The rotel 855 is very easy to listen to. I owned one and a later model that Bruce Armstrong[peak audio] did mods on. Then he tore the analogue section out of a Kenwood[handfuls of cheap parts, and completely rebuilt itthe way he thought it would sound most analogue. He actually did a lot of listening to changes he made [he sold 4 of them and built one for himself....they are all still working fine and are making good music to this day..the new gear is better but I'm waiting to see where all this lands. My nephew is still using my rotel 855 and he was surprised when his new panasonic dvd did not sound nearly as good on cds....maybe Bruce will mod a sacd player for me someday when I feel safe with their reliabilty.
Latest SACD News - Very Interesting.
Rumor is one of the main record companies had decided to stop CD production and switch to SACD/CD hybrids for all new titles. As Sony cannot as yet produce hybrids, it is assumed that the label in question has to be Universal (Philips).
The news, announced at a Sony-Philips press conference, was that one million consumer SACD players have been sold so far. The prognosis for SACD is total worldwide sales of 6 million players (in whatever form) in 2003 and 13 million in 2004.
Sounds like great news, but there are still no SACD titles I want to buy; and I refuse to pay more for a hybrid CD I can't use.
More information is at: http://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?1353