[doggiehowser]

The real reason SACD transports have stopped is because Sony stopped the manufacturing of one of their encryption chips needed for DSD transmission.

So Esoteric lost the ability to manufacture new drives.

As far as I can tell the XDS1 didn’t use the flagship Esoteric Transport (the one used in the K01) but the lower model. Maybe K05? The TSDX used the same transport.

Not sure what Transport is used in the matching Transport for the DA2 flagship DAC.

The flagship Esoteric Transport is also used by dCS in their Vivaldi range. Which I guess is why the newer dCS models only feature a CD Transport.

The loss of the Sony chip also affected Marantz. The successor to the SA8005 is the ND8006 with a CD Transport.

I know PS Audio went with an Oppo platform for the DirectStream Memory Transport which uses a Sony BluRay universal Transport. Not sure how long that Transport would remain in production either now that Oppo has called it quits.

For what it’s worth even if a product is being phased out, most companies will have a large final build to meet support and replacement requirements.