[DTB300]

IMO, the SACD format is doing well, but ONLY in the Classical genre and somewhat Jazz, but for Pop and Rock it never made it and still doesn't - again IMO.

Norman makes a great point about improvements in a player with some mods done to it.  How much you are willing to spend is up to each person.  You can do the common parts replacement/upgrades as Norman described or you can go with companies that add new clocks and design brand new analog output stages bypassing many of the components in players.   The new output stages is where the highest cost and greatest performance gains are, but they are for 2CH only and for analog outs, not HDMI.

I would suggest for first time people considering mods to have OpAmps replaced along with the stock clocks (also consider power upgrades too).  There are a couple of great companies, one is a Audio Circle supporter here, who can do this for you.  You will be surprised at the improvements you will get in sound for the money involved.

[david011777]

I just read found this link by researching the upcoming Oppo universal Blu-ray that is capable of playing SACD.  I wanted to add a couple of thoughts, because as Soundboy mentions above, there is significant misinformation in this thread.  Actually, reread the things that Soundboy said because they are right on the money. 

SACD is fundamentally different from redbook CD or DVD-A in that data are transmitted in SACD as DSD (1 bit of information, i.e., higher or lower than the preceeding input value - but at 64x the rate of CD) rather than analog LPCM.  According to Robert Harley of The Absolute Sound, "The advantage of maintaining a DSD bitstream to the DACs, and converting DSD to analog, is that the signal is never subjected to the low-pass reconstruction filter required in conversion of PCM to analog. This filter is a significant contributor to what we call "CD sound" (hard timbres, flat soundstage, for examples)."

That being said, transmitting digital data at 2.8 Mhz requires 100Khz of bandwidth, which couldn't be achieved until HDMI 1.2 came along.  However, it is erroneous to assume that just because a SACD player can transmit through HDMI that it will be DSD; in fact, the majority of players will still convert to analog (LPCM) before it enters the preamplifier.  Even if the preamplifier can receive a native DSD signal via HDMI, this isn't necessarily the best of all worlds due to significant jitter problems associated with HDMI (the audio clock on HDMI is derived from the video clock, hence the bulk of players using HDMI as a transmission medium have considerable jitter).  Jitter can also influence sound negatively as well.

Lastly, a DSD signal can not be altered in any way by the preamplifier (bass management, room correction, etc) until it is converted to LPCM - and some prefer the sound converted to LPCM over DSD anyhow (look into some Stereophile reviews of various SACD players).

There are currently 5300 SACDs on the market, and more are coming out every week. I wouldn't throw in the towel yet - especially since lossless audio via Bluray hasn't taken off (yet? ever?)

[soundboy]

However, it is erroneous to assume that just because a SACD player can transmit through HDMI that it will be DSD; in fact, the majority of players will still convert to analog (LPCM) before it enters the preamplifier.  Even if the preamplifier can receive a native DSD signal via HDMI, this isn't necessarily the best of all worlds due to significant jitter problems associated with HDMI (the audio clock on HDMI is derived from the video clock, hence the bulk of players using HDMI as a transmission medium have considerable jitter).  Jitter can also influence sound negatively as well.

There are currently 5300 SACDs on the market, and more are coming out every week. I wouldn't throw in the towel yet - especially since lossless audio via Bluray hasn't taken off (yet? ever?)

I will add another comment upon this thread.  Onkyo just introduced a new line of HT receivers that are being "trumpeted" as HDMI v1.3 compatible.  However, when I emailed Onkyo in regards to whether its HDMI v1.3 receivers will decode DSD, I was given the answer, twice in 2 separated emails, that Onkyo receivers will first convert DSD to PCM.  Therefore, as I mentioned in a previous post, it's all up to how a manufacturer decides to implement DSD decoding.

For me, personally, HDMI v1.3 means the convenience of having just one cable of carrying up to 5.1 channels of surround sound music.  That's it.  However, if that means giving up on potential sound quality gains afforded by SACD, then I will just use the analog connections.