Philips 1000 vs 963 for 2 channel. Which one ?

"Both players had Virtual Dynamics cryoed PC and were somehow broken in_963 has 50 hours, 1000 way more. "

Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could explain this statement to me. I am not familiar with some of the terms you have used. Thanks for your time. Jason

Philips SACD 1000(I still own but will be selling) is not that great a CD player. It has a smooth coherent presentation but lacks transparency and speed. It can be a bottleneck for certain systems. The SACD is a step below the sony 999es (i also own) but still good. It is great as a mod platform because of built. 963 is better on redbook due to upsampling and it's a better DVD player with the Faroudja chip.
I suggest 9000ed or 999es for a music weighted sys..

I sold my 9000es to buy the 963...the 963 offers superior cd/sacd and video.

There are many current and previous owners of both the 1000 and 963 at www.audioasylum.com and all seem to prefer the 963 in all playback modes including sacd.
No comparison should be done until at least 150 hours of sacd playback imho.
A lot of 1000 owners paid 4-500.00 for there player new, but the 9000 es went from 12-1500.00 new and is inferior to the 963 in all respects except build quality.

I thought the 963 to be a lightly polished turd sonically. No bass, lacks prat, upsampling was gimmicky and synthetic sounding, build quality not something I could live with. Great for the $360? Sure, nothing to brag about in the grand scheme of things, however. The SACD1000 isn't a gem either, redbook can be summed up in one word: Blah. Very uninvolving, boring, even in my system although SACD was much, much better. I would give both machines a C+ rating. SACD/CD machines from Marantz I feel walk all over the Philips and Sony offerings on all fronts. It stumps me that people get excited about products from sony and philips when a company like Marantz is making machines that are of consistent higher quality yet never get any press for whatever reason.

If you have to have a DVD/SACD/CD player with a focus on 2ch music, go for a Sony 9000ES with an external dac, it makes a much better transport then the 999es, and from the horses mouth, is a better transport then the PS Audio Lambda dedicated transports. Just my experience, others experiences clearly vary....

Anytime a 500.00 list player stomps all over a 1500.00 player it deserves an A+ period.
My sota speakers that replaced my Thiel 3.6's reveal that the 963sa is a steal.
Does Marantz have a player for anywhere near 500.00 list that can touch the 963sa......not even close.

Try 3k list for sacd/cd only player that is hardly a fair comparison,but the 963sa gets a c+??????????...maybe if your deaf.
The positive press for the 963sa is well deserved as seen on every forum.
This player does 1080i also with a firmware upgrade for those that have hi def.

Btw...there are 18k players out there that make the Marantz sound like less than a turd so there fore it should get an get an F, even though it costs 6 times less right?