At this weekend's High End Audio show in Munich, long time DAC maker dCS introduced two new products scheduled for shipment in August 2015: the dCS Rossini CD Player + DAC ($28,350) and the dCS Rossini DAC ($23,625). In response to a question at the show, a show attendee was told by dCS that the higher priced unit has a CD Player vs. an SACD/CD Player due to the end of production of the Sony SACD player chip used in the past.
This led to a series of posts on the web this weekend that "Sony just stopped SACD support. They have stopped manufacturing SACD decoding chips, meaning ALL manufacturers have to stop SACD player production. This is why dCS Rossini - which is the Puccini replacement - does not have SACD drive." An interesting series of statements since Sony is not the only company that has provided SACD mechanisms and chips to the audio equipment makers over the years and doesn't have the ability to have "All manufacturers stop SACD player production" as one chip comes to end of life.
I checked on the rumor and it turns out that Sony stopped making the SACD decoding chips in question in 2013. The person I talked with who is close to Sony referred to it as "old news".
Obviously the end to the Sony chip in question hasn't stopped a number of companies from making SACD players - as we have seen new SACD players announced and released since 2013. That includes the folks at Oppo who continue to make and sell Universal Disc players that handle CD, SACD, DVD, Blu Ray and other formats. Not to mention the Oppo 103 and 105 players that include the ability to play DSD and FLAC downloads for music fans ready to make the switch from optical discs to music files.
And now, back to some Multichannel SACD music listening.....
This led to a series of posts on the web this weekend that "Sony just stopped SACD support. They have stopped manufacturing SACD decoding chips, meaning ALL manufacturers have to stop SACD player production. This is why dCS Rossini - which is the Puccini replacement - does not have SACD drive." An interesting series of statements since Sony is not the only company that has provided SACD mechanisms and chips to the audio equipment makers over the years and doesn't have the ability to have "All manufacturers stop SACD player production" as one chip comes to end of life.
I checked on the rumor and it turns out that Sony stopped making the SACD decoding chips in question in 2013. The person I talked with who is close to Sony referred to it as "old news".
Obviously the end to the Sony chip in question hasn't stopped a number of companies from making SACD players - as we have seen new SACD players announced and released since 2013. That includes the folks at Oppo who continue to make and sell Universal Disc players that handle CD, SACD, DVD, Blu Ray and other formats. Not to mention the Oppo 103 and 105 players that include the ability to play DSD and FLAC downloads for music fans ready to make the switch from optical discs to music files.
And now, back to some Multichannel SACD music listening.....
