Which makes more sense? - CD player vs SACD

Personally, I think you should scrap the cd and sacd thing and go with your choice of music server and DAC. This can certainly sound better than redbook cd from all but the most expensive players, and you can't beat the convenience and fun factor. Not to mention that it is the future of what we do.

Shakey

There are a lot of good ideas here already. I'll throw a few more in the pot.

Look for the Virtue Audio Piano M1 for CD only. It's definitely in your price range, looks great and sounds great.

For SACD, There are plenty of good suggestion already. I'll suggest getting a used Denon 3910. They were ~$1500 new, but can be had used for $200-300. Then you'd have a huge chunk of change left over to spend on music. I think they compare well to Oppo/Marantz suggestions.

Also, there is a here on Audiogon who is selling a modded Denon 3910 that could conceivably be better than any of these, and I think he's asking about $800. I'm not sure if he's still selling it, but the 3910 mods are generally wonderful. I think he's also throwing in a bunch of SACD's.

Hi, thanks for all the feedbacks and thoughts.

Cmalak, thank you for including the review links for Maranta. It's very informative.

R0817...I think you can't go wrong with either the Marantz (which will allow you to access it as a DAC as I mentioned via digital inputs) or the Oppo (which gives you the ability to spin any silver disc you want incl bluray). For the sub-$1K price point, those are the units to get. Shop around and you should be able to get them in the $800-$900 range new and used should be a little bit better than that. If you buy used, I would use the remainder to buy a lot of silver discs. You can buy used CDs from your local audio store for as little as $1 a disc. Good luck.