Is the Simaudio Moon Eclipse good value? Help

This question comes up fairly often, in the general sense, is newer, cheaper digital gear better than older, more expensive gear? As with all things in audio, the replies are usually split. Some folks love the latest digital chips, and feel that these make the biggest difference. The other camp feels that the power supply and analog output stage are more important than the latest digital chips.

I am from the latter camp. From what I have heard in my system, the $7K CDP of yesteryear will perform better than the $1K CDP of today. To me, having beefy, isolated power supplies and top quality components in the analog output stage makes a bigger sonic difference than having the latest digital chips with cheap parts. Of course, as always, YMMV. I'm sure that others will disagree.

Always been a fan of Simaudio dacs-transports and players. Have always considered their amps-int.amps-preamps not performing at the same level of the digital gear(just my opinion). Would you be willing to pay for repairs if they occur(laser-transport ect.)? Another option is a used Bryston-bcd-1(warranty) or a new Onkyo-CD7000R($1495).

I agree with JMc. I have had excellent luck with buying expensive and well reviewed gear from yesteryear. You get what you pay for IME.

I have the Nova in my stash and it is an excellent Redbook player. I can imagine the Eclipse being even better. At that price, I can't see you losing money if you don't like it.

Value-wise at $1k I'd say it's worth the gamble. That's actually a very good price imo depending on the condition.

A lot of the performance of the Eclipse will be about synergy, (impedance match? or mismatch?) with the other electronics in your system. For instance, I used to have the Simaudio Nova many systems ago and eventually sold it because it wasn't performing (sounding) like I wanted. It's a quality cdp, but did not match well in my system. I'd like to hear how it would have performed as I changed gear along the years. You never know... It may have performed better with other gear I owned later. So sonically, the Eclipse will be a gamble; you won't know until you put it in your system.
Unfortunately, buying quality gear, current or older, does not guarantee quality sound.

Thank you for all the feedback. Perhaps some additional information would be of value: My 'plan' is to put together a used system comprising of the Simaudio Moon Eclipse, Simaudio i5 integrated amp or YBA Integre DT integrated, and Totem Sttaf or Hawk speakers. I've not been able to hear the system so I'm counting on my internet research to draw some conclusions regarding synergy. Again, any and all feedback is welcome.

Thank you for all the feedback. Perhaps some additional information would be of value: My 'plan' is to put together a used system comprising of the Simaudio Moon Eclipse, Simaudio i5 integrated amp or YBA Integre DT integrated, and Totem Sttaf or Hawk speakers. I've not been able to hear the system so I'm counting on my internet research to draw some conclusions regarding synergy. Again, any and all feedback is welcome.

I once ran Nova + i-5 + Arros and it was an excellent combination.

There is great synergy between Sim gear IMHO. I also agree that a big part of digital equipment sound quality comes from the power supply and analogue output stage and Sim has always excelled in these respects. Case in point - Sim offering outboard power supply for its 650/750D DACs as a way to improve sound.