Greetings fellow Outlaws,

I am as you know and Audiophile and I have in place, my first HT system which is very nice for music and movies.

I had my Denon 3930CI modified (audio)so I can listen to CD music as I feel Cd's do not sound as good as LPs yet I only play CDs.

The Mod includes an all discreet analog (no OP amps)output stage which really makes the CDs sound like music.

I am now into playing SACDs for music and I am really liking the performance. I listen in stereo (SACD Layer) mode and I feel the music sounds more natural.

Pink Floyd's DSOTM is very cool in Multi-Channel mode beacuse it was recorded in quad way back in 1972.

I own DSOTM, the Who - Tommy, The Stones Beggars Banquet and Out of our heads.

I am only 41 years old yet which it comes to classic rock, I tend to focus on the years 1965-1975.

I have on order, waiting to arrive The Stones Let it Bleed, Hot Rocks and Stevie Ray Vaughn - Texas Flood.

I have listened to Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms and was impressed. I have also listened to the Allman Brothers - At Fillmore East, all of the CCR SACD's by Steve Hoffman. I have listened to the Firebird Suite , Cantate Domino (Proprius), Jazz at the Pawnshop, etc.

As I mentions, I prefer stereo over multi-channel.

Other outlwas, when you listen to SACD do you prefer multi channel or stereo?

Which titles in all genres do you recommend?

Looking forward to your replys.

Liz Out

Sarah Brightman , La Luna is very nice.

The SACD release of DSOTM is actually a complete remix of the of the original tracks and is not directly related to the quad release. It was remixed for SACD by James Guthrie.

Does anybody have a good source for SACD's? It seems they can be hard to find. I have gotten some from Hastings and I think Borders carries a few but is there any one good source on the net that carries a good assortment? I like the rock of the 70's & 80's more than anything.

I don't have a lot of SACD's, so it's a small sampling. Peter Gabriel's "Shaking the Tree: 16 Golden Greats" is a stereo-only SACD that I was disappointed in with my first SACD player (Yamaha S1500) but "re-discovered" while testing the 980H and found myself really enjoying. Nine Inch Nails' Downward Spiral is a multichannel mix that I've been pretty pleased with, and I've got a Telarc disc of assorted science fiction and fantasy scores (mostly John Williams stuff) performed by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Finding SACD's can be a bit tedious. I got several of mine from Tower Records a number of years ago - the current Tower store may still have a decent selection, although I don't know how good their prices are (I suspect they're on the high side). I've picked up at least one from Deep Discount , but their site can be a pain to search through. Elusive Disc is easier to search through and has some import titles as well as US releases, but you may suffer from a bit of sticker shock here and there.

That brings up a few titles that I've been contemplating for a while: the Genesis SACD remasters that have been released this year in the UK. I'd hoped that they would also crop up as US releases, but I've only been able to find the UK imports so far and I'm not just giddy over the idea of $30 per disc...

Also, Telarc continues to support SACD pretty aggressively and sells their titles through their site .

Lizard King,
You can also look into Concord record and there various sub-labels (including Telarc).
There site is not good at searching for SACD specifically.
I would e-mail them for catalogs (paper/on-line)

A person here at work suggested Amazon.com so I checked it out. They have a lot of choices for hybrid SACDs. I ordered Pink Floyd's DSOTM SACD and Dire Strait's Brother in Arms SACD. We will see how they sound through the 990's 7.1 direct input!

Butchgo,

Brothers in Arms sounds nice in stereo mode. I do not listen to the first three tracks, I prefer all the rest. Pink Floyd is my fav band so I have many versions of DSOTM, both studio and live. No collection is complete without DSOTM. They corrected the out of phase problem so the bass is not so sloppy.

Barnes and Noble.com has SACDS for good proces. I have used Amazon, Ebay and BN for SACD titles.

Liz,
I have been a fan of Pink Floyd since the 70's. I have there albums on vinyl!!! The wall has always been my favorite traveling music forever. If you haven't had a chance to you need to check out the music DVD's-- Pulse (David Gilmour, Richard Wright & Nick Mason) & Roger Waters "In the Flesh". Both are great!!!

Butchgo,

I have both of those DVds. I agree, they are terrific. They sound best in surround mode yet I lsiten to SACDs in stereo mode.

I saw PF in Miami, 1987 at the Orange Bowl and I have a SBD recording of that show. In 1994, I saw they at Giants Stadium in Joosey when they played the entire DSOTM to open the second set. That was the first time (I think) they plyed DSOTM in many years. I also have that show as a very good sounding AUD recording.

I make Audio DVDs at 16 bit and 48 Khz where my Denon plays them and the sound is better than Cds.

We have similar HDTV's you and I. Mine is one size down and one model newer. The only difference is the color of the frame and the size. How do you like you LCOS?

Liz

tmdlp,

Again, you have given me good advice. You may recal you told me about Singal cables and I use the silver IC's with the bullets and the Sub cable , also with the Bullet RCA's.

I do have a Telarc SACD sampler that I took out from the library. The conctent is interesting. I like you use music yet I get an idea of the Telarc sound.

Love it.

Me too,


I find that the Plasmas and LCD's may look nicer with HD broadcats in the colors yet I find them not to seem real or lkife like The LCOS sony looks more like what I see with the naked eye

The Rolling Stones "Let it Bleed" SACD arrived today. Most of the rock cds from that time sound like crap yet the performance is so good. The SACD is like the LP , the sound , tonal quality, etc.

SACD using DSD rules and makes Cds so like music.

Lizard King,

As you can probably guess from my signature, I prefer to listen to Hi-Rez formats in multi-channel. I recently purchased Ray Charles's, "Ray Sings Basie Swings" on SACD by TelArc and Ray's voice has never sounded so good. Can't believe his vioce was from a live performance recording done over 30 years ago. Also purchased the Ray Charles, "Genius Loves Company" on SACD and it blows away my CD version of the same. I also like Eric Clapton's, "Slow Hand", and Andrea Bocelli's, "Sentimento", if you are into opera. Another place for SACD purchasing is at MusicDirect.com.

Slbenz

Hi Slbenz,

You seem to have a nice system , esp the tube stuff. May I aak whay are you using a low end Oppo?

I suggest you get a high end player like me and get it modified to sound like analog.

I have heard the CD layer of Slowhand and was not impressed.

Let it bleed is a typical Rock album, a little forward yet what clear , great sounnd

Lizard King,

I thought of that most recently with my posting a question of modifying or go with Mye Stands for my Maggies. Ended up going with the Mye Stands. I like the Oppo for it's video performance and took care of the mediocre audio performance with the Channel Islands Audio VDA-2 and VAC-1 for 2-channel performance. I do realize that the stock Oppo is lacking in SACD and DVD-A since I used to own an APL Hi-Fi modded Pioneer 563A. I use Herbie's The Black Hole to help make it more analog sounding whether it is a CD, SACD, DVD-A or DVD-V. But if you read what the people at Reference Audio Mods say about my Oppo, they think it compares to the Marantz SA-11S1 a $3500 player. I would probably modify a more expensive player that uses more durable components than the Oppo for the next upgrade since my 1.5 year old Oppo is starting to have problems. After the Mye Stands arrive, I may be looking into upgrading the digital source. I mainly use a Sony CD megachanger for my 2-channel CD listening. It's linear power supply helps to make the Sony sound more analog than the Oppo with it's switching power supply going through the CIA DAC combo. Thanks for asking.

Slbenz

Slbenz,

My DEnon 3930CI has a linear power supply for the Audio section. The mod i have uses a discreet (No op amps) analaong output stahe what has in own power supply in a box outide of the unit and it uses a toroidal power transformer. I also have a high end clock. Trust me as i think you are an audiophile, you should get this down. PM me if you want to learn more.

Liz

Liz,

Thanks for the "audiophile" reference and I will eventually upgrade this source component if the wife will let me. I was just lucky to get the Mye Stands for my birthday. And after much discussion, I decided it was probably better to upgrade the speaker's performance before doing anything to the source. Also, if you have a chance, you may want to try some XRCD recordings. The ones that I heard so far can rival the best of SACDs and DVD-As on a neighbor's two channel system which consists of a Ayre CX-5SE player, Bruce Moore preamp, monoblocks and Genesis 6.1 speakers.

Slbenz,

I have heard about the JVC xrcd discs yet what type of mucisx is on them? I just orderd a Classical SACD LIVING STEREO - Reiner Chicago, Rimsky-Korsakov - SACD. That is from what I read, a great show and the sound is supposed be be great

For someon who uses the stuff you have,m I feel you need to use a high end signal source. My modified Denon is such a high end piece, I feel I need to up my amp to match. The 1070 does such of great job for a sold stae receiver.

Liz

Liz,

Most of the XRCDs are either Classical or Jazz with only a couple of rock discs. Check out MusicDirect.com. Eventually I will upgrade the digital source (probably another APL Hi-Fi product) but the stands come first and hopefully will arrive before Thanksgiving.

Slbenz

Slbenz,


My modified Denon will beat the pant off of your hopes and save you money. I suggest you get one used and get the mod done!

Liz,

I hear a challenge coming!! I have heard many times the APL Hi-Fi designed Denon 3910 and have no doubt that yours sounds very good. It's just I am friend's with the owner of APL Hi-Fi and usually help him with analysis of the "voicing" of his products. If you have the chance, you should listen to their latest creation based on an Esoteric UX-1 chassis and transport. Sounds better than some $100,000 vinyl rigs I've heard in the past. I know you have mentioned to me before who did your mods for your Denon. I will have to check them out again when it's time for me to update my digital source. I think your source is more cost effective than the APL units, especially the Esoterics. Would you believe priced from $20K-$30K? A high price for entry. Will let you know how the stands work out when they arrive. In the meantime, enjoy the music your Denon delivers. Sounds like you are a very satisfied customer. Take care.

Slbenz,

I have the 3930CI, the current generation, not the 3910. Mine has a linear power supply for audio, the top Teranex upconverting video processor,etc.

Paul

Liz,

With all our talk, the wife let me upgrade the Oppo DV-970HD. I found a great deal at my local dealer for a Marantz DV9600 universal player for 2/3rds off list. Been playing various discs the last few hours, SACD, DVD-A, CDs, etc. and have been very impressed with the increased picture and video quality over my Oppo. The Marantz even gives the Oppo, CIA external DAC combo a run for its money in two-channel. Looks like I will be selling the Oppo and Channel Islands Audio VDA-2 and VAC-1 combo. Next up are the Mye Stands arriving this month. The Oppo definitely was holding my system back, especially with hi-rez materials.

Slbenz

Slbenz,

What is the VAC-1 combo, Tube pre-amp and amp?

Trust me when I say my Modified Denon sounds like analog LP!

The CIA VDA-2 is an external DAC with a matching upgraded power supply the VAC-1. It is a SS DAC with a mild roll off filter that is analog-like. But if you ask me, my tube buffers help more with that analog sound in my system. I have no doubt that your modded Denon sounds very analog-like. Having heard the APL Hi-Fi modded Denon 3910 with tube output stage and the $25K modded Esoteric UX-1 by the same company, digital sources have come a long way to compete with vinyl. The new Marantz makes my system sound and look better!

Slbenz

The tube output stahe for the Denon Mod uses Op amps Slbenz which will rob you of the great sound.


Write Matt at the site so see if he can mod you new player.

i have added to my colection SRV, Texas flood, waiting for Couldn't Stand the Weather and the Allman Brothers Each a peach.

SACDs rule!

Liz,

I'll probably either have APL Hi-Fi (first choice) or EVS do the mods to my Marantz. Both are local to me and have great reputations for redesign work. Realize you have a modded 3930 and just mentioned the other players because digital has come a long way to compete with vinyl. I also recently purchased Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on SACD and now I understand all the buzz with this recording. It has great surround effects and was well recorded. I am a bit older than you and remember when these songs first hit the airwaves. Time sure flew by!

Slbenz

I actually prefer the quad mix on dvd-a of dsotm.

I have SACDs and I listen to the stereo, Not Multi-channel. DSOTM sounds more like music in stereo than surround.

I am waiting for my new Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms SACD to arrive.

My Brothers in Arms SACD arrived. The SQ is really good. The resolution is so high, it sounds like i have driver breakup on the left channel only during two sounds. I am thinking the SQ on this one is a must have.