No doubt the new 777 will be a great piece, but it goes for around $3000(probably a little less from someone like Oade Bros.). For me that's too much to pay for such a new technology that does not even have a digital connection yet. I would much rather buy one of Sony's cheaper players and have someone like Dan Wright, Stan Warren, or Ric Schultz(EVS) modify it(Ric is really going all out, even replacing the stock op amps with discrete FET output stages). Performance would likely come quite close to the 777 and you'll probably end up saving around $2000. My perspective is that in about two years the SACD players available will probably kick the crap out of everything available today both performance and feature wise, so I know I'll end up upgrading around then and will have much less buyers remorse with the modded unit--for what it's worth. Best of luck.
By the way, Pioneer's new Universal player converts all SACD to PCM, which defeats the purpose of the player in my view.
Tim
