anyone heard sony s9000es

thanks, I don't even know when these things are going to ship but I am starting to get impatient. I am wondering how the cd playback will be. Bmpnyc, you may remember my goal of replacing Cal. auidio Ikon MKII with combo player. Did you ever get your new pioneer prog. player?

Hi, No money, Yes I did get the Pioneer DV-37. In terms of the marketplace it was difficult deciding to buy it now instead of waiting to see what the DVP-9000ES looked like. I decided that I could wait and see if the SACD format really takes hold and when more titles become available I might upgrade to a multi-format player then. The Pioneer multi format player costs $5000 right now. When that is at a $1500, or less price point with a few choices of manufacturers I will get one then. As far as the DV-37 is concerned, I couln't be happier. The video is as good or better than any DVD player made, and the big surprise was the audio quality. Once in a while a company hits a home run with a particular model. In this case the audio holds its own next to every under $2000 cd player I have heard. Granted, I may not have heard them all, but I feel that I don't need to buy a CD player ever again.

The 9000es sounds, video looks great, but- On several cds I played the sound dropped out partially. On the "Beatles 1" cd on tracks 12 and 13 there were virtually no vocals. On the Stereophile test cd, where they test speaker hookup, the sound of the dog barking in the left channel was non-existant. The cds played perfect on my other cd player. Am I the only one with this problem? It's the same spot on each cd where the sound drops out, so it can't be my connections faultering. I would like to know if it's my unit or all of them.

Euphorbia24, I just got my s9000es a couple of days ago and I have not listened to a tremendous number of CDs, but I have had no problems at all. I do not have the CDs you mentioned so I cannot comment on those specific discs. All the ones I have played have sounded great. My standalone CD player is a Linn Ikemi that I run through a dCS 972 to upsample to 24/192 and then through a dCS Elgar DAC. The standard CDs on the s9000es do not compare to this setup, but I have been blown away by the SACDs I have listened to. The clarity and presence of the sound is unbelievable. I haven't been able to compare the same disc played through the Ikemi/972/Elgar vs. the SACD, but from what I've heard I would bet my system it's better with SACD. I used to use the Sony 7000 for DVD, and to me the S9000es has a better picture. So far I have no complaints - sound and picture are what I had hoped for.

I hope I didn't scare anyone away from the 9000. The problem turned out to be a faulty cable. Some of the music just wasn't passing through. Problem solved, everything sounds great. It has great detail and openness. The picture, going through component cables is great. I'm very happy with the 9000 now. Sorry again if I caused any concern.