I have the 9000es and cannot hear the transport spin unless i get my ear right up against it. Then maybe I can just barely hear "something" when playing an SACD. I just tried it & have not compared noise on a redbook cd. Mine is a new player that I had modwright level 3 Mods ($800). It sounded so fantastic out of the box on sacd that I may not buy anymore redbook cds. But the redbooks sound excellent even though the unit has only a few hours on it. Unfortunately, I now wish I had gone multi channel.
