I have just seen that the new dCS player ( Rossini) does not offer SACD playback. As dCS were one of rhe developers of the system this is quite a departure for them.
Rumour has it that Esoteric are no longer offering their SACD transports as OEM items which is the cause (any truth in this?). Although SACD discs form a minor part of my collection they still constitute a reasonable number. Furthermore they are added to each month as SACD hybrids remain a fairly common release format for classical music.
I would like to be able to play SACDs into the future. One day my Paganini transport will need to be replaced and my guess is that if and when when the Paganini stack is replaced ( it is now out of production) the upgrade system offered by dCS will not support SACD. A Vivaldi is a trifle out of range of my wallet.
I'm not sure how much expertise there is on the Wam concering SACD but any recommendations in order to secure my future on this? NB: forget ripping as I still will be unable to play the DSD stream even if I could find the requisite Playstation to do it. So it means a new player. That appears limited to Esoteric or Marantz ( I am deliberately overlooking Oppo).
Esoteric appear to now have very limited UK availabilty. One dealer in Scotland whose reputation, shall we say, goes before him. Marantz have never really excited me despite having owned a couple of machines. Certainly not comparable to dCS anyway. Fortunately most of my SACDs are hybrids so I will be able to play the CD layer. Nevertheless any help, comments welcome.
