SACD and Blu-ray player with analogue audio out recommendations

[richardfinegold]

Yes - and here's BIS, releasing a whole string of outstanding issues in 2020......
Skalkottas, Bruckner, Enescu, Berio..... etc...

My favorite label for SACD is Channel Classics, which I think has the best track record for outstanding quality. Artists featured include Rachel Podger and Ivan Fischer and Budapest Festival Orchestra.
Reference Recordings with Manfred Honeck and Pittsburgh are also superb. Their Kansas City recordings with Michael Stern are more variable.
I’d rank BIS a close third. There is more variability in both sonics and performances than the two mentioned above. Some BIS SACD are outstanding most are very good, and there are a few misfires in there. It should be noted that BIS probably has the largest SACD catalog, with lots of interesting repertoire, which probably accounts for some variability in product, with many different Artists, venues, and recording teams.
After BIS comes Pentatone, which has an interesting mix of newer recordings and recycled Quad releases from the seventies repurposed to SACD.
Chandos still releases SACD, but they don’t seem to be consistent. German labels such as MDG sporadically show up. Then there is Tenet, who believes in placing the listener smack in the middle of all proceedings.

[jayne lee wilson]

I guess its down to choice and luck.... the Chandos SACDs I've had include stunning series of Lutoslawski and Szymanowski (BBCSO/Ed Gardner), terrific Adams and Reich albums too....the K-Jarvi Reich Desert Music/Three Movements is an audiophile glory... oh and, a musically & sonically gorgeous Mendelssohn Cycle with Ed Gardner again, whose continuing Schubert Cycle sounds very good on the 24/96 QS Stream (SACDs available...)...

Chandos cat....https://www.chandos.net/sacd

Don't forget all the excellent SACD-Bruckner from OEHMS/Young and MDR/Blomstedt....

CPO seem to release less of them now, but the Manze Brahms set is excellent....I love BIS, CPO and Ondine (recent Lintu/Luto SACDs) for consistent SQ (on CD too) and yes - adventurous rep/performance styles....

[richardfinegold]

I guess its down to choice and luck.... the Chandos SACDs I've had include stunning series of Lutoslawski and Szymanowski (BBCSO/Ed Gardner), terrific Adams and Reich albums too....the K-Jarvi Reich Desert Music/Three Movements is an audiophile glory... oh and, a musically & sonically gorgeous Mendelssohn Cycle with Ed Gardner again, whose continuing Schubert Cycle sounds very good on the 24/96 QS Stream (SACDs available...)...

Chandos cat....https://www.chandos.net/sacd

Don't forget all the excellent SACD-Bruckner from OEHMS/Young and MDR/Blomstedt....

CPO seem to release less of them now, but the Manze Brahms set is excellent....I love BIS, CPO and Ondine (recent Lintu/Luto SACDs) for consistent SQ (on CD too) and yes - adventurous rep/performance styles....

You are right, I was going to mention VPO and other German labels when I had to cut my previous post short.
There are over 3000 SACDS in the catalog and a growing number of Blu Rays.

[HighlandDougie]

As well as the sort-of cheapo Sony Blu-ray player mentioned above (essentially for watching films in the sitting/living room), I’ve just bought what I think will be my last SACD player. Alas I wish it was an Esoteric but it’s the late Ken Ishitawa’s swansong for Marantz, his ‘Ruby’ number, to go with the ‘Ruby’ amp which I acquired a couple of moths ago. On which I’ve been hugely enjoying Jayne’s Chandos recommendations - Ed Gardner’s Mendelssohn, Luto, Szymanowski - and Janacek and Bartok. Plus Carl Schuricht’s Bruckner on EMI. And ‘Volodos in Vienna’, when Sony still released SACDs, which has an astonishing immediacy - and, in my unhumble view, an unsurpassed performance of Scriabin’s “White Mass” Sonata.