Marantz SA-1 (SACD player) available ?

I heard it will retail for $7500.00 and will be out shortly. Chances are if you approach your local Marantz dealer with a serious intent to purchase, they will probably find a way to aquire one for you. My question is will the SACD format be the best and final format of choice, or not? I guess we will all have to wait and see if the technology starts to trickle down to other manufacters and products. Then, hopefully we will know if SACD will be here to stay.

Sorry, I forgot to comment on the Sony SACD player. It's hard to say how the Sony will compare to the Marantz. I would like to hear both players in the same room, but I know that won't happen at my local audio shop. If you really want to examine their different characteristics you will have to take them both home and demo them, and decide which you care for personaly. Everything I have ever taken home to demo has sounded different than it did in the showroom. This is always the case though.

I understand,If you were just starting out. sacd,if your rich enough.I don't have inside info,but in the mags.I see less than 50 titles.If you have 100's of cd's why not Purcell up sampler for that 5 grand and improve the sound of every thing you already own? Not to mention-seen any 5.99 sacd's? reminds me of a joke on an old Redd Foxx party "record"-an old bull & a young bull on top of a hill were both looking down at the cows in the pasture.The young bull says "lets run down and make love to one of them cows"the old bull says"lets WALK down and make love to ALL of them. Not trying to dampen your inthusiasm; early adopters pay the price.At 62 I have seen formats come and go.Not predicting sacd's future,but you just KNOW 2nd generation will be much better,and probably cheaper.Already bought my Purcell.I'm sure 2nd generation up samplers will share the same destiny. enjoy

Thanks for the info. $7500 is a bit steep, I was hoping closer to the $2K-$3K range seeing that their is very limited software of SACDs. What caught my eyes was the looks of the unit, and that it plays regular CDs too. But again $7500 is too much money to take a chance on something that may live in infamy like.....Sony Beta.

Here is the news release: http://www.marantzamerica.com/news/prsacd.htm