Ncarv- I also own a 9000es and agree it is a great unit for the money, but the onboard DAC(current-pulse I believe) sounds horrible on redbook CD's. It does give a good picture, but eyeman was looking for a good all in one player which the sony is a great unit but not for all in one. I used to have a rega plannet which using the analog outs on it yielded far superior results then the sony, and the DAC in my old pre/DAC processor(acurus actIII) sounded better then either and the DAC in my current digital pre/DAC(accuphase dc-300) will blow all of them out of the water. If you can use the 9000es as a tranport for everything except sacd I think it will do you well, other wise as it was said above, no player will really do what you are looking to have done(except possibly the new audio aero, which is going to be around 10k msrp). Another one of my friends also uses a 9000es and says the exact same thing, he doesn't even use it for music playback strictly for video and a little sacd.
Great Progessive Scan and Great CD Playback?
Several months ago the Toshiba 9200 received excellent reviews from the Home Theater mags for its progressive scan abilities, and also from Stereophile for its excellent handling of CD's. Although the price for it has become quite reasonable (about $700), the assesments by hometheaterhifi.com of its progressive scan capabilities no longer put it at the head of the pack. I am looking for a DVD player that really does fabulous progressive scan and doubles as an excellent source for CD playback. Although there are some great candidates out there for video performance (Panasonic RP-91, Kenwood Soverign 5700), the audio source capabilities of these units remain relatively uncommented upon. Any thoughts on these units, or any suggestions on excellent video combined with excellent audio?