Pioneer BDP-09FD As Good As They Say On Stereo?

It is good, but not that good. At some point I had one for video duties along with a Sony XA5400 on CD/SACD and the Sony handily beat it on CD. The main reason to get the Pioneer is for a multi channel analog application with BR/DVD, which is where this player shines. Unfortunately the movie crowd is moving wholesale to HDMI so this player is loosing its target buyer audience. If all you need is 2 channel analog outs and use HDMI for Multi Channel get the Oppo 95 instead. If you need MCH analog SACD as well as BR, you are better of getting an universal (Denon / Marantz).

I own the Pioneer BDP-09FD and find that the sound is every bit the equal of any of my Sony players. I am not a magazine reviewer, nor have I compared it to a Wadia or MBL player, but to my ears (which still work very well)
the Pioneer sounds wonderful on CD and DVD.

I've owned this player and hooked it up for CD playback for awhile in my 2 channel. I have been using an Esoteric for awhile which I prefer over the Pioneer.

The 09 was great however in HT however I ended up selling it due to the new Oppo's that came out. I've had every Pio Elite blu players and liked the 09 best for stereo play back however it shines through more for me in HT settings than 2 channel.

If you can get a good deal on one, and have an integrated 2 channel/ht system I would say go for it as it can be great in that setting. Also seeing you can still run the mutli channel outs and then send HDMI to the display is a nice feature if you have an older AVR or pre/pro that doesn't support HDMI. Personally I've been thinking of doing this for a bedroom set up instead of a AVR due to sound quality.

Buy a cheap Blu Ray player and a good stand alone DAC, you will get better performance if you still use those silver discs that spin.

I've recently had a Pioneer Elite DV-58AV, a Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD, and now have a new Oppo BDP-95. The new Oppo is much better on CD than the Pioneers. It is probably the best CD player available until you get into the $5K Ayre player. (Ayre has never made a bad sounding component of any kind !!).

Also, the DV-58AV is better than the BDP-05, and plays SACD and DVD-A's to boot. It is a real sleeper.