Opinions on the SACD playback of Esoteric DV-50.

I haven't heard other SACD players, but the DV-50 sounds amazingly good to me. It's not too shabby on redbook either and beats all the others I have heard, which admittedly is limited and excludes EMM, Exemplar, Opus 21 etc - which I have not heard.
But I think the DV-50 is certainly up there with the best.

Sjh32 - I use an SCD-1 as a transport to a 360S, so I have a pretty good understanding of the level of excellence you expect.

I have directly compared my SCD-1/360S combo to an Esoteric DV-50, in my system. With SACD there were differences between the SCD-1 and the DV-50. Both were good, neither one was a clear winner. There were several things I liked about the DV-50's SACD playback, but nothing so stellar that I felt the need to buy one just for SACD.

With CD, there was no contest. The DV-50 is a good CD playback system, the SCD-1/360S combo is an outstanding CD playback system. No comparison whatsoever.

If Redbook is your primary focus, and your current setup is your benchmark, you would not be satisfied with a DV-50.

Right on Rex. I wasn't expecting as strong of a recommendation for the Sony/Levinson combo for redbook. Your post really helped me decide not to mess around with other players, for now at least. Although more Hi-Rez title are being released every day, I've come to the realization that the CD will be the medium of the near future. Actually I wouldn't be surprized if SACD and DVD-A fold completely. DVD-A has a better chance since it's back compatable with DVD player through Dolby code, even if does sound a little worse than CD. Thanks.