Good thread. One point I'd like to make on this. While the Marantz SA8004 is a fantastic unit with many accolades and actually just got named "Source of the Year" in Jan 2012 issue of TAS, it only plays stereo SACDs and not multi-channel. That greatly limits the dynamic perfomance you can get out of SACDs. Many if not most SACDs are mastered in mult-channel format. Take it from me, when played over a 5.1 surround sound audio system or higher, there is no comparison to an SACD in just two channel stereo. I have both and have first hand experience with this. I still can't understand why Marantz produces this unit in just two channel SACD output. They have made other players in both. The Oppo 95 has multi-channel SACD output. So just be aware.
