Philips 1000 vs 963 for 2 channel. Which one ?

DAMMIT MattyB -

Why did you have to 'knock me off the fence' about buying a 963sa with this amazon link!! ;O (j/k)

I just ordered it, and indeed it included free shipping through J&R - but ONLY if you buy it via Amazon and use standard shipping.

My only conundrum now is this:

I ALREADY have a nice, primary DVD/CD player - an Arcam DV-88P progressive model, that I use as my primary source for redbook AND DVD's. At least this will give me a chance to compare 44k to 192k upsampling, CD to SACD, etc. Who knows - maybe I will like the Philips more then the Arcam (though I doubt it).

Maybe a nice external DAC with Home Theater Pass-through (I'm thinking Bel Canto DAC2 or Musical Fidelity 324 ..?..?) would even the playing field for the 963, though I have seen the threads on AudioAsylum that indicate it isn't even needed....

Any opinions here would be appreciated ... Whatcha Think??

Bhouser,

I was tempted as well. I submitted a post about the Philips at Amazon here on A'gon around 10:00 this morning, so anyone else could take advantage. Still nothing posted.

Got lost I guess,

Bhouser...

...the 963SA has really good redbook and SACD sound, and it is surprisingly good (sonically) as a transport, clearly better than my Audiolab 8000CDM, at least with my Bel Canto DAC2, which I like a lot. The only downside is its mediocre handling convenience (at last it's a DVD player...). A funny example: In shuffle mode, in 90% of all cases the playback is happening in the same order with the same CD... :-)