Hello again.
I have an extensive regular CD collection, an inherited vinyl collection and a tape collection from my youth. I am running a topping DX7 Dac for interfacing my laptop to my system, my bt TV box/samsung frame TV - it switches inputs automatically, so really useful.
My current CD player is a Marantz CD 63 mkII which I recently refurbished and play through it’s own DAC chip - it sounds really good, possibly better than the topping. When I auditioned some speakers recently, I got to hear an oppo player, that seemed to handle blueray, sacd etc. It sounded better, or as good as my old marantz.
So what options are there that offer: cd, blu-ray, dvd-audio, dvd-video, sacd ? Is SACD even worth it as a format to get into?
I love my physical media, having spent a lot of time in my teens looking through the photo booklets that came with the ministry of sound ibiza annuals and dreaming of clubbing, while listening to taped radio one essential mixes. I just tend to pull a CD out of the rack and listen to the whole album and I am transported to a time and place.
With CDs being so cheap via ebay, or my local charity shops, I have been buying the albums I stole via napster/LAN sharing in university (some guy wrote a program that linked all the student’s music, so we could swap and discover at a blistering rate for the time). I am just not sure if it is worth ‘upgrading’ to the SACD versions of some of the classics.
Thanks for the input :)
SACD’s are increasingly rare, most new releases are re-issues found exclusively on audiophile labels like Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab and a few others. They’re also $30 and up per title.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of DSD which is the file format for SACD, is now found on hi-rez file download vendors like HD-Tracks and they’re not cheap. Unless you’re a serious collector and are up for spending thousands of gear that plays DSD, most of which is classical, you’re better off sticking to vinyl and redbook CD.
Redbook CD? I wonder if I could buy a normal CD, but download any of my absolute favorites to a home server? I just dislike streaming; I want to own my media. I recently went through a health issue that meant I would go months and months not listening to anything, the whole time I was paying tidal ! Even when I am using tidal, I tend to reach for a record or CD 90 % of the time.