Best player for SACD 5.1 and DVD-A 5.1 suround music?

[Stump]

I run a Esoteric SA 60 for 5.1 music only.A Esoteric UX-1 LE would be a nice upgrade.Is anyone else playing music in 5.1? What would be considered the best player for this format????:
Stump

 

[dan31]

Luxman DU-80 comes to mind. Oppo 105 on the bang for buck scale.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue42/luxman_80.htm

Good luck with your search!

 

[edorr]

I run a Esoteric SA 60 for 5.1 music only.A Esoteric UX-1 LE would be a nice upgrade.Is anyone else playing music in 5.1? What would be considered the best player for this format????:
Stump

I'm playing a lot of 5.1 music and have gone through a lot of hardware options. The Marantz UD9004 was very nice, but to get the best bang for the buck here is what you can do. Get an Oppo 103 with Vanity HD103 board. This will get you 4 x S/PDIF out of the Oppo at full resolution - the Vanity board reclocks and does proprietary DSD -> LPCM conversion at 176/24, which beats the standard Oppo conversion hands down. You can now put a stack of 3 DACs downstream. I would get 3 x NAD M51, which have RS232, which you can use to synch up the volume controls on the three DACs, using iRule macros. Sounds complicated, but it works like a charm. I'm doing this with an MSB DAC for mains and 2 x NAD M51 for center/surround. I have since moved to server and am ripping all my 5.1 content, mainly so I can apply DRC, but I still have the Oppo/Vanity and it still sounds great.

 

[Bruce B]

Best? Playback Designs MPS-5 + 2 x MPD-5

 

[edorr]

Best? Playback Designs MPS-5 + 2 x MPD-5

How would you hook this up for 5.1 playback? The transport only has a stereo digital out.

When you're looking at this pricepoint, I would get the MSB UMT+ as a transport with 4 x 2 channel digital out, and run it in stack of MSB Dacs. DAC IV for mains and analog DAC for surround / center / LFE. A step up from the Vanity -> NAN M51 route, but at a 5x the price.

 

[JonFo]

... but to get the best bang for the buck here is what you can do. Get an Oppo 103 with Vanity HD103 board. This will get you 4 x S/PDIF out of the Oppo at full resolution - the Vanity board reclocks and does proprietary DSD -> LPCM conversion at 176/24, which beats the standard Oppo conversion hands down. ...

Thanks for the tip on the Vanity, I had been looking for a way to digitize my SACD discs, and this is simpler than the PS3 route.

 

[edorr]

Thanks for the tip on the Vanity, I had been looking for a way to digitize my SACD discs, and this is simpler than the PS3 route.

I you can capture the 176/24 LPCM datastream this would work. I believe this is precisely what Curt @ Trinnov is doing to "rip" his SACDs. Of course, you would not have the DSD.

 

[Bruce B]

How would you hook this up for 5.1 playback? The transport only has a stereo digital .

The ST-optical output can do stereo or 5.1
This is how I rip the MCH layer from SACD's

 

[edorr]

The ST-optical output can do stereo or 5.1
This is how I rip the MCH layer from SACD's

But wouldn't that still be 5.1 on a single output. How would you play this 5.1 signal through three discrete DACs (in fact, 2 channels would use the DAC in the player itself, and 2 additional DACs would process the remaining 4 channels) as I understand you are proposing. Wouldn't you need a 6 channel DAC with optical input downstream?

 

[Kienberg]

The 5.1 Surround Setup with Playback Designs is done with optical PLAYLINK:



And works like a charm !

But one problem exist today:
This Setup only works with Multichannel-SACD's, Playback Designs, up to now, cannot play 5.1 DSD-Files.

To play this files I use a Mytek stack.

 

[edorr]

The 5.1 Surround Setup with Playback Designs is done with optical PLAYLINK:

And works like a charm !

But one problem exist today:
This Setup only works with Multichannel-SACD's, Playback Designs, up to now, cannot play 5.1 DSD-Files.

To play this files I use a Mytek stack.

Nice. How do you control volume? Do you need a MCH analog preamp behind the DACs?

 

[Bruce B]

Nice. How do you control volume? Do you need a MCH analog preamp behind the DACs?

Yes..... I use the Switchman 3 for surround

 

[edorr]

Yes..... I use the Switchman 3 for surround

So you actually use the 3 piece "Playback Designs Stack" for MCH?

I would personally prefer a stack of 3 dacs with RS232 and control volume with macros on the DAC (only contenders I'm aware of are NAD M51 and MSB). The Switchman in my experience detracts from SQ.

If you want to go all out you can daisy chain 3 of Ayre's preamps for $20K a piece....

 

[Bruce B]

So you actually use the 3 piece "Playback Designs Stack" for MCH?

I would personally prefer a stack of 3 dacs with RS232 and control volume with macros on the DAC (only contenders I'm aware of are NAD M51 and MSB). The Switchman in my experience detracts from SQ.

If you want to go all out you can daisy chain 3 of Ayre's preamps for $20K a piece....

Guess my SQ is detracted then!

 

[edorr]

Guess my SQ is detracted then!

Regrettably MCH analog preamps are a dead product category. I remember the $15K EMM Labs 2 channel preamp can also be daisy chained in MCH configuration - give it a whirl!

 

[Kienberg]

Nice. How do you control volume? Do you need a MCH analog preamp behind the DACs?

For volume control I use a Denon AVP A1HDA which is connencted by EXT.IN to the MPS/MPD-5 stack (and for Mch-Files to the Mytek Stack).
The AVP is configured in "Pure Direct" mode, so no A/D - D/A is in place.

Sure, with three Ayres or EMM Labs preamps it would sound even more Live-like, but I'm very happy with Playback Designs and Denon just now.

 

[Stump]

I picked up a Esoteric UX-1 LE .The VRDS-NEO mechanism is a big step up and even in Stereo I am amazed how much better it sounds against my Sony's SCD-1 VSE 7 mods!!
Stump