I sincerely beleive that the Sony 9000ES is the better buy, and that's not even considering the added bonus of DVD and SACD. I carefully auditionned the Sony, the Musical Fidelity and the Rega Jupiter (more expensive than the planet but worth it). Following reasons for buying the 9000ES:
A lot more detail probably due to the extraordinary sony DVD transport (even the "2-generations-back" flagship S-7000 was considered one of the best transport regardless of price! check the still-available planethifi.com 1997 review of this machine. Hard to beleive but true!) And the 9000 is way better.
Very real and palpable midrange without coloration.
An excellent match for a tube preamp with all this detail feeding tube's warm sound nicely.
Built like a tank, extra-quiet operation.
Video circuits can be switched off, leaving audio-only circuits on, making it a true dedicated audio machine.
Impeccable, classy styling with the cool blue "glass" diamond. ( Musical fidelity takes the cake as worst-looking disco glitz style. Sorry, but I just could not stand it)
The excellent DVD picture and SACD added to making this a no-brainer really, but buy it strickly for it's audio magic, it's that good. Just don't expect high-end store to want to sell you this incredible machine instead of their megabuck cd player. It's not worth it for them, but beleive me, snobery aside, it's the steal of the crop so far. By the way, my older player was the classe cdp.5, usually considered a very good player...the 9000ES is in a different league. One downside. The 9000ES will only play cd copies if recorded on Sony software. I knew this before buying, did not bother me but it might bother you. Good luck in making the right choice.
