Yamaha BD-A1060. Grab one while you can.

So I have been looking for a stand alone SACD player for a year now. Home auditioned a few and made trips to listen to a few. I currently own a Pioneer UDP LX500. It’s a great Blu-ray player, and pretty decent SACD player but I needed it in my TV room for Blu-ray Discs. The picture is fantastic but the SACD playback just struck me as ok.

I also had a Sony UBP X1000es. Which I thought sounded better for SACD playback than the Pioneer and the Oppo 203. Sadly all the stuff about sony quality issues turned out to be true and after a little less than a year of fairly regular use it got glitchy and finally stopped reading SACDs altogether.

My favorite SACD player that I had heard was the Marantz SA10. Actually it is probably the best disc spinner I’ve heard to date. Very nice. But just couldn’t bring my self to spend the 4K for one with what’s going on in the world today.

So a couple of weeks ago a coworker that was selling his Oppo BDP 105 lent it to me for a week. Better than the Pioneer but only by a bit. However through its balanced outs into my Yamaha a-s2100 and level matched with a meter on my phone it was noticeably better. More dynamic, more live quality to the music. But it would take a couple of tries to read some of my SACD. Shot off an email to Oppo and got an immediate response that they were still servicing that player. So I could have got the 105 and then sent it to Oppo and got a new laser and servicing for around 350 bucks. So I thought about it for a bit an essentially new 105 for 1K. Then a suggestion from an acquaintance and pretty much a Yamaha fan boy led me to look up the BD-A1060.

So I ordered one with a 14 day return policy and compared it to the Oppo. Well for 540 dollars I got a universal player with decent build quality, better than the Sony but not quite as nice as the Pioneer or Oppo, with balanced outs. Yamaha states they are balanced from after the DAC to the output. Hooked it up with my Benchmark balanced cables and hit play. And damn if it wasn’t more live and dynamic sounding than the Oppo with a bit better bass. I feel the Oppo is probably more detailed, the DAC probably measures better, but the Yamaha just sounded clearer with more impact and bass.

As for the balanced outs sounding better than RCAs I really think it has more to do with my amp and it’s design then anything else. I’m only using 3 foot long cables. I’m Listening now and a subdued bass line in the music actually has a palpable quality that I didn’t get with any other player with the exception of the Marantz.

Anyways if you’re looking for an SACD player now, which probably most aren’t, you should check one out before they disappear. Crutchfield has them listed as discontinued. They aren’t listed as discontinued by Yamaha yet.

 

That Sony should have lasted longer. I’ve not been overwhelmed by the 4K disc playback on my x800 either. It can be a little jumpy.

 

I like the sound quality of my A-1060. It’s hard to imagine significantly better audio performance without spending beaucoup bucks. However, I feel the video performance is lackluster, not as good as the first Blu-Ray player (a $100 Sony) I bought back around 2011. The Sony lived a short life though.

 

I only watched the recent Godzilla movie on it. The Pioneer definitely plays Blu-ray’s better. Though for 500 bucks you just can’t beat it as an SACD player. I was a bit shocked that I preferred it to the Oppo 105. Hopping it lasts two years at least. It would allow to get the rest of my system finished then grab a great SACD player.

 

Have you played CD’s yet? If so, please let me know how the Yamaha stacks up vs. the Rega DAC. I have the original Rega DAC and while I love it, wonder if I can improve my CD playback without spending +$1k.

Thanks for your help.

 

The BD-A1060 is listed as discontinued by Yamaha.

BD-A1060 - Overview - Yamaha - United States

 

Sure. I’m going to try it out as a transport tomorrow.

 

Good to hear that the BD-A1060's SQ is competitive. Your review gives me regret I recently passed on a "used" Amazon warehouse unit for $320.

I'm happy to report several years use of the previous model, BD-A1040. It has the same DAC chip as the 1060, but lacks the XLR output. Connected via HDMI to a Yamaha RX-A1050. I prefer to use the Pure Direct mode for CD & SACD.

 

Enjoying multichannel SACD through HDMI with a Yamaha BD-S681 - get it while you can.
BD-S681 - Overview - Yamaha - United States

 

Just spent the afternoon using it as a transport through the Rega Dac. Very slight improvement with the Rega. Though my Beggars Banquet SACD spun through the balanced inputs on my amp is a much bigger improvement compared to my CD copy using the Rega DAC. The 1060 is a fantastic disc player.

 

I just inserted a DVD-audio disc and it plays. Both stereo and 4-ch audio formats are selectable. And the SQ shows as 2.3Mbps.

Does it mean this Yamaha BD A 1060 handles DVD-Audio too? It is not mentioned in the specs but it has been reported in a review I found that it can.

Nice machine. Very bad menu though (no big deal).

edit: correction. It does NOT play DVD-Audio's Side B of my disc. It plays side A which "contains a four channel ("4.0") AC-3 encoded surround sound format recording and a 2.0 channel Linear PCM stereo version of the identical program in "48/24," that is, 48KHz sampling frequency and 24bit sample depth" Side B contains two versions of the identical program, one in 48/24 MLP encoded 4.0 surround sound and one in 48/24 2.0 stereo"

So at least, with Side A I am getting the lossless HD Stereo format?

 

You are tempting me with buying this to hook up to an older plasma TV I have. But I don’t want to be kicked out of the house. One piece of new gear a year is about the limit at my house.

 

My Sony BDP-s590 player has SACD, but I don't own any...

I had no idea it was included when I bought the player....

 

I am 99.9% sure the 1060 does not play DVD-A
I demo’d one with a bunch of DVD-As, tried every audio setting I could, all it would produce is DD or the LPCM tracks on DVD-V

 

I have been listening to mainly flac files and some cd’s through the Yamaha blu-ray player mentioned above and was considering adding a Rega-R dac but haven’t got a chance to hear it first. @russk you mentioned that the Rega provided a very slight improvement over the bda1060 - are they almost identical in that case? I haven’t got the opportunity to hear the Rega and would really appreciate your view

 

Really close. The DACr adds a small amount of weight to the bottom end and a small amount of warmth overall.

Maybe like a 5% improvement.

However. Don’t leave a disk in it for any length of time or it will get stuck and you’ll have to box it up and ship it back. Really annoying.

 

I am 297.99% sure that it plays DVD-A, because i have one and it plays them just fine.

 

I also own one, and it does not, will not, and cannot play the high resolution audio section of a DVD-A. I wish it would.
It will play the lossy Dolby Digital or DTS audio.

 

Thank you very much for the response and further insight. Nice to know that the Rega adds a little bit of warmth and bottom to the sound but also good to know it’s not that much. As the Yamaha has good bottom end already, it probably wouldn’t be enough of a change in my case. And I’ll be sure to keep discs ejected, thanks again!