Biggest soundstage in a CD Player ?

MASSVM, I found the Levinson to have more sonic stability than the sony. The sony sounded good when playing sacds but once we switched to redbook cds it sounded aweful in comparison. The dealer was shocked he didnt know what to say. He had asked me to bring my 39 in he never heard one. needless to say he is trying to take on the Levinson line as we speak.

Lev335, whatever you say. The Marantz SA-1 is just another Marantz CD player. Levinson can only wish they can package a player like SA-1. Sure they can copy the Marantz SA-1 for about $15K. I had the Levisnon 39 in my system for 6 months from my dealer friend and the Wadia 27 set up. And having about a dozen audiophile friends listen and compare A/B the Marantz SA-1 is superior to the Levinson 39 in CD playback and another world in the SACD playback. This SA/1 is not your stock run of the mill Philips CD player. E-mail John Atkinson aka Stereophile who is a personal friend of mine.
Just compare parts between the two. You are paying atleast another $2K for the name Levinson. The Marantz SA-1 is a statement piece by the Japanese- meaning they use the best of everything and is hand crafted. They do not make money on pieces like the SA-1 because of the limited production. Marantz makes money on the volume pieces, then you can say what you said in your previous statement. I should know, I had spent +10 years as an in-house counselor for a Japanese consumer electronic firm.

If those where your thoughts why bother to ask me. If I struck a nerve Iam sorry Marantz is Marantz and sony is sony and Levinson is Levinson. Deal with it

What a snobby attitude, Lev. Sony is Sony and Marantz is Marantz on some things, but it is ludicrous to knock the Sony SCD-777ES and SCD-1 or the Marantz SA-1. These are world-class machines, bar none. Sony and Philips took a different approach to designing these players in order to make a significant impact with SACD. It worked. The Levinson player you have is excellent, no doubt about it, but I would take one of the aforementioned SACD players any day. Give SACD a good, objective listen on a broken-in player and you will wonder why you spent $3000-4000 on a conventional redbook CD player. The Sony and Marantz units are also excellent with redbook CDs. Sorry, but SACD will beat anything a Wadia, Krell, Levinson, etc., can do on redbook CD. *Stereophile* claimed that the $30,000 dCs upsampling redbook system bettered SACD, but not by much. Great if you want to spend $30,000. The Sony and Marantz SACD players are incredible performers and great values.

9fold- you are exacto-correcto sir, and I commend you.

People have to realize that without companies like Marantz and Sony, to do the R & D, the hi-end industry (especially digital) would suffer. I don't want to put down the small
US hi-end companies, but open up there boxes (CD players). It's mostly Japanese technology and repackaged for a lot more money. As of today the Marantz SA-1 & Sony SCD-1 are the best and everyone else will follow. The Accuphase 2-pc system SACD player is nice if you have $28K. Accuphase is flat out over priced and make money on there statement pieces. Marantz & Sony statement audio pieces are simply to show what they can do which is usually the best.
I say let people like Lev335 have his views. His loss is our gain. And if he read my previous forum, he may understand the gist of it.