We are all familiar with the decision made by Oppo to stop manufacturing their disc players. We also know that Oppo happened to be the most popular supplier of disc transports to other audio manufacturers, including PS Audio. I was wondering if it might be a witty idea to try to purchase the machines that Oppo used to manufacture these players in order to replace Oppo as the main supplier in this niche. As they are closing this division they might give all the necessary machinery for a reasonable price, and PS Audio might be just the right company to keep the manufacturing going so as to supply not only their products but also to become the main suppliers in this niche industry. Paul, you are a very smart guy, haven’t you given this idea a try? Thanks in advance for reading this post and taking my idea into consideration. Greetings form Buenos Aires. Juan
One thing to consider in this thought experiment, when PS Audio purchased an Oppo drive they were piggybacking on the Oppo license (from Sony) to play SACD, and in turn send raw SACD data from the DMP to a PS Audio DAC. This was one of the things Paul wanted to do with the DMP. This is a VERY expensive license for a small manufacturer like PS Audio and most likely would not transfer along with the machinery to produce the drives. In other words, in addition to purchasing the machinery, PS Audio would have to purchase a new license from Sony which I doubt they will even consider.
Thank you for the information. I suggest giving it a try, anyway. Remember SACD has nearly died and for Sony it does not mean the same as it meant 10 years ago. Therefore, the license price might be cheaper than expected at this moment.
SACD is alive and well and the disc are still being produced. There are thousands of available titles. The license remains silly expensive.
I really don’t know. I would ask Sony, anyway.
Even better idea IMO would be for @Paul to buy the licensing for PS Audio to be able to build the UDP-205 as Oppo has said they’re going to continue with the software for a bit. Seems like an ideal situation! Also a great cash flow item too! 
It was mentioned in another forum that OPPO were going to continue building the optical disc drives and sell them to OEM manufacturers. Which if true, totally sinks this concept of PS Audio buying the machines that build them.
And in any event, the future of disc spinners is becoming increasingly muted. Over on the MSB forum owners are saying the $25K ++ transport sounds virtually identical to CD streamed via networked audio. Paul has mentioned a Stellar disc spinner, but really, one needs to be realistic about the future of spinning discs. If $25K ++ disc spinners sound no different to the alternative it’s hard to make a case in support of building them.
I understand. Your final conclusion should be complete if all the wonderful high-res recordings that have been released on SACD would become available as downloadable high-res files. This has been the case with many of these recordings, but many others are simply forgotten. I have got no less that 500 SACDs that I treasure and many of them are not available at all at high-res via streaming or downloads. There lies my point. Besides this, Paul nailed it again when he said PS Audio believes optical discs are still good music storage media.
You can ISO image those SACD on to a server, you don’t need a disc spinner to play them at all.
Please teach me how to do this. Thanks!
Google is your friend: search “convert SACD ISO to FLAC”
There are thousands of pages that describe different ways to do it.
I’m pretty sure disc transports will disappear before turntables do. Now who would have guessed that? I really don’t have much use for one at this point. My Aurender takes care of my needs on the digital side of the fence, which is 80% of my listening at this point. I’ll listen to a record before I put a disc in. If you can rip the SACD’s that’s a good option. It’d be good to have the backups either way.