Is there an SACD that can play cds well?

I've put my new Sony DVP-9000ES up against my Meridian 508.24. In SACD mode, the Sony nearly chased the Meridian out of the room, and that was before I broke it in fully. I'm too scared to try it now that I've had the player for a while. I'm worried that once I hear it I'll sell the Meridian buy the best SACD player out there. But, in regular CD mode the sony is severely lacking. I've heard that players like the SCD-1 and 777 make up for this.

The question may be "Does cheaper SACD players sounds as good in SACD mode?" Sony has and is coming out with some inexpensive ones. You could pick one up a cheaper one for SACD and keep your existing player for regular CDs since you seem to be happy with it.

I got one of the early Sony SCD-1 to play SACDs. Also had the Levinson 31.5 which I sold because the Sony, in my system was more musical for regular CDs. So I sold the Levinson. The Sony is a pleasure to use but is quite slow. Hope you can find one to audition. It's well worth the price...even the original $5500. The current price, it's a steal! Good luck.

There is something strange about the Sony SCD-1: the more you use it, the better it seems to get on CD playback. I have a Levinson 37-dCS Purcell-Elgar combo, and in the beginning it was light years ahead of the SONY on CD playback. Then I started to use the SONY's filters, and really liked the result on some less than state of the art CDs. (Yes, the Purcell has similar filters, but they're harder to use.) Now the Purcell has been away for several weeks, and the SONY is really playing beautifully. I'm curious to A-B them when the Purcell gets back. If you can stand the slowness of the SCD-1's windup to play, you really might consider buying one before they disappear.

Hey Mgottlieb. You could be the missing link in most of the threads on this topic. So far no one has adequately (in my humble opinion) compared the top of the line Sony SACD player, with CD playback, to a state (or near) of the art CD only system. I'll bet I speak for many listeners out there when I say that I will never actually replace my CDs with SACDs of the same titles, but would like to begin purchasing new titles in SACD format. So, I too will need a system that can play both, whether that means one box or several.

So, "you're the man". Do us a big favor and report back when you have your Purcell back and compare the 2 in CD mode. Thanks in advance!!