Going SACD or analog?

I was in pretty much the same place as you so I'll tell you what I did even though that may be no help whatsoever in figuring out what you should do! I was a fairly early adopter of SACD and bought a SCD-1 and eagerly awaited the flood of new titles that would surely come with this clearly superior technology. The flood never even became a trickle. I had throroughly scoured the available discs and bought about 40, all of which sounded fantastic, and only about four of which contained music I actually liked. Eventually I sold the player and most of the discs and bought a relatively cheap vinyl rig (Rega P3 and Benz Micro Glider cartridge) and now have access to thousands of dirt cheap titles, albeit not a lot of new stuff. However, I live in NY and there are quite a few easy sources for records. If you live in the sticks it may make more sense to enhance your CD rig and forgo vinyl.

Bomarc makes alot of sense, but pragmatism is not always a strong suit around these parts. If it's any consolation, there are hundreds of cd tiles on ECM, CMP, Tzadik, Intuition, Hat, Enja and other labels that sound better than most SACD releases. Vinyl has its virtues, but it's often beat up and expensive when you can find the stuff you want. And it's FRAGILE! Don't let anyone kid you, a stylus does not ride the groove in a clean low friction environment. The contact surface area to weight ratio is about a ton per sq inch. A record isn't the same and doesn't sound the same after a stylus has been dragged through it a few times.
When you have an exceptional piece of vinyl, a great table, arm, cartridge, and stylus that are set up perfectly (they never stay properly set up for long) you can hear some %#@*/:>} GOOD STUFF!!. You can get way more than 99% of the way there w/ the best digital front ends. Sometimes the last .05% or so really matters. I think groovier'n hell that some guys go at it that way all the time. Unfortunately, they'll miss out on most of the incredibly good music and recordings that have come out in the last 10 to 15 years.

One possibility, since you already have a Sony CD player and are used to its sound, is to get one of the more inexpensive Sony SACD players, as I'm sure you have plenty of CDs and these players offer decent sound, even on redbook CD, from all I've read, and use the rest for your analog front end. After all, you have a lot of music on CD you'll want to listen to, no need to give that up completely. KF is right, you'll want a preamp with a decent phono stage, or a standalone phono unit (many of which can be had used for a song) if you have a line stage, but even a modest analog front end (one of the MMF tables, for example) will outperform an inexpensive CD player and give you a lot of listening enjoyment. Don't feel you can't get good analog for less than $3K, or even $2500, I've heard analog rigs for under that price that sound terrific, even using revealing speakers such as the Innersounds.

There is no doubt in my mind that a TT rig will sound better at your price point. There is also a ton more records out there than SACDs. The downside to a TT is that its more of a pain in the ass, and a larger investment in time, money and attention than beginners anticipate. Envision setting it up, cleaning records, and being a little more anal.

I had a $3k TT rig that I sold because I am just too busy and college-like to deal with it. I really like my $3k CDP, but that TT beat the hell out of it.

Here is a twist. What artist that would come out on SACD would convince you to get a SACD player (even a cheap one)?

KF