[lazydays]

I just got an idea.  What about this as a portable SACD player:

Sony BDP-SX910 9V Portable Blu-ray/DVD Player

Seems to me I could use this and since it comes with a screen, I could avoid hooking up a separate television

Same process, connect the HDMI to an adapter and then into my DAC with a TOSLink
(worked on the other Sony, I just could not access any of the other controls without adding a TV)

What do you think?

just a thought. How about hunting up a Play Station 3 and having it modified to your needs?  The Onkyo's seem to be built like a tank. Have two of them I picked up in flea markets for about $25 a piece with remotes. Marantz stuff will go for three times the price and be dead in a year. Pioneer seems to be built well, but in my neck of the woods you just don't see it anymore. Never owned a Denon CD player, but have heard they hold up well. I bought an SL2000 (maybe 2100) Yamaha a few years back. Played well, but the sound seemed compressed to me. Maybe I need to give it another chance as I still have it

Down the road I look to get rid of all my SACD's and stick with a good red book transport. My Hi-Rez is vinyl anyway!
gary

[Doublej]

I connected the Sony thru an HDMI into an adapter then thru a TOSLink into my Cambridge Audio DAC Magic 200M.  It worked well with CDs but to do anything else you must use a TV, which I do not want to do. 

I am considering the Yamaha CD-S1000.

Did you try using the smartphone app to control it?

[mcdmdmd]

I did not know there was a smart phone app to control the UBP-X1000ES Blu-Ray player.  I will look into that.

As for the PlayStation 3.  I know where I can get one and will look into that.  Would you have any recommendations for where to get the modifications done?

Thank you both!

Mike

[Craig B]

When you say you need to use a TV to use the Sony, do you mean a TV is necessary to make the necessary setup selections to play SACDs, or that you have to be able to see a screen simply to operate the machine (like to play, pause, stop, ff, reverse, select tracks)? It's not unheard of to need screen access for initial setup, but needing it for day-to-day playback operations would be something else, and I could see how it would be a deal-breaker.

[Phil A]

When you say you need to use a TV to use the Sony, do you mean a TV is necessary to make the necessary setup selections to play SACDs, or that you have to be able to see a screen simply to operate the machine (like to play, pause, stop, ff, reverse, select tracks)? It's not unheard of to need screen access for initial setup, but needing it for day-to-day playback operations would be something else, and I could see how it would be a deal-breaker.

Many of the Blu-Ray players that play SACD and are connected to the TV (via HDMI) need to have the TV on for playback.  I noted that above that some may work by disconnecting the HDMI cable or temporarily changing the HDMI settings.  When I'd break in a new amp or cable in a secondary system where I formerly had an Oppo 203, and leave the player on repeat overnight, if the HDMI was not disconnected it would stutter and then eventually stop.  My Panasonic 9000 (which of course won't play SACDs) I have in my UHD system is the same (and I don't think it will play at all with the HDMI cable connected).  I don't use it for music playback often (and it is files on my NAS, including CD quality and above) and I don't worry about it.  It's the same with the Panasonic 820 I have in the upstairs bonus room.  I previously had an Oppo 203 in those systems. For the once every year and a half or so I use systems like that, I don't worry about it.  I have an Oppo 103D in a 2-channel system at the moment and it is connected via the analog outs to a modded Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram Generator and goes into the preamp>  While I can play discs, virtually all of the time it reads files from my NAS.  I just leave the TV on, turn down the HDMI volume (so the TV speaker isn't playing) and cover the screen and access the files via an iPad.  The (HDMI) connection is needed as when the player starts up I need to navigate the menu to select the network files (and I don't use that often enough to warrant connecting and disconnecting as most of the time I use that system it is a small PC running JRiver reading files from the NAS and connected to a DAC, which in turn is connected to the preamp).

[Norman Tracy]

The original poster of this topic mcdmdmd wrote on page 1 of this thread "Well, it looks like the Sony will only work well if combined with a television.  So I am turning my attention to dedicated SACD player or transport.  Any recommendations?

Now discussion is back to HDMI connected "solutions". If its a combined stereo for music plus home theater HDMI is fine. Using HDMI in the signal or control chain when a video display is not desired...all I can say is....



By design HDMI is a two way interface between connected devices constantly updating status of each. Schemes beyond configuring a universal player's settings will run afoul of the HDMI dialog between devices if they include turning off or unplugging something. One also has the issue with game consoles and universal players without video displays of selecting the CD vs stereo DSD vs multi-channel DSD layers available on many SACD disks. The one trick pony CD/SACD stereo players know to just play the stereo tracks and can have a simple CD/SACD button to select layer.

[mcdmdmd]

I ended up figuring out how to use the Sony 1100ES Blu-Ray player
Connected with a Toslink cable to a Cambridge Audio DACMagic 200M
Works great as a CD/SACD transport

Thanks to everyone