Sony 9000es v. Phillips 963SA - anyone compared?

Bluefin, Gthirteen,
I had audition Arcam 7 few years newer CD Player then mine and did not like it, bright unmusical. I did not have chance to addition 8,9 models, but old ALPHA 6 (top of amateur serious) really beats SONY SACD in spades in vocal harmonics generally in liveliness and acurateness of presentation.
I had burn in as stated 400h over before any audition.
Did I find successor of Arcam?
It was supposed to be famous SONY SACD, but because I cannot afford audiophile SACD, I'm back to CD Players.
I was inclined to buy used Wadia, but on HE in SF I have heard it and it was fast, dynamic transparent but very hi-fi, so I do not know anymore, I prefer more analog presentation. Something like my old Arcam but much more dynamic, more airy, transparent but in this direction.
Maybe Audio Areo Capitole, but on the show there was not even one unit to be found. And I have heard that there are problem with reliability. After very bad experience with reliability of "suppose to be reliable SONY" I do not have courage to buy something described as beautiful sounding but unreliable and troublesome. So I had real problem. But I'm patient and maybe time and gurus from audiogon will resolve my problems in the future.

I , too like an analog sound.
I'm telling you, I have no problems on the 9000es with SACD, but the CD is a little lacking, plus, no CD-R playback.

I'm sorry for your pain in the ass with Sony.
With a company like that, it's all about getting past the people answering the phones, and they're basically trained to not let that happen. Some are downright mean. Anyway, I got lucky in m battle with Sony, and it turned out roses for me.

But I feel your pain.

I think the Phillips player might be what you need?
Less than $400 delivered, at the very least, you can sell it for a $50 loss on Audiogon, if you don't like it...
That's just what I might do...

i have owned the sony 333,555,999 and the 963 i borrowed sounded better. the redbook from this player is amazing!!!!

i did settle on the marantz 8360 for a little more money. very warm sounding unit and incredible redbook - it is very close to sacd. i would reccomend either the 963 or the 8260.

hope that helps !!!!!!!!

mike

mike,
for the sake of argument, were the sony units (and teh phillips) burned in (say, 1-200 hrs) or fresh out of the box.

Also, how does the SACD of the Marantz compare to the Phillips?

Did you compare all of these in your "home" system?

THANKS!!!

I was checking out the AA board and it seems that all owners of both of these players have determined that the Phillips is superior in sacd as welll as redbook playback over the 9000es.

There is one owner that said it has better sound than his previous 9000 and his Phillips 1000 on both redbook and sacd.