Sony 900ES SACD sound vs CD - Help

The Sony sampler, overall, is not that great for showing what SACD can do. If you like their music, try to get the dmp sampler, which has all DSD recordings instead of older analog masters from CBS/Columbia. In addition, check out the must-have SACDs thread here as well. And, as Joekras points out, let it break in--the posts I've seen say you have to break in both the CD and SACD sides separately. When you use the digital out, I don't think any signal runs through the analog stage, and you are only using the CD laser, so you're not breaking the unit in for SACDs. Ultimately, I still felt that the analog section was too polite and unexciting for my taste and compared to what I am used to, and had a mod done to bypass it, but obviously there are a lot of owners of the Sony SACD players who like the stock version as is, so give it some more time. Good luck!

Jadem6, I think you (and I too) may have misread some of Martice's post, as I went back to re-read it. Martice, I'll try to answer your ultimate question as to why I bought a 777ES with limited (certainly not no) software available. To begin with, last winter, when the only units out there were the SCD-1 and 777ES at $5000 and $3500, I bought a dCs Purcell in the same price range on the same rationale as you point out, that for the same price I could get something that improved the 1000+ CDs I now have vs. a piece that had only a few available titles, many of which I had in other formats. However, when the price of the 777ES came down last fall to $1600, I took another look at the format's software, which was increasing and included a number of titles I, as a classical lover, was interested in from good labels, and figured that at this price it was worth the chance that the format might not succeed and at least a listen. Upon listening to the 777ES, comparing CD and SACD on hybrid discs of the same recording, the superiority of SACD was clearly apparent to me. I bought the 777ES ultimately because SACD is what I, as an analog fan, have been wishing digital, even upsampled digital, could be and I figured I should put my money where my mouth was now that I could afford to pay the price. If enough of these SACD players are sold, the likelihood increases that more software will become available as the manufacturers and distributors see the format as commercially viable; but if the hardware isn't in the hands of the consumers, there's no chance for the format. I figured also that if the format never went forward, my son would have a hand-me-down CD player that was at least competitive with units in the $2500-$4000 price range. I'm encouraged by Sony's latest models, which have lower price tags and, with the 9000, includes a good DVD player--this kind of marketing could make the format a consumer success. And, at least with the 777ES since it has a digital output jack, keep in mind that you can improve your redbook CD playback by getting a better DAC than is offered in the stock unit and using the player as a transport. I believe that this is why many of us think of the unit as a comparative bargain at the $1500-$1600 price--in my system, it's had the additional benefit of keeping my Forsell transport on its best behavior (don't ask me why, but that unit had always been very tempermental till I brought in the Sony; now it works flawlessly)! Sorry for the length of this post, hope it makes some sense to you.

Martice, good luck! If nothing else, at the worst you'll have a fine DVD player that also plays CDs, DADs and SACDs. I'm interested in how you like it, so let us know.