anyone that says the scd-1 is only a mediocre cd played hasn't heard it in a good system used as a transport with a good outboard dac. i have had mine for 2 months and the sound inproves every week. remember..it does take awhile to break in and sound its best. every source sounds different with different cables.don't label the player an average component unless you have heard it with many different cables. mine changed significantly when i went from cardas golden cross's to harmonic tech prosilway II for interconnects ( rca's for the cd and balanced for the sacd) and audio tekne speaker cables, biwired. it now sounds as good as any $7500 cd player out there...i have had meridian 508.24 and metronome t20 transport and it's better then both.good power cords also help. i doubt anyone's scd-1 has reached the 300-400 hrs needed to truly see how good it will be.
