Herr Mahler, I bought a Sony 5400 ES back about a year after they came out. I noticed the same thing. SACD's almost all sounded far better than redbook, with any digital glare type artifacts being rare. I began to invest heavily in classical SACDs. After I owned the Sony for a year, I sent it to ModWright. It came back much better overall, but particularly notable was how much it elevated redbook. I'd say 65-70% of my redbook cds were within a stone's throw of SACD. Digital glare was not totally absent from all CDs but was substantially reduced in most cases. Only a few of my redbook CDs remained objectionable. In May 2014 I bought a Sony HAPZ1. I was immediately impressed by this unit. After a couple weeks of burn in, the stock HAPZ1's overall performance was nearly on a par with the modded 5400ES, and I noted that some redbook CDs that were virtually unlistenable on the 5400 were now quite acceptable when upsampled. I subsequently sent the HAPZ1 to ModWright for modification, which of course, improved it further.
I have owned two Denon players in the past. Both of them were highly resolving, but also prone to digital glare. I am also not a big fan of B&W speakers. I could imagine the B&Ws combined with a Denon might be problematic.
You have a couple of options. Since you already own an Oppo, you could send it to ModWright. For a similar investment, you could buy an HAPZ1. Based on my experience and overall satisfaction with my HAPZ1, I might recommend that approach. In fact, my Modwright 5400 is rarely used. There was a bit of a learning curve with the HAPZ1, and it certainly takes a while to burn and transfer an extensive library. The HAPZ1 firmware is much better than the initial iterations, and it is nice being able to browse my entire library via my tablet instead of hunting through a bunch of CDs, no matter how well organized they may be.
I have owned two Denon players in the past. Both of them were highly resolving, but also prone to digital glare. I am also not a big fan of B&W speakers. I could imagine the B&Ws combined with a Denon might be problematic.
You have a couple of options. Since you already own an Oppo, you could send it to ModWright. For a similar investment, you could buy an HAPZ1. Based on my experience and overall satisfaction with my HAPZ1, I might recommend that approach. In fact, my Modwright 5400 is rarely used. There was a bit of a learning curve with the HAPZ1, and it certainly takes a while to burn and transfer an extensive library. The HAPZ1 firmware is much better than the initial iterations, and it is nice being able to browse my entire library via my tablet instead of hunting through a bunch of CDs, no matter how well organized they may be.