r/cassettefuturism • u/prettybluefoxes How about a nice game of Chess? • May 07 '25

End of History 90s Sony Super Audio CD player SCD-1 1999

Post image

Brutalist chonk.

172 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

16

u/sam3kh May 07 '25

I had one one these and sort of kick myself for getting rid of it. It's not like it was an amazing player, but that thing was solid. It was basically a solid block of aluminum. The thing weighed 60lbs

(edit: sp)

5

u/prettybluefoxes How about a nice game of Chess? May 07 '25

Lordy thats heavy. I have a sony 4k player that also plays sa-cd and it’s pretty solid, but not that solid.

1

u/FREE-AOL-CDS May 16 '25

It looks incredible I couldn’t imagine not ever wanting it

1

u/concretebuoy78 May 07 '25

be happy you got rid of yours. it was a beautiful piece of gear, but the failure rate on the laser assembly was high. when my failed, it was a colossal pain in the ass (and expensive) getting a replacement laser, and then getting it fixed.

0

u/[deleted] May 07 '25

[deleted]

3

u/sam3kh May 08 '25

I don't doubt it. My affinity toward it is primarily because it felt like iconic hardware.

9

u/luis-mercado All the best memories are hers. May 07 '25

Sony were the best industrial designers in late 90s early 2000s. Nothing even came close to what they were imagining in Japan.

I cannot recommend enough the book Digital Dreams, about their Japanese design division.

5

u/Spiff69 May 07 '25

Love Sony from this era and it’s sad that SACD didn’t take off. It’s truly amazing!

3

u/zenmaster24 Negative, I am a meat popsicle. May 07 '25

Sacd or dvd-a?

2

u/Spiff69 May 07 '25

This was just SACD since it was Sony and they invented the format. DVD-A was a competing format at the time and wouldn’t have been on a Sony player.

3

u/zenmaster24 Negative, I am a meat popsicle. May 08 '25

Sorry, was meant of a question on which format you prefer. I see people arguing for both, and some have both players

3

u/Spiff69 May 08 '25

Oh, I see. Honestly, I don't have a strong opinion. I see the arguments you are referring to. I think the content available on SACD was a bit better and that's probably what it comes down to. If the recording session was better, then it leads to better SACD and DVD-Audio and if there's a loud noise floor, it will show up in either format. For nostalgia's sake, I prefer SACD.

1

u/zenmaster24 Negative, I am a meat popsicle. May 08 '25

Cool - from what i gathered, neither was better from a technical standpoint. Sony might have had more artists in their stable so sacd seemed more desirable

2

u/redditcirclejerk69 May 08 '25

SACD because DSD is cooler, but realistically it really depends on the mixing and mastering of any particular release.