I'm hoping to see a review of the Pionner DV-563A universal player
(both dvd-audio and sacd) soon. Best Buy will have them available
within the week ($180) and some online sellers already do. Here's a
link: http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/ces2.../page_03.shtml.
Apparently the sacd signal is converted from DSD to PCM which seems
very undesirable but if the engineers executed the method right, I
suppose it's possible for the benefits of sacd to come through
unscathed. I do however believe in the saying "you get what you pay
for". I don't know if it would be practical to walk in to Best Buy
with my Senn. HD-600's and headphone amp and spend an extended period
of time in the store auditioning amongst the ambient noise of
customers and other A/V sources.
I do want to mention that I have no plans of replacing my current red
book cd player for this model Pioneer...it would be an addition to my
present sources and almost certainly as a 2 channel only device, no
plans for converting what I already have into home theatre. Also, no
doubt I can get a better sounding universal player for more money
(Marantz, Esoteric, etc), but in this "interim period" of another
format war, I can't justify spending too much $$$. This would
basically be a "holdover" device until the format war is settled and I
take the plunge for a true high-end player.