Sony DVP-NS999-ES Upgrade

Thinking about upgrading my current digital player and looking for some opinions from my fellow A'goner's. I currently have a Sony 999es which has been serving me faithfully for some time, just wondering if there's something a little better out there (isn't there always!?). Multi channel playback is not an issue as I'd be using it two channel only. What is important is SACD playback. I have quite a few SACD's and plan on collecting more as I love their sound quality. I run the Sony's analog outputs direclty to my preamp for SACD playback and I run its digital out to a DAC for redbook CD's (although, I listen to most of my RBCD collection via my music server and a Squeezebox Duet via my DAC...). An upgrade would be used in similar fashion so the important thing is great SACD playback with provision for digital output.

I'm not well-heeled enough to consider something like an Esoteric or an Ayre, so I'm more interested in something that lands in the $1K or under range. I've been looking at some of the more recent Sony players, Marantz, Denon, Lexicon (why are the Lexicon's selling so cheap?), etc.. pretty open-minded. Any opinions...?

You can view my entire system in the virtual systems under 'The Dog's Toy'