Looking for a SACD-R capable player

Hi all,
I want to add a simple player to my hifi stack that is CD, SACD, and, importantly SACD-R capable.
Also important is that the unit has a display of some sort. In other worlds, things like the Sony BDP-S390 (which I also have) are no good.
Cheap-ish also a bonus, old and second-hand/old also fine.
Can anyone suggest a unit?
Cheers

 

SACD engineers: here's how to make an SACD-R for home testing BEFORE glass mastering! - Gearslutz

 

Thanks. I should also have said "no lists". I'm after recommendations, so if you know of a unit that satisfies the criteria, please let me know.

 

Some models of Oppos with old firmware will play SACD-Rs. I know that the 93, 95, 103, and 105 all used to play SACD-Rs. But after a firmware update a number of years ago, these all stopped playing SACD-Rs.

So if you can find an old firmware Oppo, that is what I would recommend.

 

Then I would recommend a second hand Primare BD32 Mark 1 or 2!

 

Thanks. Found one on eBay and have pinged the seller about the FW. Do you know if they can be downgraded (like the Sony BDP-S390)?

 

No love on eBay for either of those . Thanks for the recommendation. Good looking unit.

Things are harder to find in Australia.

 

These periimeters but no mention of the most important thing, that it needs to sound good ???

 

Beggars can't be choosers

 

Oppo has never provided the ability to officially downgrade firmware. But there might be some type of custom jailbreak firmware available which is capable of adding-back this feature to an Oppo. But this is only a guess.

I don't remember what the last firmware version was for the 103 or 93 which supported SACD-Rs though. I know that there was a long thread on this subject many years ago on this forum. Perhaps you can dig it up? If memory serves, Sam was very active in that thread, since he had some inside contacts at Oppo back then.

But I would not purchase an Oppo for this purpose unless you are guaranteed that the firmware is old enough to support SACD-Rs or you are able to download a custom jail-broken firmware for an Oppo which re-enables this feature.

 

@vinylontubes
compiled a list a few years ago.
Oppo 80/83 can also be software region free unlocked which will also pull the firmware back if need be.
Burning SACD iso's to DVD-R's - how is that even possible?

 

Well, it's a list. Not what was requested and at this point I'm not sure I would trust the list without doing more research with an updated confirmation. Firmware is usually irreversible. And Oppo had fixed the compatibility on many models. I'm guessing they were threatened by Sony to fix the problem. And compatibility with 3D Blu-Ray discs required firmware updates would add the watermark check. Still it's a start. The reason these players work is because they simply neglect to check for a watermark. The odd thing about this is that Oppo fixed this, but many Sony Blu-Ray players never got these firmware updates. Remember SACD was not supposed to be able to be ripped. In fact it took years of people messing with PS3 code to unlock this ability. The one I have is the Pioneer DV-610AV that has been updated with firmware, well I actually have 2 of these. Below is the zip file that has the firmware updates, it include firmware for most of the models in that list. The question was requested whether or not they sound good. Well, they are SACD players and they are pretty much using the same decoder chips authorized by Sony. So, most of them are going to sound very similar. But there is probably an exception, it would be the Oppo BDP-83SE or the NuForce variants, because Oppo improved the analog output for these versions with a separate analog circuit with it's own DAC. The NuForce version is the same, but they swapped out some surface mounted items to better quality components. If I were looking for that one SACD-R player, it would be one of these units. That being said, I don't see the point. If you have SACD-Rs, you should have created ISO files to make them. JRiver and even Foobar 2000 play ISO files and will output the DSD stream to widely available DACs. And even if you don't have the ISO files, there shouldn't be any reason you can't make ISO files from the SACD-R discs. They're just standard DVD-R discs usually created with ImgBurn. So, you should be able to rip them using that software. This could probably save some time, because the PS3 was limited by FAT32. These drives can't actually make a file over 4GB and multi-channel SACDs are usually over this threshold. You have to stitch the files >4GB together with either 7-Zip or hjsplit. This is one of the more annoying steps in ripping to a PS3. This hard drive limitation was probably a reason Sony initially thought you couldn't rip an SACD. I now have a stack SACD-Rs and two player that I never use. It's just easier to use JRiver with ISO files saved on my NAS than deal with the load times of a physical player.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sacddecoder/files/SACD-R_firmwares/SACD-R.zip/download

 

hi,
Someone know if the sony bdp s790 is able to play sacd-r??
I don't find much information on internet
Thanks

 

It would be easier to use something like the Korg DSD MR-2000S - 1-BIT STUDIO RECORDER | KORG (USA)

 

older Sony's

 

I see no better options than old Pioneer DVD players that are SACD players (and DVD-Audio too!). They was cheap, and with a bit of lucky you can find them online or in flea markets.

The first one, DV -563A, is not SACD-R capable. Most are, but after firmware updates.

I bought used for US$ 20 an old DV-578A, and upgraded the firmware and it is now playing nicely SACD-R. And it has a very good display. I also have a Sony BDP-380 (which plays SACD-R out of box, but it sucks, I always use the ancient Pioneer).

The golden point, imho, is the Pioneer DV-610AV. It plays SACD-R, and can digitally output them through HDMI, in both original DSD signal or PCM-converted.

Home · sacd-ripper/sacd-ripper Wiki .

 

@Luis Santos nice one. I can see a DV-610AV -K on eBay for AUD90. Bit steep for second hand but the thing is in working order.

My concern is that I can't seem to find HKAN's firmware anywhere. His site now redirects into the Internet abyss and the way-back-machine has no record of it.

Do you know where I can get the firmware for a DV-610-AV?

Thanks

 

@scotia, sorry for the late reply.

Yes, there's also a mod firmware to DV-610-AV, which claims to make it SACD-R capable. It's in the same .zip.



Super Audio CD Decoder - Browse /SACD-R_firmwares at SourceForge.net

 

@Luis Santos Many thanks Luis.