DVD player with SACD support vs dedicated SACD player

I gave away my universal player a Cambridge CXU due to physical disability and switched to all Streaming.
Because of the fact that I have a great CD/SACD collection (for me) I’m toying with the idea of adding a dedicated SACD/CD player to my system again and would want something better than the CXU. Just seems to me that a good stand alone Sacd/CD player starts in around 5k and that’s the range I’d have to start looking at. If I’m wrong please let me know.

 

Not that much. The new Marantz 30 lists at 2500. The Denon anniversary is similar in build quality and lists around 3k.
The Marantz also has streaming capabilities.

 

My early 21st-century Sony DVP-S9000ES (already cited above) is still going strong, is built like the proverbial tank, and has been used exclusively in audio-only mode for SACD and commercial CD. (It won't play CD-R discs.) SACD sounds heavenly on this rig.

 

Although my CXU was a great universal layer l I found it a bit “light weight” in SQ even compared to my long time Sony SCD1. If I do go back to a CD/SACD player I want the best SQ without going insane price wise. If it required too heavy an investment I’d just stick to streaming as I’m happy with it so far with respect to SQ.
It’s just that my discs are sitting in my cabinet and multiple plastic storage bins laughing at me.

 

Found another interesting variant, Sony DVP-NS905V, looks more fresh, and it has this magic "QS" symbols, will it be better in comparison with SONY SCD-XE670?

 

listening to my slightly over 1k vinyl rig after a listening session yesterday featuring hi rez playback via PS audio dac and amp. Most of the time my vinyl sounds better.

 

Good reason to just stay with vinyl and well mastered redbook layer of the hybrid SACD’s.

 

if only I could find a cd player with a super low noise floor like my long departed dac transport combo...

 

Is there nothing?

 

DVP-NS905V seems to have no HDMI output. So, when playing SACDs, you're tied to the internal DAC.

I don't know which DAC is it. It can be a wonderful DAC chipset, but you're tied to it. SACD has no digital output on SPDIF (coaxial or toslink).

Since HDMI 1.2 DSD output through HDMI is possible. I would invest in a player (new or used) with HDMI output. Note that only the presence of a HDMI port doesn't means that the SACD player can digitally output through it. F0r example, old DVD Pioneer DV-696AV can't output SACD through its HDMI port, while Pioneer DV-610AV can!

Unfortunately seems that few external desktop DACs has HDMI inputs nowadays. But some old good AVR receivers has HDMI inputs and can decode natively DSD through such player. Yamaha RX-V1900, which uses Burr Brown DACs, can decode/play SACD input through its HDMI inputs, which make it a nice combo for an old Pioneer DV-610AV.

Most cheap Sony Blu-ray players can also output DSD through HDMI.

Using a cheap SACD player as just a transport can be a feasible and reasonable solution.

 

For SACD's I'm using a cheap Sony x700/M player as a transport and sending the HDMI output to an Essence HDACC II 4k DAC.
It's a great product that you can use as a preamp or a stand alone DAC as it has a volume control.
I send the Hi res balanced output to my Parasound P5.

 

When you open up a $12k SACD player (Krell Cipher) and find a $40 mechanism inside, you begin to realize that sticker price means nothing.

 

I really know nothing about that player, but I'm positive there's more to it than that.

 

Do report back!

 

Yes, apparently $11,960 worth of stuff.

 

You seem to have little understanding of the R&D, manufacturing, storage, distribution, shipping, etc. costs of non-mass market audio gear. Not to mention enough of a profit to stay in business.

 

Twas a joke, but I guess that sailed a little high. That said, I've actually repaired a number of SACD players all >$5k and lets just say there is clearly a lot of profit baked into those units based on the parts inside.

 

Easy way to avoid scam players is to only buy ones that the manufacturer shows the insides of. If you have nothing to hide, why not show of your work? For example:

Aforementioned Krell:

Vs the much more forthright Luxman, in this case the D-10X:

I know what I'd spend money on...

 

It's hard to tell, but one good indication is finding out the DAC that's used. If searching for the model name and DAC doesn't yield results, a lot of the time I was able to find the results in service manuals.

For example, the Philips 763SA mentioned by OP uses a CS4362 DAC, which has DSD input (and the service manual confirms that DSD is sent directly to the DAC).

Personally I wouldn't go for one of those options as neither the Philips nor Sony support DVD-Audio. A good cheap option is something like the Pioneer DV-575 or DV-600, both of which read anything you throw at them including SACD-Rs, but on the other hand have PCM-only DACs (PCM1742KE, by no means the best) and the conversion from DSD to PCM is done by the Mediatek SoC. The DV-600 has HDMI out and will send DSD to a suitably equipped receiver, which provides an upgrade path allowing it to be used as a transport.

A less cheap option which converts the DSD stream directly and plays DVD-Audio as well would be a Denon player like the DVD-2910 or DVD-3910 - the 3910 has a better-specified DAC (PCM1796 vs the PCM1791 in the 2910) and many upgraded components compared to the 2910 and is in all respects an absolute beast of a machine.

Whilst you can't tell everything about a machine from just one part of the audio processing circuitry, I find it's a good place to start.

 

New to multichannel sacd. I have an older sony receiver that is a 5.0 surround unit. It does not have a sub. Can i still play Mulichannel 5.1 SACDs with no sub?

 

Yes but only of you rub your head and your tummy with your hands, in the opposite direction, at the same time!