I have the Pioneer Elite BDP-85FD.
A little temperamental, even after being repaired, but love the sound quality and functionality.
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I was eyeing the LX500, but hesitated on purchasing, and now it’s no longer available.
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Me too, and they are selling at a premium used. With both Tidal and Qobuz, it is seldom used.
Keith Emerson wouldn’t like that 
. She did an amazing performance the Tribute Concert. Can’t wait for it to come out on BluRay.
I read on a Modwright thread that the LX500 is supposed to be coming back maybe when the supply chain catches up. Don’t give up.
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I got my LX500 that I have owned for awhile back modified from Modwright last week. It’s still breaking in but sounds great so far.
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That’s potentially great news!
In the meantime, I ended up getting the competing 4k player from Panasonic, just after hearing the Panasonic was also discontinued. It does not play SACD discs, but does play dsd files.
I have an Oppo 105 and also 205 as well. I can’t remember when it was I last played an SACD. I only have about 10 of them.
Now that surprises me! Only 10 Al? are you sure about that?
Players I’ve had in the past before the Oppo 203 in chronological order were the Sony SCD-777ES (I loved the top loader and CD stabilizer.) The Pioneer DV-AX10 One of the best build quality optical disc players from Pioneer. A Sony SCD-C333ES with Modwright mods, Oppo BDP-83SE, Oppo BDP-103, and Marantz SA-KI Ruby. If I add up the cost I think I could have bought at least 2 PST’s by now.
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Same here. Truly a steal and love the multichannel HDMI out. Long live the Sony XA5400!
I guess listening to them never impressed me enough to keep buying them. I am of the opinion that there are more than a few SACD releases that sound no different than the Redbook version on the same disc. I just am not that impressed with the format. Blu-ray blows it away IMHO.
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A lot I think is player dependent. But I can see what you are saying. The great CD transports can sound just as good many times better with red book cds. With the early Sony players, the Marantz Ruby player the SACD’s definitely sounded better to me but it could of been because they were not great with playing Red Book CD’s. Now that I have the I2S card on my Oppo sending DSD directly to the DirectStream it’s the best my SACD’s have sounded. I personally have yet to own a player I’d consider both reference quality with red book and SACD’s. From what I’ve read the PSA PST maybe the player.
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Yes sir, It is just a matter of time before I order a PST of my own. That is one reason why my DSD is not for sale.
Yeah I played a badly scratched CD and it was not happy other than that I really like it. Much better quality than streaming using my Innuos Zen Mini Mk3 through the Stellar GCD. I would like to try a better streamer, dac and add a internet switch, but no funds ATM… to get closer to the quality coming out of my Denon CD player.
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I’m not using a player. I rip all of my SACDs to DSF files and stream them to my DirectStream DAC using Roon and HQPlayer. This sounds better than any transport I have tried and is much easier to deal with.
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When I began to look at various methods of how I was going to deal with SACD, or even Redbook for that matter, it came down to dealing with jitter, especially when I sought to have a single benchmark solution for digital playback, whether S/PDIF, HDMI or ethernet transports. This is why I chose to deal with it at the DAC. Here’s why…
http://www.esstech.com/files/4614/4095/4305/about-jitter.pdf
I would go further and say I’ve heard SACDs that sound worse than the redbook issue. And certainly worse than my own CD transfers from LP (the Doobies’ “Stampede” is an excellent example). Which is why I never claim that any one format is better than others in and of itself. There are wonderful recordings on all of them, and horrible recordings on all of them. I will go as far as to say that in my experience, SACD (or DSD if you prefer) has the potential to be the best.
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Just because it is a SACD does not make an album the best source. It always comes down to the mastering first. A poor mastering of any album is still bad whether media source rebook, SACD, LP, Hi-res download, etc.
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