[ylee]

Originally Posted by gbaby

I have been collecting SACDs since its inception with my best player being a Sony XA-5400ES using a Bryston BDA3 as a D/A converter. As good as hi res music sounds with this configuration, I find that I enjoy regular 44.1/16 bit PCM better. It sounds more natural at least when I play it back using either the USB or Balanced digital input to my SP3. I am also using the two music surround surround algorithms on the SP3 in 7.2. In addition, my playback is through a digital player, the Bryston BDP-3 which gives me access to my entire music library. The BDP-3 has also caused me to buy more CDs than ever and I have discovered many good recordings from the 60s and 70s buying those Classic Album Series in both pop and R&B genres. You get 5 CDs of an artist for the price of one, and the majority of the ones I've purchased have great recordings. In addition, I still buy the latest smooth jazz CD I like that I can put instantly on the BDP3. The convenience and sonic benefits from accessing quickly current regular music far exceed the difference in sound hi res offers in an extremely limited catalog. I have a couple of hundred SACDs, DVDs, and hi res downloads I listen to maybe one day out of a year. I listen to the PCM from CDs daily.

I agree not all SACD versions of a particular recording sound better than Redbook, but many do. Regardless of the merits of either format, my playback option for Redbook is my Totaldac d1-twelve DAC, so I'm extremely well covered there. If I want to listen to my SACDs, I currently use my Oppo as there are very few options for ripping SACDs. The Oppo UDP-205 is a very good unit, but it's distinctly inferior to the best DACs (as well as players) made by a host of companies ranging from Bryston and Ayre to dcs and Totaldac. So I plan on buying the BDA-3 to convert DSD sent by the Oppo via HDMI. Unless of course Bryston decides to add a CD transport to the BDA-3.