I have since sold my PSA Directstream MK II and SACD Transport, and have the Grimm MU2. I am looking for a GOOD SACD transport/player to couple with the Grimm. I have narrowed my choices down to the Shanling Onix Zenith SACD/CD transport, or the Magnetar UDP 900MKII.
I fully realize that the Shanling will convert SACD using DOP to the Grimm dac. I am also aware of the Shanling’s gapless playback issues. This brings me to the Magnetar. It is built like a brick-schit-house, with a very robust power supply and supposedly a very good dac, it plays ALL silver discs: Blu-ray Audio, DVD-A, SACD, Redbook etc. and will pull double duty as my HT disc reader. ( I currently use an Oppo UDP 203, but the DAC is nowhere near the quality of the Magnetar, and I believe I could sell it for a little more than what I paid for it)
So, the question to the group is: anyone using the Magnetar UDP 900 MKII? and if so, please share your opinions. Reviews on this piece from an audiophile perspective are lacking at this point.
Thanks; Tim
I cannot comment on the magnetar, but your concerns with the shanling, regarding dsd over dop, should NOT be of any concern. It does not CONVERT. It breaks apart the bits, but does not digitally convert the bits. The shanling sounds WONDERFUL with my MU2.
Yes as to what @adifferentpaul is saying regarding DoP. An analogy for DoP is taking the DSD file information and putting it into an envelope or wrapping it and then the DAC taking it and opening the envelope or removing the wrapper.
Good to know, thank you both. Are there any preferences on outputs from the Shanling into the Grimm?
I am using a Front Row Reserve rca cable between the 2. I should get an official digital cable, but only the connectors are slightly different, the middle of the cable is the same (but not the case with their AES cable)
I went down this very same rabbit hole last fall. The thing about the Magnetar is that it is basically a video player (albeit a very good one). So it does play SACD but… 1) I would want explicit assurance that the DSD stream from the Magnetar is available at the coax connector as DoP because that is the only way it is going to be compatible (in a satisfactory way) with the MU2. The Magnetar probably is compatible, but the literature doesn’t actually say it. 2) So you put a SACD disk in the drawer and close it, then what? There is no front panel display. Do you plan to have a television connected to the Magnetar and turned on at all times? 3) I suspect (but don’t know for sure) that the Magnetar loads SACDs with the same slowness as other video players, which is fine because it does load and it depends on your expectations in that regard.
And the thing about the Onix Zenith XST-20 transport is 1) the short gap of the playback between tracks gets to be annoying if you listen to classical music, concept rock albums such as Dark Side of the Moon, or anything else on SACD where the audio runs straight through from one track to the next. Shanling says it is a hardware problem so a fix is not possible in firmware. (Doesn’t Shanling make the drive that’s in the transport as well?) 2) It is top loading, so to be convenient you need to set it on top of your cabinet and not below on a shelf. That was a bit of a problem for me with my Onix XST-20; I ended up adjusting a shelf extra high and then attaching a LED light under the upper shelf so I could see to load discs. 3) I had some minor problems switching between SACD and CD discs with the Onix. I may not remember this correctly but I believe there were situations where I had to go into the menus to tell it to play the SACD layer (not the CD layer) after I had played a regular CD because it was getting confused.
I ended up going with the Onix Zenith XST-20 because of its I2S bus which I feel is the better way to go, and soon after that bought a Stellar Gold DAC. It turns out the I2S was only “mostly compatible” so I ended up putting away the Onix transport and buying a Perfectwave SACD transport to go with the DAC. The PST is far better IMO in all ways.
Just my two cents worth…
So I used Chat GPT to inquire about the digital audio out resolutions from the Magnetar into my Grimm…SACD= 16/44, so unless i’m fine with using the Magnetar’s on board DAC into the XLR’s of my MU2, the UDP900 probably is a non-starter.
