasnt much of a plunge as it cost only a mere $149. Actually, Circuit City is selling it for $179 but I made them match the price Best Buy was recently selling it for.

I think its an absolute steal for the price- it also plays DVD too! So even just as a dvd player its worth the money.

My brother had picked up the same model and after he told me how amazing-sounding the newly released Rolling Stones SACD's are, I had to do the same. And The Stones SACDS's DO sound amazing with clarity and detail that Ive never heard before from any of my records or cd's. I picked up Hot Rocks, Beggars Banquet , & Let It Bleed. Wish I couldve gotten the other Abcko releases but thats all the store had. Will have to look around at some other places or put in an order Online for the rest- Between the Buttons, Aftermath, Get yer Ya Ya's Out etc...

If you visit over at www.stevehoffman.tv there are huge Posts all about the Stones SACD's with everyone expressing their opinion- Check it out! I believe Steve H himself is completing work on the Creedence Clearwater Revival SACD's - cant wait for those, based on the great sound Ive heard so far with The Stones.

The Sony DVP-NS500V was also reviewed in The Absolute Sound- available to download from their site. So, if anyone might be interested, I highly recommend this model- but act FAST, there are quickly going out of stock in the stores. Can always check whats available on Ebay too.

Regards, B/F.

 

[Thatch_Ear]

I have had one for 2 months now, good buy!!

 

[Toasted Almond]

My neighbor Dean, is the conductor/head guy of the Tri-State Choir (I don't know which states, Jersey would be a definite one though). He's had one of the $299ers for awhile, and has been trying like crazy to get me to go over for a listen. Little Sonus Faber speaks too.

I'm AFRAID to do it. AFRAID I'm going to replace all my conventional cd's with the new SACD's. I have already replaced the bulk of a record collection with conventional cd's. I only lack "In Memoriam" by the Modern Jazz Quartet, and "Virgin Land" by Airto Moreira. Will probably never BE released on cd. Were talking close to 1,000 cd's. When will this end?

If you listen close to "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out", you can just make out me screaming from up in god's country at The Garden. Gave myself a $5 ticket for my 17th birthday. The closer, "Street Fighting Man", is the absolute epitome of rock. You had to be there. I always thought that was the stark contrast between the Beatles and the Stones. The Beatles were trying to change the world with love and chanting. The Stones were:

"I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the King and RAIL at all his servants!"

In other words, we have a difference of opinion here, and I'll be glad to settle it with you in the streets.

Toasted Almond

 

[WildWest]

Wow! Heck of a price. Always wondered about SACD. Sure would like to experiment with it. With the format wars going on and such, I just didn't know what direction to go to try to elevate up out of the redbook CD sound. I looked for SACD titles and wasn't real thrilled with what I was seeing. But that was some 5 months ago, may have changed by now. So to get up to another level such as SACD does I decided to go vinyl. More work but, I can get more music it seemed like.

Right now I am scamming for the Panny RP91K DVD player. Has great reviews and a killer DAC in it. Got the 1080i TV now I need a better source.

 

[BeatleFred]

SACD

T.A. - I know the feeling. I have all the Stones albums I bought as a kid back in the 70's, then the regular cd's in the 80's, then the remasters in the 90's, and now SACD. Yes, it is frustrating to own 1200+ cd's and then think of having to replace all that when a better audio format comes along. But perhaps it wont be necessary to have to replace ALL of them. Many others in the collection might still be adequate to keep as is, but being The Stones are my #2 fave band- I definitely hafta hear them in the ultimate high fidelity! My older brother btw, was lucky enough to see them Live at Madison Square Garden in 1972- the glory days of the Exile on Main St era. I saw them in '89 and '94 which was cool but no comparsion to the way it was back in '72. (If I were a liitle older than 8 at the time, my brother mightve agreed to let me go along with him- smile, he was 18 then).

I actually took a ride out to a Virgin Megastore in Long Island before and picked up more of the Stones SACD's which they had for $14.99 - they also gave me some $10 off coupons which I used there to buy some other cd's for $18.99 and knock the price down to $8.99-- needless to say I walked out of there a happy man- there will be great music listening tonight- Get Yer Ya ya;s out on SACD- oh man- its gonna be awesome.

And I do have the hi fi system to do the job: the incomparable Infinity Renaissance 90 speakers driven by not one, but 2 Sansui AU-X1 Super Integrated Amps!

 

[Toasted Almond]

In 1967, Sears, Roebuck & Co. ran an ad. For one Saturday only, all Stones lp's in stock would be sold for $.69 each. I ran up there and bought whatever I didn't have. Couldn't figure out the low price. Finally got it when I got back home. Right there in the corner of the album covers....MONO!!! All of them. It seems they were going to be phased out for the new stereo, or "electronically altered for stereo" versions.

I was pissed about it then, but any idea what I got for those albums about 20 yrs later at the Princeton Record Exchange? Magic word that mono.

Nice speakers your Infinity's, but quite comparable at a lot of price points.

Toasted Almond

 

[Thatch_Ear]

Not to worry about formats, you do not have to play SACDs on the player and it does a super job on the 20 and 24 bit CDs as well as the older ones that weren't reformated from LP to CD as carefully.
New well recorded CDs will be same same as before if not better. The SACDs are better than previous but the great thing is the chip in the player. Also the player is a single play and they last a very long time.
Mine with tax was $184.50 and I am going to deaden the case and put in a better power cord with those silly snake oil ferrite rings to try and filter the AC a bit.
The big thing is that the SACD chip is the same as in the other players that were $5K a few years ago.
The player is light and has a pretty cheap power supply but a few diodes here a cap there and a better power cord ought to take care of most of that.
I did an A/B with a Sony trasnsport and a DAC and it was as good as if not better and would play the new format. Win Win for the $$ and that means a lot to me.

 

[BeatleFred]

T.A. : www.audioreview.com -> Reviews, Main Speakers, I for Infinity, scroll down to Ren 90's. Incomparable or not, you'd be hardpressed to find any Renaissance 90 Owner longing to own any other speaker

Regards, B/F.

 

[Pat S.]

SACD and The Stones

That is a good buy Fred. Its pretty amazing how far the price of SACD players has dropped in the last year or so. As a huge Stones fan, I am very tempted by the new SACD remasters, especially since the old Abbco CD's sound pretty harsh. The Creedence stuff is also supposed to be great. I'm actually more temped by the remastered LP's, but at $25 a pop, they are too pricey for me.

My CD player (H/K FL8380) is equipped with HDCD. This format is cool because it enhances the sound of both HDCD encoded and regular "red book" cd's. I doubt that its as dramatic as SACD, but it does make all of my cd's sound very good. The Buffalo Springfield and Van Halen HDCD's sound amazing! I won't give up this CD player, but I am tempted to add the Sony SACD player so I can enjoy this new format too.

Fred, did you say TWO X1's? Well, I must admit that I am a bit jealous ! How do you run them both? Are you using a seperate preamp and running it through the X1's poweramps or are you somehow bridging both X1's together?

Regards,
Pat

 

[Thatch_Ear]

The player I took out of line was a HDCD player and the SACD player does a much better job on the other CD types and you do have to have one to play the SACDs. Since I bought the player I have bought 3 SACDs and 3 or 4 that have 20 or 24 bit mapping and a few others that Tower was selling for $7 that were all AAD on Verve and very good.
Any CD that is a good recording will sound great on a SACD. You do not have to replace any you don't want to.

 

[Billfort]

the SACD bandwagon

I have 2 Sony SACD players, the 777ES and the low dollar CE775 ($150), and love them. I can actually enjoy music on these machines (SACDs) as much as I do when listening to vinyl - definitely not something I could say very often with conventional CD's.

You sure don't have to replace CD's to use these players as they are actually pretty damn good redbook machines - especially the 777. I have played around with direct vinyl/SACD/CD comparisons with 4 titles - Miles Davis > Kind Of Blue, Stevie Ray Vaughn >Couldn't Stand The Weather and 2 Stones discs > Let It Bleed and Beggars Banquet. What I found,

KOB - Vinyl > fantastic! this is a good as it gets on my system. SACD > very nice, airy, great detail and bass but a little of the midrange magic missing on trumpet and sax. CD > bad! flat, fake sounding - a coaster for my drink. Vinyl wins.

SRV - Vinyl > pretty good, great guitar and vocals, bass a little sloppy and distorted. SACD > great all around especially bass - this is where I really hear how fast and dynamic SETs and Altecs can be. CD > bad, another coaster. Most of the time SACD wins but after a few single malts, I got to hear SRV do magic on the guitar, and this comes across best on Vinyl.

Beggars and Bleed - Vinyl > pretty beat up and worn out (played a lot, always killed CD), distorted, a little flat and vague. SACD > another world - fantastic - are these the same albums? CD > way bad! not even a coaster. I'm tossing these. SACD wins but this is not fair since these are completely new re-masters.

I'm keeping and continuing my love affair with Vinyl but can't see how you can go wrong with SACD. The digits finally make music, there is something like 500 titles available and many on the way, you can get real nice performing machines (CE775, NS500) for low bucks and they play your coasters quite nicely. Kind of exciting to see some new technology that makes music (from a jaded audio guy who has found the magic in the old world of tubes, vinyl and vintage pro market speakers).

Billf

 

[Pat S.]

SACD vs. HDCD

Thatch Ear,

I was under the impression that SACD players only enhance the sound quality of SACD encoded discs. I could be wrong, but I don't think that the SACD circuitry has any effect on standard discs. I do know that the HDCD chip improves the playback of regular "red book" cd's in addition to those encoded with HDCD.

Regards,

Pat

 

[BeatleFred]

Hi Pat:

There is no doubt at all that you WILL hear a noticeable difference with SACD's. Thats a given. What it comes down to though is whether or not you will LIKE the difference in sound you will hear. I'm inclined to think you will. I must say in listening to these classic Stones recordings in SACD format- the energy of their music can be rather overwhelming to listen to- the buildup leading toward the finale' in 'You Cant Always Get What You Want' is a good example. "Live with Me" from Get Yer Ya Ya's literally explodes forth at you from the speakers. Same for "Paint It Black" and so many other great tunes.

I think the Sony DVP-NS500V at $149 is a terrific bargain. If you want to further "hot rod" it- see the site: www.sacdmods.com for some very interesting info on what can be done with this unit.

As for the AU-X1's: Yes, having two of them is awesome. But I did have to go thru a bad experience with the Seller I acquired them from. They were not working properly and it took 4 months and close to $700 to have them both repaired.

There are a number of ways to operate the two amps: A great thing about the Sony SACD player is it has TWO pairs of output jacks- so you can very easily send the outputs from the Sony to each AU-X1. At first I ran both AU-X1's as integrateds and that was fine. Then I decided to vertically biamp them- which means one AU-X1 drives one speaker, and the other AU-X1 drives the other speaker. I have an AU-717 & AU-919 either of which can be used as preamps feeding the power amp section of the AU-X1's. The AU's only have one output jack pair- but you can simply remedy this by getting a y cable from radio Shack to split the signal to send to both AU-X1's. The very cool Sansui AX-7 can also be used to hook everything up to and make it very easy to switch between various components- for instance- I could set it up to use 3 different models as preamps to the AU-X1's (such as the AU-717, AU-919, and 9090DB). The advantage to vertical biamping is that now one amp only has to drive the woofer in one speaker instead of the woofers in both speakers. My Ren 90's have two pairs of terminals in the back to enable biamping. Contrary to what some other people have said, the Ren 90's dont require enormous power to drive them. But feeding them as much as you can provide certainly doesnt hurt. They are rated to handle as much as 400W. The AU-X1 at 160 (240 at 4 ohms) is plenty as far as I'm concerned. Coincidentally, I know an Online friend from Germany who also happens to have two AU-X1's that he biamps as well.

Regards, B/F.

 

[Pat S.]

Fred,

So it sounds like you are utilizing both X1's power amp sections only. Do you hear a noticable difference between the preamps of the 717, 919 and 9090? I would think that the X1's preamp section would be somewhat superior to those. Also, is there a way of bridging each X1's power amp to mono? Then you'd have 320 WPC (translation: total overkill! ).

Regards,
Pat

 

[BeatleFred]

Hi Pat:

Well, the choice is: If you have a model like the Sony with two pairs of output jacks- you can use both AU-X1's as integrated amps- but that means utilizing and balancing the Volume controls on both of them as well as having two preamps (of each AU-X1) in the system. That sounded fine but I thought switching the arrangement so that I use only one preamp (and thus one Volume Control) to feed just the power amp sections of each AU-X1 would be better. I havent set it up yet to use the preamp sections of the 9090 or AU-919- though I could and easily switch between them using a Sansui AX-7. For now I ve only used the AU-717 as the preamp to both AU-X1's.

 

[Thatch_Ear]

Pat,
What is a very good possability is that even with the HDCD chip in the Toshiba the DAC chip just lacked the range of the one in the SACD player. The Toshiba was heads and shoulders above the old Sony 5 disc player it replaced and the new cheap Sony has improved the clarity it seems of the all the CDs as well. Even the older CDs that I love like the Verve recordings of Ella Fitzgerald seemed to sound better. Could be wishfull thinking but it does seem to have a bit more clarity at the top and bottom of my hearing range. I have yet to put an isolation transformer on it yet and hopefully it will improve more.
Another thing that has made a difference is changing the interconnects to something of a bit higher quality, but that has been recent and I had noticed the improved sound of the 20 and 24 bit CDs before.
When I get the subwoofers finished and have to rebuild my equipment layout I am probably going to go back to using the Toshiba for DVDs and use the Sony only for music.