Below is a current (10-30-02) assessment of various players I have looked at and others to be released soon as well as some comments on some other products. Warning......Please to not think that anything currently stated here will be what I think one minute from now. This is simply a current guestimation of the possibilities of these players and is subject to complete reversals, deletions and the like. Do not take seriously what is said here, unless you have no brains. Hee hee. As the players are fully modded and compared then the true capabilities of each machine will be known.
All the machines in this first group as scheduled to be modded (all mods start at $500). Of course, this could change and a machine may be dropped from the group. Nothing written in stone here. Please check Yahoo shopping for latest mail order prices.
Sony C333ES: This 2 channel 5 disc SACD player is discontinued but available used for as little as $450. With enough tweaking this machine could be excellent on CD.
Sony 9000ES: This 2 channel SACD/progressive scan DVD player is still in production and can be bought for about $900 new. It is superbly made and should sound at least excellent on CD when modded.
Sony SCD-777ES: This discontinued 2 channel SACD player can sound at least excellent/superb when modded. It can be picked up for about $1500 used.
Sony SCD-1: This 2 channel SACD player can be bought new for about $2900. It can sound at least excellent/superb when modded.
Sony C555ES: This 6 channel 5 disc SACD player was originally retailed for $1700. The current list price is $800 and can be bought for $600. This machine is an incredible bargain now. It should sound at least excellent when modded.
Sony XA-777ES: This 6 channel SACD player can be bought new for about $1900. It can sound at least excellent/superb when modded. The only problem with this machine is the lack of space inside the chassis. Even so, we plan to take this machine as far as it can go.
Philips SACD 1000: This 6 channel SACD/DVD player can be gotten for as little as $1000 new. It appears to be capable of at least excellent/superb playback.
Philips DVD962SA: This 6 channel SACD/progressive scan DVD player is now out. It has a list price of $600 and can be gotten for $500 or less. It has the top of the line Crystal DAC (CS4397) for its stereo outputs. This machine with mods could sound excellent/superb. This may be a super machine for the money. We will have a mod on it by late Nov.
Marantz SA-8260: This 6 channel SACD player is also now available. It is made superbly for the money with the best Crystal DACs, completely discrete output stages and two transformers. This machine should sound very good stock (possibly the best sounding under $1900 stock machine) and at least excellent/superb when modded. List price is $1100 and can be bought for as little as $850. A mod on this machine is currently being worked on and should be done soon.
Marantz DV-8300: This 6 channel Universal player is out now and can be bought for about $1200. I personally think one of the new Pioneers or maybe the to be released Onkyo or Yamaha units would be a better bet for modding. They are all less expensive as well.
Pioneer DV-45A: This brand new $700 list Universal machine can be bought mail order for less than $440 delivered. It has the best Burr-Brown DAC in it and my sense is that with a $550 mod this machine will be killer.
Pioneer DV-47Ai: The new "i" version uses the best Burr-Brown DACs and supposedly is built much better than the original DV-47A. It has better video chips and a bigger chassis also. This $1200 list machine can be bought for less than $800 mail order. We will have mods on the DV-45 and 47Ai by the second week of Dec.
To be released:
Philips DV-963SA: The word is that this machine may be incredible for the money...and super modable. Suppose to list for around $500, have better video than the 962 and better audio using 24/192 upsampling technology. Hopefully out by mid Dec. 2003.
Onkyo DV-SP800 Universal player ($1000 list). This player is available now (just saw it on Crutchfield).
Yamaha DVD-S2300 Universal player. This $1000 list Universal machine has just hit the streets (12-8-02).
Other Products:
Perpetual P3A DAC: This DAC uses the Crystal CS4397 DAC chip and is pretty good with Dan Wright's mods. However, the above Philips 962 will gives you the same CS4397 along with SACD playback and DVD playback for less money than the Perpetual. DACs seem less and less like the way to go. With mods, the Philips 962, upcoming 963 or Pioneer DV45A should sound better than a P3A used with any separate transport.
Art Audio D/IO DAC: This very inexpensive DAC has an AKM Codec (ADC and DAC) chip. For very little money someone can mod this machine to sound very good. However, the same DAC architecture is available in the $200 Sony NS-500V. Again, with mods the NS-500 should be better than most transports used with a modded D/IO and you get a good DVD player and SACD/DAD playback to boot.
So, what to do?
1. If you have any one of the above players then getting it modded will result in at least very good to superb sound.
2. If you don't currently have a machine then you need to decide what price range you want to be in and what features you want. Do you want 6 channel? Do you want DVD? Do you need progressive scan? Do you want DVD-A. Do you want a changer? Below are some recommendations (subject to complete change at any minute)
B. If you want a changer then the only machines I will be modding are the C333 and C555. Now that the C555 has been reduced to $600 new, I would say it is the machine to have.
C. If you want a universal player of some substance then the new Pioneer DV-47Ai, the less expensive DV-45A, the Yamaha and Onkyo players are the ones to consider.
D. If you want a DVD/SACD player with great sound you have several choices: The Philips SACD-1000, the 9000ES, the Phlips 962 and soon the 963..
E. If you want a super player with no DVD then the choices are many: the older SCD-777ES, the SCD-1, XA777ES and the Marantz SA-8260. The SCD-777ES and SCD-1 are only two channel machines.
F. What if you want an "incredible" machine? We shall see on this but all machines in the F category and some in C, D and E category might make the grade. Stay tuned.
G. Hey what about me? I've got one of the better DVD-A machines and I want it modified. We will be looking at modifying some of the better DVD-A players. Cannot say when. Possible players to mod would be the Panasonics and the Denons.