What's a great multi format player under a $1,000?

I don't think you'll find "great" SACD/DVD-A (or even one of those) for under $1K, esp. multiplayer. The Denon's are not very good IMHO until heavily modified. Then, they have potential to sound "great", but the mod's to get them great will be over $1K by themselves.

Just my experience and opinion.

Fish, intersting to hear you say liquid with a Benchmark. I had the notion from reading reviews they were pretty dynamic and to the point of being analytical. But having one I'd guess you would know better. Thanks.

swamp, I am fast coming to that conclusion. I did think, though, that a transport per se, wouldn't be hampered by the digital out formating... naive is my middle name sometimes.. and then paired with a multilinguistic DAC, BAM! I'm there. But yeah, copius amounts of duckets ensue to that end. AND, nope. Not philosophically challenged in that regard... just ain't tickled with the notion of buying something that requires a goodly amount of work to achieve some sembleance of satisfaction with it. I wasn't too keen on the old Chevy Vega. Actually I hated them. Looked terrrible, ran even worse. rusted out with only a couple downpours. then a friend of mine put a 327 cid v8, did some body work, paint, etc. after driving it then... well, now that was fun. Stick your arms out the windows and you either would fly, or draw back a nub. surprising speed, and good looks were fascinating things at 17.. and I still don't like Vega's... as a rule. Now gremilins, there's a car!

an honest look at things says to me, "You've already got good CD/SACD... so actually, only DVD/DVDA remain and then as afterthoughts... but good afterthoughts... as my DVD is limited in scope, and w/DVDA more genres open up for investigation... and 24/192 ain't no slouch for listening quality either.

rob... guess I'm on the same track with you. AS those were my thoughts going into this endeavor. As my initial thoughts were to do ONE player for everything. Now I'm of the mind, with this and other info, to simply get the SONY 400 DVD carosel for filing & finding movies easily, (and sweet jumpin' jellyfish, I got a fair number of DVD's), and with something like one of the Integra models for the DVDA... then I saw the Arcam 2900 and figured Well, maybe.... but no. the other two choices let me get both of them new, and add some decent wires too.. and look for a DAC down the road.

then I stopped myself short and thought to ask folks like yourselves. Because, now there are a couple more formats on the way, or already here, and figured I'd gain better insight asking first... actually the price I set to this task with all this in mind ain't too realistic, huh? Having only this past weekend found my first HDDVD's... I didn't even know it was HD till I tried to play it in the PC. Sorry, it won't even play them. Lovely.

Thanks folks, for keeping me straight.

Blindjim, in my system everything sound "liquid", I could certainly imagine the Benchmark sounding analytical in some systems but not for me. I am thinking of swapping out my DAC & trying something different just to try it but the Onkyo will stay for the long haul.

"I am thinking of swapping out my DAC & trying something different just to try it but the Onkyo will stay for the long haul."
-Fishwater

The Dodson 217 Mark II D with upgraded 218-like software is fabulous with the DPC 8.5, which (as you know) is the Onkyo unit a step BELOW yours. Just a thought if you decide to audition DAC's, nothing more. YMMV, etc.

Jim- Unfortunately, I believe that I am correct with respect to a transport/DAC that can do hi-rez you are looking at about $6-8K and it won't give you DVD-A. Certainly for those $, you can look at one of the Esoteric one box units, or for 1/2 that, a modded Denon. I did look into the costs of modding an older unit and except for the purchase price of the player, its the same (duhhh!). So that route doesn't help much. Modded players do not retain quite as much value, so you may save something for looking for one already modded here. Thats what I did. Or you might consider an Underwood Level 1 mod on a 2910. If you don't need digital video out, then that is a good way to go and I think you can get into it for just a little over a grand.