Sony 9000es v. Phillips 963SA - anyone compared?

Speaking as somone who just had the Sony 9000es for two years with 900.00 worth of ic's hooked up to it, the Phillips 963a sounds better on redbook out of the box with 60.00 ic's and the stock pc.
It has way better imaging, air and soundstage after 100 or so hours break in than the 9000 ever had.

As far as Sacd....no contest, the Phillips wins again with the very first song played being "Tin pan alley" by SRV.
The Sacd playback is an obvious improvement in the same areas of imaging and sounstage plus more air than the fulley broken in 9000 es with more exspensive cabling.

The sony offered a lot better build quality and was tottaly reliable for me with decent sound but lets face it, it was a first gen combo player with great build quality for the money....but technology moves forward[at least in this case] and my revelator tweets agree 100% with the sound comparison.

If you put your ear up to the transport of the 963a , you can hear a faint ticking but only on redbook and after the 1000's dependebility record, who knows how these will hold up.
This player cost less than a lot of different cabling i have purchased over the years and should be considered an absolute steal at it's list price, even though they sell for around 400.00 shipped.

After around 200 hours, i will add better ic's and pc's and hold out for the upcoming Sony with Sacd output.

I agree, the Sony is a well built piece.
Rbstehno, have you tried the Phillips in your 2Ch rig for extended periods of time, and if so, you still prefer the Sony?

gthirteen, i have not used the 963sa extensively in my audio setup. after around 50 hours of breakin, i evaluated the 2 players. the 963sa was better than the 9000es except in sacd playback, but it was very close comparison, not a night and day difference. Maybe after another 50 hours of breakin will the 963sa sound better in this area. Also, as for reliability, many high end rooms at he2003 used philips cd players as transports with external dacs for their source and the sound was excellent, most rooms didn't use sacd players.

Bluefin, Gthirteen,
I had audition Arcam 7 few years newer CD Player then mine and did not like it, bright unmusical. I did not have chance to addition 8,9 models, but old ALPHA 6 (top of amateur serious) really beats SONY SACD in spades in vocal harmonics generally in liveliness and acurateness of presentation.
I had burn in as stated 400h over before any audition.
Did I find successor of Arcam?
It was supposed to be famous SONY SACD, but because I cannot afford audiophile SACD, I'm back to CD Players.
I was inclined to buy used Wadia, but on HE in SF I have heard it and it was fast, dynamic transparent but very hi-fi, so I do not know anymore, I prefer more analog presentation. Something like my old Arcam but much more dynamic, more airy, transparent but in this direction.
Maybe Audio Areo Capitole, but on the show there was not even one unit to be found. And I have heard that there are problem with reliability. After very bad experience with reliability of "suppose to be reliable SONY" I do not have courage to buy something described as beautiful sounding but unreliable and troublesome. So I had real problem. But I'm patient and maybe time and gurus from audiogon will resolve my problems in the future.

I , too like an analog sound.
I'm telling you, I have no problems on the 9000es with SACD, but the CD is a little lacking, plus, no CD-R playback.

I'm sorry for your pain in the ass with Sony.
With a company like that, it's all about getting past the people answering the phones, and they're basically trained to not let that happen. Some are downright mean. Anyway, I got lucky in m battle with Sony, and it turned out roses for me.

But I feel your pain.

I think the Phillips player might be what you need?
Less than $400 delivered, at the very least, you can sell it for a $50 loss on Audiogon, if you don't like it...
That's just what I might do...