CD Player or New Format?

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.

I do not know, i wouldn't want to spend more than $1,000. I have modest system as it is. Is there a problem with universal players playing CD's? If they don't (have a problem), wouldn't option of playing SACD and DVD-a's be an advantage? Thanks!

DVD-A definately does NOT sound best. Both formats are excellent. Since you like classical, clearly more titles are available on SACD.

I think it is sound advice to place Redbook at the top of your criteria list. That is, unless your budget allows you to consider top shelf multi-format players, like the DV-50 mentioned.

In other words, lower priced players, for the most part, compromise one or the other.

Way things are shaking out get a redbook player.There may be many good DVD/SACD/DVD-A combo bundles this holiday season.