KRELL SACD or TEAC Esoteric DV-50

Larry k.: If the DV-50 is "slightly cold" sounding (and I sort of agree), then what universal player (other than the very expensive Linn Unidisk) is "warmer" sounding? UNIVERSAL player --- not SACD alone.

Mak: You have put your finger on a possible flaw in my comparasion of the Linn vs the DV-50. The Linn is heard on a system built around Quad ESL-63's, compared to my system which is anchored by Genesis V's. I hope to get both players into the same system before too long.

I now agree with Keithr that the Linn Unidisk 1.1 is the best I have heard. After a friend got all the bugs worked out of the Linn (two trips back to Linn), the sound he is getting is superb! As much as I like my DV-50, it simply does not have the air, dimensionality and overall musicality of the Unidisk. Alas, I cannot afford it, so I will continue to enjoy the fine (but not ultimate) performance of the Esoteric.

I have not heard the Krell, but I do own the Teac/Esoteric DV-50 universal player. I am curious as to why Michael Fremer in his rave review of the Krell player, states that the Linn Unidisk 1.1 is the only universal player worthy of serious audiophiles attention, when his fellow writer Paul Bolin gave it a very positive review in the August Stereophile, and the magazine lists the DV-50 as an A+ component in their recommended components issue.

Larry: In my opinion, the DV-50 has many strengths, including great flexibility in selecting the type and degree of oversampling, an outstanding transport, and superior sonics on all formats. It also has outstanding build quality (weight is 47 lbs.). The only weakness I've found is that on DVD-Audio, you must toggle through the tracks to get to the one you want to play, rather than simply selecting the number of the track you want on the remote. (The remote works fine for regular CD and SACD.) I recommend it highly!