SACD Players

Having not heard the latest Sony offerings, I can't comment on their sound, although Simon appears to be an excellent listener from his posts and I would tend to give his opinions respect. I don't think Sony is missing anything; I think for once they're getting the right idea of producing cheaper players (with a progressive scan DVD player to boot!) and getting the possibility of marketing SACD to the masses. Now if only they would make their SACDs hybrid discs like everyone else and lower the prices of software, the medium might be able to stick!

Doug, Accuphase has an (outrageously) expensive SACD transport/DAC on the market, and my understanding from my local dealer is that dCs is working on a universal transport. I'm interested by your final question, because the concern you speak of is the reason a friend of mine, after much consideration, went with the Graham arm for his TNT a few years ago over the JMW arm. Quite frankly, I don't think he could have lost whichever way he went, they're both superb products.

Doug: Haven't heard the Accuphase. I'm sure it's impressive, although take a look at the thread SACD Demo, from last November, where several posters heard an unbroken-in sample of the combo and gave it mixed reviews. Also, Stereophile reviews it this month, for what it's worth, and Scull does draw some comparisons with the Sony and Marantz units he reviewed earlier. I didn't want to spend a lot on a new medium which might not make it, so I waited until the price on the Sony SCD777 ES came down to $1600, then had Jerry Ozment of Audio Logic bypass the analog stage and attach the tubed analog stage from his 2400 DAC, with separate power supply, to the Sony. I think the resulting unit sounds very close to my Forsell/Audio Logic 2400 digital rig, I didn't have to spend anywhere near the $24,000 for the Accuphase, and I got to feel like I'd put my money where my mouth was to give what I perceived as an improvement over the CD medium a chance to succeed. Your earlier question about other high end manufacturers making these machines probably is rooted in the fact that it's an expensive risk for them, many of whom don't have the capital to put into the R&D necessary for a medium that might not be a commercial success. Sony, Philips and Accuphase do have that kind of capital. Hopefully, with the added feature of 6-channel sound, they can make the format succeed.