Your love of the Cambridge rivals Tim Irvines love of the Pendragon...... Nothing wrong with that though! Just an observation!!! I have to admit your posts had me looking at the Cambridge / specs once or twice!
Only recently! They had a (by all accounts) rather sterile sound about a decade ago, so I'd ca' canny to some degree. I think from their 650 series for CD players onwards, you'd do alright. Not the last word, but they stepped up their standard in the last ten years. Hard to fault their blu-ray players though. 6 years this year for my 752BD. Transport only though, the Cambridge CXC or Audiolab 6000T would be on my shortlist.
Hello, I’m thinking about getting a Sony UDP-x800 used off of EBay for a reasonable amount less than $150. I’m planning on using this connected to my Onkyo 9010 solely for SACD and/or CD play back as an upgrade to my old Denon 5 disc CD changer. A few questions: 1. Will this operate correctly using the second HDMI (Audio only) Connection ? In other words, no hook up to a TV. 2. How much performance increase will I see for SACD playback? I ask this as I play many SACDs (redbook layer) on the Denon and they do sound fantastic. CDs also sound really excellent through the Denon probably because of the great DAC in the Onkyo 9010. Is the Sony really worth the upgrade?
1 You can switch the HDMI audio output in the menu to either HDMI1 or HDMI2. It would be worth seeing which you prefer. 2 Impossible to say till you compare them. That’s really your call. Be aware, you’ll need to hook up the Sony to a TV to access the set up menu. The remote is almost absolutely useless for audio. If you’re buying used, make sure there are no playback problems with the unit. They’re notorious for freezing. Personally, I’d pick up a refurb if I was going the Sony route.
Thanks, I realized this is not gonna work as the Onkyo 9010 doesn’t have any HDMI connections. I might actually look to upgrade my tower speakers and possibly even the 7.1 stereo on my other system. I typically listen to vinyl through headphones on my main system but I’ve noticed when I play music through my Klipsch Heresy/Onkyo 9010 set up it blows away the sound quality on the Polk Monitor 70’s. I could also buy the Sony and move my Oppo-93 to the Onkyo set up, that would be another option.
Going to pick up a lightly used UDP-X800 Sat. Mainly because I have a 2016 Sony 4K TV & also want to play some SACD's & DVD-Audio discs I have. My Onkyo receiver decodes DSD, How would it read the DVD-A? I have an LG UBK90 player. Like the 4K video quality of it, but no SACD or DVD-A. Should the video quality be as good or hopefully better than the LG? I was consodering a new X800M2, Has Dolby Vision, but my TV does not. Thoughts?
Video should be equal. I’d go the 800M2 route. It’s worth future proofing now. Universal players seem to be going the way of the Dodo, unfortunately.
Picked up the X800 earlier this morning. I figured at 1/3 the retail price, if I get a TV with Dolby Vision I could sell this & get an M2. Hooked up, downloaded the firmware update & set it up. I LIKE. Awesome picture with my Sony 930D. Plenty of apps, not like the UBK90 with just 2 apps, but it does have DV. Much more selections in the setup menu. Haven't played any SACD or DVD-A yet, will later tonight. Nice player. But no analog out.
Anyone find a solution for the picture freeze during playback yet. Swapped out my first player because of this, everything seemed fine then one day...
Did you download the firmware update? Said to help with these issues. Improves HDMI connection stability Enables HDR10 for Prime Video content Solves playback issue for specific Blu-ray titles Extends Ultra HD Blu-ray compatibility (Japan and North America) Improves the stability of network service Solves possible disc playback issues Improved intense color quality on HDR Content playback Improved compatibility with OLED TVs from other brands Supports additional network services (YouTube, Spotify Connect) Extends 4K UHD content availability on some TVs UI (background) has been changed Supports some network services
I aggre on that part. The SQ is determined by the D to A conversion. The quality of those pieces determine a lot. I have a Yamaha CD player that I've loved the sound of for years. A while back picked up a California Audio Labs player. Blew the Yamaha out of the water.
This may depend of the TV set the X-800 is connected to but setting the HDMI output to 4:4:4 instead of Auto (that by default sets to 4:2:2) or 4:2:2 gets slightly cleaner picture, that's my experience with this player and two 4K HDR sets I tested it with. Take a great looking UHD BD disc like Lucy or Sully and check what kind of output works out best for you. You can always set HDMI output to RGB that also looks cleaner than either Auto or 4:2:2 but if you set it to RGB, after setting you have to switch the player off, wait for some seconds and then switch it on again to get 12 bit HDR, if you change to RGB and don't reboot you only get 8 bit video.
Popped in a SACD & DVD-A last night. The SACD was a Chesky Sampler disc. The little DSD light on my Onkyo receiver came on. Nice, dynamic sound. Good vocals. The DVD-A did not fair as well. Was Eagles Hotel California. Vocals and instruments sounded congested & harsh. Have to find my CD copy and compare. I'll try some other discs today. Netflix & Youtube streamed fine. HDR video picked up fine. 4K movies are very good.
I'm not sure about the multichannel program on Hotel California, but the stereo program is compressed significantly. Probably the most dynamic stereo hi-res mastering is on the downloads (HD Tracks, Qobuz). This is just data from the dynamic range database. I always judge based on my hears, but when one's ears indicate something is off I find it useful to see if the dynamic range data matches the perception. I tend to listen to the multichannel program on all discs where it's available, so for most of my SACDs and dvd-audios I've probably never even heard there stereo programs.
I have recently connected my x800 to a Yamaha receiver that does DSD conversion and allowed the DSD. Neato.
If it’s not under warranty, you could try cleaning the lens. If that doesn’t work, there are some cheap replacement disc drives on eBay. Model # is UPX-1. The same drive is also used for the X1000es, x800m2 and x1100es.
