Philips SACD 1000 or 962.

My other player is an AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000, and the SACD 1000 has a similarly prominent midrange but is much more refined with less grain. The Ah! is more forward in the upper mids.

I picked us a 962 recently and think its a terrific value for SACD. I compared it to the Sony DVP9000ES and I prefer the sound of the the Philips for SACD but the DVD User functions are better on the Sony, the 962 offers the Faroudja DCDI chip which offers a great picture. The 962 also offers multichn out SACD. For redbook I would say it offers the performance of a $500 player. I replaced my previous setup (Levinson pre and DAC and a Proceed PMDT DVD)with the 962 and a AA Capitole MKII. The PMDT was a MUCH MUCH better DVD Player also at 10x a higher price.

The 962 also offers an audiophile option, when listening to 2 chn or SACD, the 962 offers a button to disable all video functions and power. This allows an audio only signal that is non curropted by video processing and power..personally, I have a problem hearing the difference.

overall, a very good SACD performer and DVD player with certain quirks (limited user functions and slow Layer change on the DVD)..

But for the $500 street price...its a hell of a deal.

Matt

http://members.rogers.com/mzn50/

Matt could you compare red book performance sony 9000 and philips 962? DVD performance is a plus but not really critical in my setup .
Thanks Vlad

Both players are fine redbook performers, I did fine the Sony a tad thin in mid range, however since I had the Sony in my system, I have changed to much better interconnects..so, one would have to re-evaluate that "thinness" The build is much better on the Sony and the overall feel is better on the sony. Again, its almost twice the price (retail).

If I had the option again, I think I would still go for the 962 even though DVD performance is somewhat lacking as well as user functions... reason again is the SACD and Multichan SACD

I am not even sure the 9000ES is still being made ??

Matt

Here's a post of mine copied from AA:

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I auditioned the 962 for a week. It's a fairly balanced player across the frequency spectrum. Smooth sounding, and on the warm side of neutral.

I found the bass a little bit overblown, loose, and thuddy -- not much detail or definition there. But in this price range that's not surprising.

A previous post said the player was much better than the Sony 9000ES. It's not. It's got a warmer, thicker sound (as opposed to the Sony's thinner, brighter) but the Sony is more refined. The Philips, however, has very good detail; only slightly behind the Sony.

Video is excellent. SACD is good (but has the same issues in the bass).

For what you get for your $500 it's not bad.

I'm waiting to hear the Marantz 8300.