The Pioneer Elite Plasma was great for the day ( I used to sell them) A modern OLED set is way better. Top the Line LG or Sony… and the Pioneer’s best resolution was 720p
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I would love to get my hands on a Pioneer UDP 800 but that just isn’t possible. I believe that using the hdmi output into my Linn DSM would be perfect and the fact that that player disconnects all analog circuits, including the PS when using a digital out should give a boost to sound quality. Fingers crossed that they start production again after their resurrection.
Yes, and as I don’t have a Naim NAC or ND, it is far more relevant. Hopefully it would work into a Linn DSM.
Had a CDS50 myself (in fact I still do, in storage now) - a really excellent SACD player for the money
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The whole SACD thing is most confusing. My Cambridge Audio CXUHD is specified for SACD, but after quite a long discussion on the forum, it transpired that you can’t output that format to a Naim streamer, something to do with having to use a HDMI output if I recall correctly. I’m not sure whether it would work with the analogue output though, and I use coaxial digital output anyway to get the benefit of the Naim streamer. It will play hi-res bluray formats, and how that compares to SACD, I’ve no idea, but it does sound very good.
Hi Mike,
The coaxial out will only be 16/48 due to copyright protection rules, all BluRay players have to comply with this rule, but I agree it does sound excellent.
If you want the full Hi-Res output off the BluRay disc you have to use the HDMI outputs of the player (which is not copyright rule protected, go figure!) which I do into both my Lumin Streamer and my Denon AV Amp.
Switching between the coaxial and HDMI outputs into my streamer, there is not too much sound quality difference in it, so I don’t think your loosing out too much, sound quality wise.
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There may be some confusion here.
The ‘high res’ on a Blu Ray disc will be PCM, not DSD (DSD64 is the format of SACD).
When SACD was developed by Sony, part of the licensing was that digital out was disabled to stop digital copies (don’t forget that this is long before widespread music file sharing/downloads/streaming etc)
Many DSD files are actually ‘converted’ to PCM for transfer. DSD over PCM, known as DoP
On a disc player front, generally DSD out is not available from SACD.; only outputs are analogue. There are some exceptions to this where licensed proprietary methods are used, for example dCs between transport and DAC.
As I noted above, some Sony Blu Ray players will output native DSD64 (note; native not DoP) from a SACD disc, over HDMI. This would need to be fed to a DAC which accepts DSD over HDMI.
There is certainly a SQ difference between ‘high res’ PCM and DSD.
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So to get the best out of a SACD player you really only want an analogue output straight into your pre amp.
And which format do you prefer?
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It does look like the best budget SACD it’s just over $5k here. Oddly enough the model with a built in streamer is cheaper.
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I was amazed at what one Marantz SACD had been reduced by , around a thousand pounds off.
This usually means it’s reached the end of its production run.
I do so like the look of the Technics and sometimes you buy with your eyes 
and not your ears.
Guess who isn’t sleeping well?
Ian
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You.
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I’d still go with the Technics the Marantz looks a bit odd for me, not a good fit with our black boxes
Yep, I fell asleep quite early and am now awake wondering about SACD players, I listen to a lot of classical I find it easy , and most SACD seems to be classical
I’m off my post chemo drugs and as flat as a tack today. Takes me a couple of days to recharge.
You should try and get a nap later. Good luck.
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I run a Oppo 205 through a cheap Tripp-Lite HDMI de-imbeder via a Wireworld Silver plated HDMI & Oyaide silver BNC cable into a nDAC. Hi-res PCM off a SACD sounds better than Red Book off the same disc. Getting the hi-res lamp to light up on a nDAC is well worth the effort. My de-imbeder doesn’t do DOP but I think I recall Steve at Naim saying that PCM was the way to go with the nDAC. I’d love to have a VanityPro de-imbeder but I think they are too costly.
That’s interesting as I’ve found PCM via my Bluray player (digital output to the ND555) to sound the best in my system, followed by hi-res WAV files from the Core. I need revisit CDs on the bluray versus the rips on the Core. Maybe when the LP12 is upgraded, it will beat them all 
Thanks K managed to get back to sleep
Hope,today is good for you
Cheers
Ian
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Sanity checks are always welcome. At least for me because I have a tendency to hyperfocus and just loose track of the purpose of the item. From what i have read so far there seems to be a limited number of releases on SACD and the majority of them are classical (a genre which I am not into). At the same time the format has been almost abandoned by its creator as well. Topped up by the complexities of the DSD format, etc.
Considering the bulk of my collection is CDs and I have very few SACDs, I think that my best bet would probably be to buy a decent dedicated CD transport, a cheap SACD player with analogue outs and a decent DAC which can accept DSD. That way I would enjoy the best of both worlds.
PS: That way I would help Ian to sleep better as well 
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Are you pleased with the Marantz SA12?
It ticks a few boxes for me
I am. It replaced a Marantz 8005 SACD player that i had for many years, and is a definite improvement. I have 90 or so SACD disks, and still buy the occasional new one from MOFI.
I also found using the SA12 as a DAC was better than the DAC in the NAC272 i was using at the time when i tried it out. I still have the S/PDIF output from my Naim Core cabled to the SA12 DAC input as an alternative playback route to using my usual NDX2 that i have now.
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