lo-end & hi-end SACD players sound the same ?

Aarif,

trust your ears. it's not unusual for newer, much cheaper digital to be close to or better than older top level units.

in this particular case you have one of the very first ever SACD players, the now over 9 year old SCD-1, and very recent cheap player. this new up-to-date player has the latest DAC's and so has advantages on SACD. on redbook the much better analog output stage and overall build quality and transport of the SCD-1 still yield benefits.

OTOH if you compare the low-end player to a current state of the art SACD/redbook player like the Playback Designs MPS-5; amoung serious listeners there would be no contest on SACD.

You could make the same claim with regard to the minor differences between the Oppo DV-970HD and the Sony SCD-1. Your ears are discerning in that there is very little difference in audio reproduction but a substantial difference in present value.

CD players and DAC sound quality is very subjective. I have listened to very high end soundind seperates to a Macbook with a moderatly priced tube DAC. The price to sound ratio is all over the place.
Some of the very expensive seperates is just not what they claim to be. So trust your own hearing when making comparisons.