SACD Players Under $2000 With Best Redbook Sound

thanks! sorry to hear Marantz is ditching SACD at this price point. Was there an announcement somewhere? I'd like to read it if possible

 

It is disappointing because Marantz has been committed to SACD hardware for a long time.

 

No announcement that I'm aware, just the player info posted on the Japanese Marantz website.

 

Glad I got the Sa-8005 on close out. I'm hoping I'll be happy with it. I've been watching that unit since 2014. Should arrive this week.

 

Did you get the Marantz set up? Would love to hear your impressions of the SA-8005.

 

I have owned my SA-8005 for 3 years and love it. Compared to my old Onkyo DX-7555 and TEAC PD-H600, both well reviewed $700 range CD players, the Marantz clearly bests them both on Redbook playback. At $900 I think the Marantz is a bargain and I am tempted to buy another one at that price for when mine eventually kicks the bucket!

 

After reading all of these posts...i still dont know whether i shoud grab an oppo-105 or the Marantz as music direct still has it for 900.....

I have no need for video aspects...just music....redbook, sacd, and bluray music..

My system is Rogue audio Cronus Magnum II, Bluesound Node2, ClearaudioPerformance DC tt, and Alon model 1 speakers. I want to keep it under 1k incuding decent interconnects and i want the best of both worlds at my price level.

 

You forgot, the better and more revealing the equipment a given item is connected to, the more likely the lesser component's shortcomings get exposed. The laws of synergy apply.

 

Definitely. What I actually meant is a system with $10K speakers is likely to sound great with just about any decent CD player, including a $500 one. However, it will reveal even more with with top quality associated equipment.

 

I think most people would be happy with either. The Marantz is much easier use in a system without a monitor. It's also easier to program track order. So many discs have bonus tracks, and either I avoid them altogether, or include them instead of the original tracks in an 'alternate takes' version of the album. To program on the Marantz you press 'program' then press the track numbers, but on my OPPO it took at least 3 button pushes for every track I wanted to program- it was tedious. The Marantz does not support blu-ray audio, though, so that might not work for you...

 

You know what? The $500 (formerly $700) Sony ES UDP-X1000ES sounds really, really good with SACD and CD, too.

 

What I posted about is similar, but is Sony’s ES Ultra HD player.

 

And by the way, this recommendation is coming from a big Oppo fan.

 

The Sony is not a very large player, and it is not heavy, but picking it up it feels like a solid brick. I found out why—there is a metal “girder” along the top of the player and other metal partitions on the bottom of the player separating the power supply, digital, and analog audio boards. Not the most heavyweight design out there (no huge transformers, copper plating, glass epoxy boards, etc.), but effective: