Esoteric UX-3 vs. XO-3

I wonder which format will emerge the winner, sacd or dvd-a.

No winners here, only losers. Not the formats themselves, but the marketing essentially killed the war.

The good news is you can find more and more SACD's and DVD-A's for sale cheap on Ebay, AudiogoN, etc. The bad news is that what you see is what you get. The major labels haved stopped supporting these formats, and stores like Best Buys have stopped carrying them.
It's what happens when you have a format war and no one comes. :-)

Don't worry, I'm sure with the advent of HD-DVD and Blu-ray technology, a new hi-rez format for music is just around the corner. Unless you have a boatload of SACD/DVD-A software, I'd just stick with your Opus 21 for now, and wait for the next format war. This one is over.

Cheers,
John

Rhythmace4218, I highly rcommend you go to the thread that I started entitled, Reference DACS: An overall perspective, that contains a vast amount of information regarding the sonic differences between the different Esoteric digital CDPS and DACS/Transports.

I believe you will find this information very helpful.

Keep the Opus 21. It's a fantastic player. Very musical and fun. As Jmcgrogan2 pointed out, both formats are DOA, though some classical labels are holding on to SACD. I tried SACD a few years ago, but a lack of software caused me to pass on. Redbook all the way and the Opus 21 is hard to beat. If you have the itch for something new try computer-based audio. Or an Audio Note transport/DAC suystem. Either will stick.

I agree that the war is over, with mostly losers and few, if any, winnners. Stick with redbook until you see what happens with HD/Blu-ray thing.