Sony SCD-C222ES owners..a few questions (1 Viewer)

[Mark C.]

I'm curious, since I've never seen one of these units up close, how does the changer work when you set it to random and have a mixture of Redbook CDs and hybrid CDs in the tray?
Does it play only Redbook? Do you have to manually push a button and tell the player you want to listen to a certain track in SACD? Do you have to stop the player to switch between Redbook and SACD?
I'm the type that likes to put in five discs, hit random and walk away for a few hours. I wouldn't want a player that would require me to keep running over to it to manually switch between SACD and Redbook.
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[David Judah]

It will default to SACD if the disc is a hybrid. You can mix Red Book & SACD with no problems in shuffle mode--I've done it many times with my 555. If you want multi-channel and your disc is capable, you'll have to select to multi-channel in the menu before you start though.

DJ

 

[John Garcia]

It automatically detects the format of the media in the player, no user input is required, however you may have an issue with bass management due to using the multi-channel analog outs, since bass management is not applied to redbook CDs (meaning you get full range 2ch, no sub). You can set it to default to 2ch or multi-channel tracks for SACDs.

 

[Mark C.]

Thanks, guys.

I jumped on brand new one still in the box. I'm going to use it for two-channel only, so I'm not worried about bass management. I'm going to replace my old Marantz changer with the Sony hooked to my Classe integrated, which powers my B&W Nautilus 804s.
I'm still not sure about SACD. I tried out the Yamaha universal player a while back in my HT system for a couple of weeks. Multi-channel sounded great, but it seems more of a gimmick to me. In two-channel, I really couldn't tell much of a difference between SACD and Redbook. I guess I'll find out if the Sony is better than the Yammie universal.

 

[Rachael B]

Mark, there are SACD's out there that will sound clearly better than Redbook. Try some of the titles that have been recorded on DSD recorders like: Jorma Kaukonen's BLUE COUNTRY HEART, Joe Satriani's STRANGE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC, Spyro Gyra's ORIGINAL CINEMA, and Will & Rainbow.

Some other titles I think are particularly good sounding: Rolling Stones' LET IT BLEED, The Zombies Greatest Hits, Junior Wells' COME ON IN THIS HOUSE, Jacintha's JACINTHA IS HER NAME, Manfredo Fest's JUST JOBIM, Anthony Wilson Trio's OUR GANG, Aimee Mann's LOST IN SPACE, and Bryan Ferry's FRANTIC.

There are some great discs out there. I'd say that some of the top labels are Analogue Productions, DMP, Chesky, Eighty Eight's, Telarc, Groove Note, MSFL, AudioQuest, and Heads Up. Hint, the Eighty Eight's releases are pretty amazing. They're stereo only, single-layer discs. Try Will & Rainbow from them if you want to see how good the format can sound. Best wishes!

 

[John Garcia]

Patricia Barber Cafe Blue and Modern Cool 2ch only

The quality varies from disc to disc, and I have found that many multi channel mixes don't sound good to me either for exactly the reason you mentioned - I don't like them to move things to a rear speaker that don't belong there. NO GIMMICK!

 

[Mark C.]

Rachel:

Thanks for the suggestions, although none of those artists entice me. I swore a long time ago that I would not repurchase my CD collection in SACD. I plan to buy hybrids of discs that I don't already own. I did this with Alison Krauss, Rolling Stones and the Police. The only exception was the Dark Side of the Moon (of course). I would have purchased that even if it was remastered only as a Redbook.
Again, thanks all for your input.