Home
AudioAsylum Trader
Hi-Rez Highway: Blind Shootout SACD vs. 8 Redbook CD Players by zog

New high resolution SACD releases, players and technology.

For Sale Ads

FAQ / News / Events

 

Blind Shootout SACD vs. 8 Redbook CD Players

141.152.14.157


[ Follow Ups ] Thread:  [ Display   All   Email ] [ Hi-Rez Highway ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

The Richmond Audiophile Society did a double blind shoot-out involving 8 RBCD players (ranging in price from $85 to $10,000) and the Sony 9000ES SACD player. There were 28 members who participated in the shootout.

Methodology: All of the players were placed in my equipment closet which cannot be seen from the main listening area. All players were connected to the preamp using the same interconnect cables and volume levels were matched. Two players were selected by drawing names from a bowl and were placed in head-to-head competition (none of the listeners knew what what playing at any time during the shootout). A "helper", who was not part of the panel and did not know what was playing, would ask me to switch sources and polled the panel for its preferences. The winner then was put up against the next radomly selected player. The loser was then ranked against other losers.

Music: Norah Jones (hey, I didn't pick it).

System: Jeff Rowland Synergy IIi preamp, Jeff Rowland Model 12 monoblock amplifiers, Martin Logan Prodigy speakers, Luminous Audio Synchestra Signature interconnects and speaker cable.

Results: Winner was a Cary 306/200 playing redbook CD
Sony 9000ES was second playing SACD


Other competition came from the likes of Meridian, 47 Labs, Classe, Pioneer Elite, Panasonic, Audio Research and Sony RBCD. The big surprise was that the $85 Panasonic CD/DVD player finished third!

Only two members of the panel said that they "knew" when SACD was playing. Of course, I believe there would have been a third if I'd been in the audience! Needless to say, these results were very interesting.




This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Kimber Kable  



Topic - Blind Shootout SACD vs. 8 Redbook CD Players - zog 08:22:51 02/7/04 ( 103)