Best SACD/CD Player up to 3000 street price?

I would audition one of the Marantz players. The 8260 is multichannel that is reported to be a premium version of the acclaimed Phillips 1000, there is a new 8300 coming out. I own a SA14, replaced a Wadia 850 with it. It mates very well with the Cardas Golden Reference and with better Transparent cables. The 14 is being updated; the Mk2 version is a tweaked version of the original but I do not know all the details. I find the M players more detailed yet less fatuiging than the Sonys, which are excellent in their own right but not my choice. To make an analogy, I would say if you like the sound of the Cardas GR you will like the sound of the 14.

I suppose we will have to chalk it up to different results in different systems; I am confident in what I heard, not just for my seemingly endless comparison, but also from having a friend listen in as well; he has an excellent ear and when trying to chose which player was playing he was right, or wrong, 50% of the time.

I had both the meridian 508.24 and the sony es777 multi channel.When I use the analogue outputs for two channel,it beats the meridian in all aspects.I got rid of the meridian.

Easy call--SCD-1. I bought one about 6 weeks ago. SACD performance is out of this world, and once you've broken in the CD (which takes several hundred hours), it's competitive with anything out there. Dramatically better than what I was using before (Meta Laser 2 feeding GW Labs DSP (in upsampling mode) feeding Theta Casa Nova). Build quality is incredible.

Chuck, I have owned both the Meridian 508.24 and the SCD-1 and had them in my system at the same time for a couple weeks, in redbook playback, the Meridian will compete with the SCD-1, contrary to your comments.

There are a lot of threads on this subject. I would suggest you do a search and read till your hearts content. However, I second Stehno's comments, the SCD-1 is simply an amazing player for the money. On redbook it is very competetive with the big names and on SACD it is simply amazing. People love to knock this player but I am telling you it is very very good. The meridian will not compete with this player for detail you will need to go up to the EMC, Audio Aero or the likes to do it.

Chuck

If you can find a Musical Fidelity 3d, it will give you close to the performance of an SACD player and will match perfectly with the amp. I have the same set up, it is amazing.

I have had both the Sony SCD-1 and the Meridian 508-24 in my system and for redbook playback I much preferred the Meridian, the bass was superior and I liked the tone of the midrange better too. In comparison the Sony had a brighter and thinner high end and less midrange weight and did not compete in the bass either.

That is just one opinion and a brief amount of time listening in one system, hence my 2cents worth.

BTW on a friends system we AB'd the 2 players and could not consistantly tell them apart, the difference was much greater in my Maggie based system and my friend has B&W speakers.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find any cdp better than the SCD-1 in this price range.

I'm very confident that you will not find a better built unit than the SCD-1 in this price range. This unit is built like a tank and weighs almost the same.

Of course it is very good with SACD as well.

Did I mention it's curb appeal?