MULTICHANNEL SACD PLAYER HELP!

[rlpiii]

You could just use a PS3 until you decide on a high-end SACD player.

[wes]

Originally Posted by rlpiii

You could just use a PS3 until you decide on a high-end SACD player.

Well I don't want to have to change too many times.

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by wes

I want to be "bypassing any D/A conversion in the player" and use only one cable instead of six?

Wes,

I can see your point, but to me, I find my Teac Esoteric DV-50s is WAY better than any pre/pro (except the Meridian 861v4) at decoding the audio, and if you use HDMI, you can't sent the DVD-A with it.

Maybe you would be better served with a good universal player, like the DV-50, and use the 5.1 analogs into the Classe' SSP 800 as I suspect it will have a very good analog section.

[wes]

So I still need help identifying a good SACD capable of decoding DSD and be able to connect HDMi 1.3

Also I don't want to spend more than a couple thousand $ so the Esoteric SA-60 at $4600 USD is too rich for my blood.

[fitzcaraldo215]

Originally Posted by wes

So I still need help identifying a good SACD capable of decoding DSD and be able to connect HDMi 1.3

Also I don't want to spend more than a couple thousand $ so the Esoteric SA-60 at $4600 USD is too rich for my blood.

I think your only current multichannel choices are the Oppo 980(under $200; 7.1 channel) and 981(over $200; 5.1 channel) plus the Pioneer EliteDV-58AV($500; 5.1 channel) for DSD via HDMI. Kal Rubinson has reviewed all 3 in Stereophile, and he says they are all close, with the Pioneer being slightly better. He preferred the sound of the Pioneer in DSD, but he used the Oppo's with the player doing a translation to PCM, which he thought sounded best. I have the Oppo 980, and I am extremely happy with it going into an Integra DTC 9.8. I think I prefer it in DSD format. As you probably know from my previous postings, I have never heard better sound than this anywhere, and I have heard some extremely expensive 2-channel systems. The Oppo + Integra replaced reference grade 2-channel components costing about 8x as much in my > $50K system