Sony 9000es or Musical Fidelity A3 CDP.

Tbadder, when you talk about foreground and background, are you talking about soundstage depth?

A digital signal out is a digital signal out why waste your money.If you had the extra 1K to throw buy a Rega Jupiter or a 2K player.You can move into the next level.The Planets dac is better than the Belcanto to start.
The Belcanto is to be used with older players.Both the A3Cd and Rega alone will out play what comes out of the Bel Canto.

I agree that the sony is the winner if you don't intendid on using it for analog out on use of redbook cd's. If you plan on using it as a tranport for redbook/dvd(digital output) and analog SACD output it will do super. I found the DAC-in the sony- to be pretty lifeless and dull sounding on redbook recordings, very uninvolving and compressed. But with a good DAC it will bring new life to an other wise great player, there is probably some truth to Natalie's comment, digital has improved exponentially since its introduction, cheaper players now will outperform premium players of yesterday. I found that my old Rega planet sounded better then the sony 9000es, though I don't use the DAC in the sony so I don't really notice the problem. Do any of you out there with modwright mods notice improvements with the digital output of there unit? or is it more on the analog level that the improvements really shine?
~Tim

The modwright mods have a significant improvement on the digital out of the player. If you look at his site you'll see that he rebuilds the digital out ciruit, there are benefits also from the damping and power supply work he does.
The great thing about mods and the 9000es is that the mods will benefit all formats Modwrights level 3 mods are $800 half the price of a fancy DAC and the modded 9000es kills everything in its price range. If you have no interest at all in sacd and wish to own a seperate dvd player than look at other options...the sacds are starting to roll out...
Also when thinking of a DAC for redbook on the 9000es consider the price of an extra pair of interconnects, a digital cable and probably a power cord. If you buy reasonably priced cables the cable cost will be at least $500 before you even lay out the $1500 for a DAC.
$500 will buy you a lot of mods.
A digital signal may be a digital signal but remember that jitter is jitter and power supply noie is power supply noise. Even a brief audition of transports will show you that there are large differences in quality. The 9000es transport is outstanding and it's internal dac not at all bad, with intelligent mods it is a versitile stunner that shines with redbook.
Asa side note Bel Canto is showing there new dac2 with 24/192 upsampling. Although the dac1 was alittle warm I have never heard anything regarding it being made to be used with older players? It is a nice unit if it suits your tastes and works well with a number of tranpsorts.

Dolphin: yep. soundstage depth.
NaT: I'm assuming that the person wants a DVD and Sacd capablility. For many of us, because of pricing, we've got to knock off two/three birds with one stone. That's why I like the gradual approach of the 9000 with a DAC eventually, and then the mods. It gives me two or three years in which to afford something special. I don't agree about the Rega planet being better than the Bel Canto. Why? System synergy for me. My components gained alot of liquidity and subtle nuance. I auditioned a Planet at home and it didn't fit my system needs. Now if a person doesn't want DVD or Sacd then by all means I agree, throw that extra 1k to the Jupiter, which I found to be a very expressive machine. Haven't heard the MF A3 so I can't comment.