What after the old CD player? CDP, SACD or DVD-a?

I think it depends on what price bracket you are in. At the super high end, sticking with CD's may be the thing. But as you creep down the scale, to me it makes sense to get an SACD player with digital out for the CD's--the SACD's are great, the multi channel ones are unbelievable. There is no need to REPLACE your old collection of CD's, but if you get a player that plays both, you can sample the new format and if it fails you haven't invested that much. Sony SACD players are what I have in mind here

I was interested in SACD and DVD-A when the formats came out, thinking the redbook standard was so aged that we were due for an upgrade. I looked into the software availability and found the selection was limited and almost exclusively classical and jazz recordings. I decided since the source material wasn't really to my tastes I'd wait and see how things developed. I re-looked at the SACD offerings lately, expanded library and plenty of stuff I'd consider buying but...the SACD's are three times the price of redbook CD's. Buy some JVC XRCD releases, listen to some records, and wait out the storm.

I figure sooner or later someone will make a player that will play them all. I have a DVD player that does DVD-A. I got it real cheap. The price of the disc is killing the format. They sound great. But i have a up scale Theta setup that sounds just as good with regular cd s.

If you don't have money to burn right now, I'd hold off for another year or three and wait for universal players to become standard (and improved by the audiophile manufacturers, not the large corporate manufacturers). They exist now, but there aren't many and I don't think any of them are all that great in their stock form. DVD-A and SACD seem to be split down the middle. There are different companies releasing albums for both formats, but it doesn't seem like many companies release both...they choose one or the other. Why buy a player now and limit yourself to half of the hi-res releases when you can wait a few year and buy a good player that can play CD, DVD, DVD-A, and SACD. I really believe universal players need to become the norm if any of those formats expect to survive and prosper in the long term, and yeah...hybrid discs would also be a very smart move on the part of the labels too.

I got a Sony DVP 9000ES (DVD, CD, SACD) player. In my system redbook CD's can sound very good. However, SACD's can add another 15% giggle and grin factor (IMHO). For both CD and SACD I am at the mercy of the recording. Good recordings sound good, lesser recordings are a waste of time and money.

You can get a "good" SACD/CD/DVD player starting around $600 street. Go for it.