FYI: Yamaha CD-S2100 in pure direct mode shuts down visual display.

You cannot extract the SACD layer of a disc via coaxial or optical output. You could use the HDMI output and send the signal to a receiver capable of encoding SACD. Otherwise, SACD can only be sent out via the analog outputs (xlr or rca). So the signal you would hear from the coaxial or optical output would be the redbook layer of the disc, not the sacd layer. Most SACD discs have both layers of audio.

A 10 min video and not even 45 seconds is spent talking about audio differences. Goodness sakes 🤦‍♂️

I moved recently from my Yamaha CD-S300 to the CD-S2100. Was a bit sceptical about the actual listening differences at first and wasn't sure if the placebo effect would be in full swing there but boy oh boy was I wrong and surprised. The smack of the female vocalist lips the tones of snares and cimbals the S300 just couldn't output, all suddenly hit me. Invest in a high end cd player - it's definitely worth it, it will return you favor and repay you in spades.

If I had unlimited cash I would definitely go for the Yamaha, while realizing that I am buying it for the looks only. In the years I have auditioned and owned numerous CD players and DACs I am convinced there are hardly any differences between CD players and DACS in all price categories. If there are subtle differences they only show up in direct comparison. They are never obvious, you have to focus and doubt repeatedly. The current state of audio equipment is that for very little money you get excellent sound. Long gone are the days in where there were big differences in audio quality relating to price. Cheap headphones truly sounded like crap. Nowadays for 50 bucks you already can get a decent pair. And the digital media may be one of the most successful social equality achievements in the last decades. Great sound for very little cash. That said, I still wouldn't go for the cheapest product. Looks matter. When I am browsing for classical music CD's on Discogs I would always pick the CD release with the prettiest CD cover/booklet. Even if it would cost me 10 euros more. No DG Galleria or Philips DUO CD's for me when I can get the original release in a more handsome package. Yes I am that shallow.

I think I'm finally getting your sense of humor. I think.

The Troll the audio world needs.

As a Sony enthusiast owner, I say that if you connect the sony's hdmi2 (audio only) to a converter (hdmi-to-IIS) and the IIS output of the converter to a DAC capable of managing a IIS format (I use a SMSL DO200), you will have all the bandwidth possible as the full DSD signal goes out only through HDMI. On the Sony the coax and spdif put out a DOP 64 signal (DSD over PCM 64 bit, not the best alll...). The audible result is Stunning....

The reason coaxial wouldn't work on the Yamaha with SACDs is because it is a native PCM format. The converter that can handle DSD is in the Yamaha which is of course is routed to the analog outputs.

Nice to see that not only the amps have the Yamaha sound.

Yessir. If Sony UDP had a dedicated CD / USB play shuffle button on its remote like OPPO did it would be the best audio darling for the decade coming. Note: Nothing matches "S" Yamahas for music long listening sessions. Bass is absolutely underrated as the rest of the spectrum. The nearest next station is Accuphase. Enjoy!

I have the Sony and the younger Yamaha brother, the CD S1000. I did my research via Yamaha and it was quite clear using an outboard DAC would render the SACD portion useless. There are workarounds using HDMI configurations and what's the point. I like the sound of both and I have two (2) systems, both using vintage electronics and speakers. To me the Yamaha has more clarity and the Sony is less focused yet pleasing. The CD-S1000 has the same drawer quirk its older brother does. Nice review.

Review is precise, also the fact that I can get Multichannel Audio from Sony using HDMI as transport.

You only heard the sacd on the Yamaha, the sony universal player converts Dsd to pcm that's why you were only listening pcm sound through coaxial... its not real sacd sound... so OfCourse the high frequency was not as good on the sony, SACD through optical is a joke right? So in other words you were comparing apples to oranges, which is not "scientific" at all! You have a lot to learn and do your homework on technology and equipment to become an audiophile, your ability to hear high frequencies is obviously not enough. get the Dsd versions of those sacds on a computer connect it to your rme through usb and then you can compare the sound of rme to the Yamaha.

There is no "audiophile" anywhere who expects an SACD playing DSD to play through a coaxial or optical output.

You must be in Arizona, because damn you're dry. Haven't checked in for a bit, so was surprised to see more reality intruding in your analysis. I liked it and still love your deadpan delivery. Thanks.

I really enjoy Diane Bish's performance of Ligeti's Volumina for organ.

Great content! I said the same thing when I saw Andrew rave about how amazing this theater system from Sony was... it's pretty much a surround system in a box (reminded me something from the 90's) but his exaggerated review made me think Sony is sending him checks or equipment.

This was the best video I've seen. Its inspired me to get the yammy SACD. You and me both. I can hear minuscule details and notice the fine prints with Audio. I listened to the same song that was supposedly remastered the vanilla ice ninja rap compared to the original and I was blown away with the difference. My local had it refurbished for a decent price and I should of got it.... however I could also get a marantz SACD player instead...

Fantastic video. I wonder if any man made (or even alien) device can "hear" frequency ranges like you can!

This is not a test of two players. It’s a test of the Yamaha vs the RME DAC. Which is a $2,000 product.

What's this Moe's Art thing he keeps speaking of? Also, you can't say you have golden ears because Steve Guttenberg has trademarked those words. He's seventy four years old, but can still hear the differences between cables. It's quite astounding.

Holding out for the Diane Bish 45 rpm repressings

In coaxial o spdif from Sony to RME , you don't play SACD. you compare CD layer of the SACD by mecchanic Sony +dac RME with Yamaha SACD.

No coax or optical for the Yamaha I think because of the copy protection for SACDs. Not sure why the Sony allows it though. I wonder if the Sony converts the DSD to standard PCM?

As a drinkaphile I prefer my cheaper Yamaha cd-c600 as it has a large plastic tray to drop 5 cds on so I don't have to waste time standing up when one disk finishes.

I have the Sony X800 and replaced my Yamaha DVD-S2500 SACD player with it. The Yamaha players sound good, but they are too glitchy and slow. The Sony X800 player works best as a transport. Use a home theater receiver as your pre-amp, and connect the Sony via HDMI. I use my Yamaha TSR-7850 strictly as a network enabled pre-amp, and the Sony bitstreams DSD to it, feeding my Onkyo M-504 amp and B&W 684 S2 speakers. It sounds incredible. Plus, since the Yamaha is network enabled, I also use MusicCast to stream Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music, and Apple Music directly to the receiver’s DAC via WiFi.

The bitter queen has a new video! Keep the videos coming. They are a great source of entertainment. Do you do live streams?

The Yamaha CD-S2100 had been measured by an Australian hifi magazine and found to be inverting absolute polarity via both its XLR and RCA analogue outputs

I was hoping for some charts comparing the output between the two sources, I don't doubt there's minimal difference between the two but it'd be pretty interesting to see what actually changed (or didn't)

You only talk about high edge frequencies, but what about soundstage transparency details dynamics speed separation and so much more that make the audiophile sound? What about the image, the placement of the musicians in front of you? microdetails of the midrange frequencies?

Will probably get a sony 4k UHD player soon

Love the humor in this video. Offering some personal thoughts: 1. Always read the specs before buying a unit. What kind of disc does it play and over which output. 2. In today's market, the DAC matters more than the player. The Yamaha - I own the the 3100 - is a great stereo player but incredibly limited for its price. 3. I did an Analogue in Analogue out on the RME to use the EQ, it worked great. The RME has a better DAC and is more versatile for sure. 4. The UBP-X800M2 is a brilliant entry level unit. Will play almost everything and the HDMI out allows for Digital out on SACD including multi channel. Best bang for your buck. Not an audiophile product. Power cord is not interchangeable. 5. There is an older Sony transport, The Xa5400Es that allows digital out on SACDs Stereo or Multi. Does not play DVD or Blu Ray. 6. The Technics SL G700, Technics latest entry, is basically as limiting as the Yamaha, but it's a better CD transport and does MQA CD decoding. I feed optical into the RME as digital through to use the EQ, and the optical out to a Denafrips DDC and DAC. FANTASTIC COMBO. 7. My latest acquisition is a Reavon, which will play EVERYTHING. I bought it for two reasons: it is region free and with the help of a D.BOB audio extractor, will carry a native DSD signal into a DAC (Stereo only) and THAT is the holy grail. Multi Channel is achieved over HDMI. Next on my list will be a Magnetar, which has superior components. MORAL OF THE STORY: what you should buy depends on the rest of your system + your audio collection + your hearing. SACD are the best, but many releases come out in Blu Ray and others can only be found on DVD. I had the luxury to be able to buy them all, but that's not a cheap route. A good amp and DAC will matter most. Cheers.

The Bach is very well played - I do love music and also play violin. If you want to hear how fast it can be played, then check out final movements played by Nigel Kennedy. As for the SACD player not providing output on digital coax: this is down to the copyright protection on SACDs. Thank you for making this comparison.

I also have golden ears, but shitty lungs, so I'm selling one of my lungs to get that Yamaha. I will finally reach audio Nirvana!

how do you know for sure that the sony was playing the SACD layer, most sacds will also play in traditional cd player on the regular cd layer

Oh. This is from 2 yrs ago. You started recording in the mid -afternoon. Your recent videos are shot later. 😅

With my love of SACD's and DVD-Audio disks, set up menus can be confusing on my players

Okay, I didn't know anything about you until yesterday and then I watched "Calling out the reviewers" which was hilarious; "congratulations mom for doing what every other old person has ever done". A regular jokester.

The GeerFab D.BOB along with the Sony opens it up to endless possibilities. The D.BOB is currently on sale for $799.

Still love your views on and with, comedy and reality. Best, D.

Mr. S. Audiophile: about your vaunted hearing capabilities, I did a quick search and found that the highest piano note is 4186 Hertz; the highest violin note is 3520 Hertz; the highest female vocalist note sung is supposedly 12543 Hertz. Even getting into harmonics, a violin can only hit 4698 Hertz. I can't vouch for these numbers, but you see my point. Unless you listen to recorded dog whistles in the above 20,000 Hertz range, what is it you think you can hear up so high that "the audiologist can't even measure me?" Because all instruments - and most voices- are well below even a modest 10,000 Hertz? And most of the professional recording and mixing engineers are in their 50's and 60's...

You make a fair point. I would like to offer a counterpoint though. You got a 50/50 shot of the Yamaha outlasting 10 Soni*, and when you factor in inflation for each replacement Sony the Yamaha starts to look like a bargain. Your grandchildren's friends will all marvel at the sound it makes when they bounce their brass renminbi coins off of it. *The plural of Sony.

I agree about the tray on the CD-S2100, it is way too shallow and I jammed mine on the first try. After that I learned to make sure the disc is centered in those little gray rubber nubbins I also wish the display was a more visible modern type. I really don't care about SACD, I just wanted a player to match my integrated amp. I only have a couple of samplers in SACD and at my age my brain and ears aren't all that picky. Where I did notice a difference was playing regular CDs on the Yamaha compared to my almost thirteen year old Panasonic BluRay player that only cost $160 back then. That was noticeable to me, but if I only had the old unit I could survive just fine.

My Denon DVD/SACD/DVD-A/CD player sounds good to me.

Are you saying that the Sony UBP-X800M2 outputs DSD signals (SACD LAYER) on either the Sony player's digital outs that you can then feed your RME DAC and decode DSD ? That would be a shocker.

I have a similar situation with my X800 and my (somewhat cheaper than the Yamaha) Denon dcd 1600. I honestly can't tell the difference. Do you know why my X800 will play SACDs through my Chord Qutest, but my Denon won't?

This gentleman with ‘Golden Ears’ claims that when tested by an Audiologist his hearing exceeded the limits of the Audiologist’s test equipment. Hearing tests only go up to 8Khz.

Where is the scientific part?

One of only a few individuals who can not only hear, but also apeak fluent dolphin.

great review I was just in the middle of considering whether to buy this Sony UBP-X800M2 or not and feared that thing can't be too good due to its mass consumer-target construction...I was litterally yesterday at the shop to check its finishing. Very helpful review for me.

Remember boys and girls it’s never too late to see a dentist.

You should've hooked the Sony into the DAC input of the Yamaha so they would be using the same DAC to make things more equal. Not that it would have changed much.

The irony is the Yamaha has a Sony Transport so save your 2700 dollars

Glad I kept my OPPO BDP-83... I use the HDMI output with a digital breakout box to send that DSD/SACD signal to my Denafrips DAC... And it has a display!

SA, Use a Cambrige AXC 35 as transport for SACD. Could not be happier. Paul, PS Audio, says your dac is a large part of cd playback. Best, D.

The Hillary Hahn line was brilliant!

The Sony doesn’t have analog outputs just HDMI so if your integrated doesn’t have HDMI then it’s useless.

🤣 ROFL -- thanks Dude for the great video! I seriously envy you for your golden ears. Cheers, keep em coming!

Greetings, what is your opinion of Michael Rabin the violinist.

It's Moat-zart, you philistine. And that Hilary Hahn SACD is great, at least my pal who told me to buy it says it is and he owns a cello so must therefore be right. Also nobody buys wine in bottles any more. Boxes are much better and easier to stack.

Nice video! I’m curious about one detail. How you connect the Sony to the Rme? Through coaxial and from coaxial you stream a dsd stream to the rme ? I have the same Sony player and the unique way to transmit to the dac the dsd from the sacd is to use an hdmi to i2s adapter . Are you using the same solution to connect the Sony and the rme dac or another solution ?

There is a massive shortage of Yamaha players in the UK .. I was penning a 1000 but not a chance ..

What equipment was used that can’t hear as high as your golden ears? Something from 1800s? 😆

Another great review.. But.. the Yamaha is silver and the Sony looks like a massive chocolate sandwich.. now a massive chocolate sandwich may sound lovely and my kids would prefer it over a silver box, but they are 6 and 8, that's Thier age not audiophile rating.. Luckily I do have an RME FS2 dac. And makes such a musical sound when I hit the children with it, well they need to pay more attention when critical listening, even if Thier crappy pop music doesn't roll off at 60khz.. Thanks for the review, and my take on this is that the kids can buy the sandwich, when they start earning money,

"MOts-art" - Long O, hard T, S, ... "art" - Z never happens. No display is a deal breaker.

Audiologist humor is best left for the deaf.

Really like to see you banging it with OCD Mikey and Jay's Audio.

Bro why do you fling and throw the cds onto the disc tray? 🤣

It took him 10 minutes 10 minutes before he had to go say some bs like that Opp wondering if he heard me

I have that Sony unit in our family room/TV and I have an Oppo 103D with my audio system

Not so funny as other videos. In reality the sound quality difference is huge. to few funny twists.

Hi there, just wondering how do you connect the X800 to the AD-2 DAC? If I'm not mistaken the AD-2 doesn't have HDMI or I2s input. Thanks.

I have that same Chicago Brahms album on vinyl.

SACD players will not output any DSD digital stream on SPDIF (Coax or Toslink).. Just I2S but that's a bit of a can of worms in making sure you have the right DSD capable DAC (apparently, I2S implementation is wild wild west).

Can’t believe you dissed Hilary Hahn like that

What the hell? The Sony does not have a DSD DAC so how do you compare them? The sony data will be converted to PCM in the TV or AV receiver.

I wish I could subscribe to this channel 10 times

I got 40 cd players and I dont have the hearing but they all sound differnt

lmao at the end very funny

I have the Marantz SACD30n and it is an outstanding SACD player (displays the metadata) in addition to streamer... Check it out !

I would say that Yamaha CD-S2100 is for someone who already has $3000+ amplifier and $6000+ speakers.

Are you seriously saying there was no discernible difference in sound quality between the players other than a slightly more extended bass with the Yamaha ?

So you're saying that your hearing is as good as that of my dog's??

howz the sound compare,,,, sony has hdmi out,,, so how much more money

Much like yourself, I too have ultra-sonic hearing, and I can assure you there is no audible difference between the stock earbuds that come with an off the shelf smartphone and, oh lets say, a Hifiman Susvara. Thats just $6000 worth of audiophile snake oil. Thank you for your disservice to our community!

I can hear some dog whistles that no one else can hear.

You lost me with the wine. What arrogance.

99.9% of people can't tell the difference between 320 kbps and 16-bit 44.1 kHz lol. Double blind testing shows this.

I really thought this was a spoof... I'm an audio engineer and there is absolutely no difference from one player to the another. The signal is digital and it is not affected by wires or Dacs.... Build quality is the only difference. Higher end companies add weight to give it a sen😮se of quality. As far as a golden ear It's not a thing because we check everyone's hearing and found that being able to register frequencies on a scope does not translate to better hearing especially as we age. The audiophile community died after people bought these high-end equipment cords Dacs amps and were disappointed. when they found out none of it made any difference. So they went to surround sound for more impact and emotion. It's the same reason symphony music is dying with your generation. High end stores choose well recorded music to sell their product which sounds great on anything. I'm still wondering is this was a spoof. Can you respond please and thanks because it was entertaining.

Temperature to side so I can see him because I can see it from this profile

3k for a Sacd player to listen to violins and Cello's haha .

Yamaha....!

You can probably hear the deer whistles on cars (LOL).

Der Vergleich hinkt, da zwei völlig unterschiedliche DACs genutzt wurden.

this is a weird comparison ... talk about apples to oranges... if you're going to use an external DAC then the yamaha is obviously not the right choice , why would you pay so much $ for such a substantial component with high quality internal dac and analogue circuitry simply to try and bylass it all with the digital out? if you really heard any difference, it wasnt between the two players - it was the difference between your RME DAC and the Yamaha internal DAC...

I only listen to music when I vacuum.

Cheap used Oppo.... Now thatz funny. I have the sony. 700 and 800. I hate them both. But especially the 700 for its jitter drop outs and instability. Maybe the Revon or Pioneer.....

Why would you compare a cheap end product with a top of the range. I would have thought the outcome would be obvious with facilities & build. Now if you compare similar brands with similar pricing & facilities that would be more advantageous to those wishing to make a new purchase within a certain price range. Will you be comparing a rolls Royce against a lada next.

When dog whistle used a mile away you scream.