Cheap SACD Player or wait for DVD Audio?

Yes, most audiophiles are going to find that SACD's sound great. But so far I haven't read any specific, detailed accounts of comparing 16/44 CD's played on a SACD player versus on a very good CD player (or transport + upsampler-DAC). For those of us with huge libraries of CD's this is critical question: Would we get a superior sonic performance using a SACD player for CDs, just based on the way it processes 16/44, rather than one of the highly-rated $3000+ CDPs or DAC's? If you answer yes, please give specific examples of the players used, what system you listened to, and the differences you heard (granted, this is subjective).

I think a position has been overlooked. I am basically a very high end analog guy that plays my CD's on a Sony 7700 DVD/CD player. The reason I bought this unit in the first place was to watch movies. The CD player is a bonus, and although it will not match some of the high end units discussed here by other posters, it is a super movie machine, and quite good as a CD player. Now Sony has the 9000ES, and my understanding is that it will do progressive scan DVD, CD, and SACD. Others have commented that it may be purchased for less than $1200.00. I am not exactly a huge fan of Sony, but this unit, even without the ability to play SACD, is a pretty good deal (progressive scan). I think I am going to buy one, play the software I own, maybe even purchase a few of the new SACD titles, and see how it goes. I have stated in other posts, that I would LOVE for some EASY format to sound decent on my system. However, if it turns out that the SACD format is a disappointment performance wise, this new machine will certainly defeat my current unit as my movie standard. Hopefully, it will be equal in standard CD play, and then the SACD format is a freebee. If the CD playback is better than what I am currently using, and SACD is ANY better than standard CD, then this would turn out to be the deal of the decade. I hope some of you that favor this format are correct, my listening experiences at CES has been less than wonderful. So far as software goes, since the 9000 ES plays regular CD, there is already a huge library available. As far as new music on the SACD format, Sony owns a huge library that they can pull from to supply future releases. Should this entire idea "bomb, " the movies available for rent at Blockbusters will eventually wear this unit out, and get me a decent return for my investment. I think it is worth a risk.

al,

whil i basically agree w/your position, i feel i can still wait a few months, because i believe that there will soon be decent ~$1200 retail digital-disc players that will do *all* formats. i can wait a few more months. but i also admit that i don't watch movies, either at home or in the theatre, so the audio capability is a little more important to me. (well, i *have* seen things like toy story, a bugs' life, small soldiers, etc...)

regards, doug

Ral, both the Sony SCD-1 and Marantz reviews in stereophile have direct comparisons to upsampled and standard players. That was actually the major thrust of those reviews.

Jadem6: Yes, those SACD reviews do compare CD-playback with a that on a few CDP's/DAC's, but these are often expensive models (like dCS, Accuphase, Levinson), in which case the latter are usually prefered. R. Harley says of the SCD-1 that it will compete with $3-4000 CDP's for 16/44 CD playback. But I wanted to hear some more "real world" examples from folks out there on the internet. And it would be especially interesting to read more detailed comparisons between "cheap" SACD players (~$1500) versus similarly priced CDP's, regarding CD playback.