CD Player or New Format?

I'd suggest focusing first and foremost on redbook cd playback. And if the unit happens to play one or more of the other formats, all the better.

But it only plays one other format, I'd lean toward SACD as the one alternate format.

-IMO

I'd get an Esoteric DV-50. This player does redbook amazingly, and does ALL other formats you could fity in there, and will soon have a DVI video output upgrade from TEAC. I'ts been rviewed by many mags/people, and almost all love it, some just really like it, but for the price (I paid $4500 new, they show up for ~$3500-3900 used) you'd be hard pressed to better it!!!

FWIW I also lean towards SACD, seems the mosr supported format, and seems it should be the better of the two, that said, many things I want/own only come in DVD-A, so until much further down the road, IF one format does outdo and eliminate the other, I'd go with a universal player.

FWIW I have had a Philips 963SA and Linn Unidisc 2.1 in my system, and the 963, while a great buy at the $370 new I paid, sounds pretty compressed to me. I guess I could mod it, but it seemed overkill at the time.... I like the sound of the unidisc, but must admit, it seriously lacks bass. It has that smooth A$$ Linn sound (Most of my gear is Linn right now...) but when compared to the DV-%), just was lacking in definition and accuracy....that last one comes from the wife.

So... I guess what I am saying is I would recomend a universal player until something settles out as the ONLY source....

Get a good CD player. Otherwise you'll be spending money on SACD chip and DVD-A chip. CD will be the main standard for quite some time. No guarantee either of the new formats will survive. And if it takes over it will be many years from now. It took SACD 4-5 years to get about 2 square feet of shelving at Tower records and other record stores. DVD-A (which sounds the best) is floundering with dismal software.

Rob

It may be helpful to list the $$ range you will be shopping in. I have not heard the Esoteric X-01 (SACD/CD) or UX-1 (universal) players, so I can't say how they compare with top players doing CD. However, I heard the DV-50. This is a very good universal player, but, it can be bettered by CD players doing only CD. There are inevitable compromises when a machine has to do more than one task. If you are looking in a lower price range, I bet the compromises will be even more extreme.

Even though I own about 70 SACDs, I decided to focus on a very good CD-only player. To me, the advantages of SACD and DVD-A are not that significant, while the limitations in available software further decreases the attractiveness of this format.