The height of the 820 is about 64mm. The whole front panel of the 820 drops down to give access to the disc tray, so you need front access space for that.
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When I set the player to PCM my NDX2 reports 176khz for the stream. Not played with it for long enough to judge which sounds better. In a way this way this gets to my opening thoughts. Using the low cost player to mess with the digital stream or present it to the NDX2 as untouched as possible.
The few SACDs I have sound better than a stream from Qobuz, so this is the right direction I think but not everything is available on SACD and I am sure at some point I will find an SACD that sounds no better than a stream - am avoiding Boston for this reason and would also avoid Asia if I saw anything from them.
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If you want to play around with a DSD file, the Boston self titled album is available as a DSD download on the Qobuz store and you can stream that directly on the NDX2, it does sound very good. I’m assuming you have a music server?
I am just not sure that any Boston recording was done that well.
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I’ve decided to go with seperate players for digital music and movies. So I’ll keep using the CX UHD for all my digital music media including Bluray concert movies. For 4K movies I’ve ordered the Panasonic 820, which was $629 incl. post - I need to check whether it comes with a HDMI cable. I’ll use the optical output from that to the ND555.
I did consider the Magnetar UDP900, but concluded that for music even the top range wouldn’t match the CX UHD as a digital transport into the ND555.
I will need to reorganise the cabinet by moving the Unit Core but that’s easy enough. Mrs Mike preferred a replacement player rather than an extra box, but agreed that didn’t warrant an extra $2K for a UDP800 to be used for 4K and as an audio transport.
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Congratulations on getting the 820, it is an excellent 4K Player and the video up-scaling of DVDs and regular Blu-ray discs is probably the best available as the video performance into a TV is pretty much the same spec as the top range 9000.
I think you made the best choice cost wise too, compared to getting a Magnetar, which would of been much more expensive, as you’ve pointed out, for no audio performance improvement over your CX UHD either.
Im very impressed with my 820, so you should really enjoy it.
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I have many albums on SACD (and on other disc formats, too. Including, DVD-a, Blu Ray Audio, SHM-CD) and after many years of casual and occasional “critical” listening comparisons with standard redbook CD, I’ve come to the loose, non-empirically formed view that it’s less the format and more the recording and mastering that determine the SQ outcome.
That said, I love my Marantz SA8005 player as it usually sounds better to my ears than Qobuz, be that a CD or SACD.
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Absolutely right. There are good and bad SACDs, just like CDs and LPs. The recording and mastering is far more important than the format.
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Totally agree. Given the cost of buying SACDs I am reluctant to spend money on albums which are limited by the quality of the recording and not by the format.
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You would think/expect that record companies would ensure the best quality recording and mastering is especially applied to Hi-Res disc formats like SACD and Blu-ray discs to ensure the maximum sound quality performance to showcase what can be achieved with the Hi-Res formats, otherwise what’s the point, other than rip consumers off, which is not in their best interest and I would not expect record companies to do this.
With my system, generally, however, there are some exceptions, sound quality performance is as follows:
Tidal CD Quality Streams
CD’s played on my CD Transport into my Streamer/DAC
Tidal Hi-Res Quality Streams
and the best
Hi-Res on DVD and Blu-ray discs played on my Blu-ray Player into my Streamer/DAC
The vast majority of the time physical media out performs online streaming, but not by too much with my system/equipment.
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Back in 2002 or so, when SACD and DVD Audio first came out I was all on board for this new format. I bought a Denon Receiver and a disc player that played both formats.
The player had 5.1 analog outputs and the receiver had the matching inputs. This format was far better than anything I had heard at the time. I was pissed when both formats fizzled away.
I still had both Denon units up until I recently moved. Gave the Receiver to a friend and the disc player had problems so it went in the garbage. Years later I owned a Marantz Blu-ray player that also played both formats, but everything went through HDMI.
Such a missed opportunity at the time.
Here they are…
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Loved when Hi-Fi looked like it was made to last. Amps that rival air craft carriers for size are fantastic beasts.