to SACD or not

I have a Denon 5910ci and a Ayre C5xe-mp and there is no comparision between the two. I only use the denon for 5.1 SACD and DVD-A which is rare. Based on your budget you have a number of options, but one question, do have any discs? I have a few and sometimes I think I would have been beter invested in buying the LP's and staying with redbook. But I will add for redbook the Ayre does a great job as well.

get a turntable
vpi classic

I have an Exemplar Denon 5910 (a Denon 5910 extensively modified by John Tucker including conversion to tube output, silver wire, better caps and clock, etc). Until very recently, I had an Ayre C-5xe which I sent back to Ayre for the MP upgrade. Before the MP upgrade, the Exemplar was much better than the Ayre. After the MP upgrade the two players were very close, although different. The tubes give the Exemplar a bigger soundstage with a richer, fuller sound & it brings out the power in the music. The Ayre is much cleaner sounding with less distortion, tighter bass, lower noise floor, more low level detail.

I recently bought an Ayre DX-5, which in addition to CD, SACD, DVD-A, also has a USB input to serve as a DAC for a music server (I'm using a modified 2010 Mac Mini (8 GB RAM, SSD, and linear power supply) with a Locus Design Nucleus USB cable) and it plays blu ray and DVD video as well. I bought it mainly for the USB input and the blu ray video capability, expecting only an incremental improvement in sound quality over the C-5xeMP. I was very wrong. It is a whole lot better than the C-5xeMP and is also better than the Exemplar (though the Exemplar still has that big soundstage and rich, full sound). I have never heard digital sound anywhere near as good as it sounds with the DX-5. It does some things better than my vinyl rig and really narrows the gap between digital and analog. When fed from the Mac Mini with the files loaded into RAM Disc and played through Ayre's Airwave application instead of iTunes, the sound is so distortion-free, fast and right there in the room, it seems almost real.

If your budget goes up to $10K, you should consider the DX-5.

I tried both the Ayre DX5 and the C5 , and found the C5 much better on CD and SACD , so did the audio buds . I sent the DX back and purchased the C5 . The usb port and Blueray option would have been great , but I could not sacrifice sound quality for options . I was very disappointed , I had made up my mind on the DX .

Thanks so far everyone for the thoughts. Verneal if you look at my system you'll see a sota sapphire deck which I enjoy very much and thank you I clearly understand what your getting at.

Thing is, Virtually all of the listening that takes place here is when i'm relaxing after work and usually like to let the "disk" repeat a few times or so before scanning for another title. My SACD collection is getting bigger and would look at it as a plus at the very least for all the redbook cd's to sound better as well.

While were discussing, Does anyone think that I'd be better off saving 5k and going with a BAT which is built like an army tank and may bring better synergy with the amp I use? I realize it's not SACD but am curious as it's only been the Rotel cd player ever in the system so far.

Again I'm very appreciative for all the advice folks