Sorry Markel, but you've misread Sony's current marketing plan. Sony never intended SACD to be a high end product. The DSD process was originally designed as a archiving A/D for the digital conversion of their massive music catalog. The introduction of DSD as a consumer product called SACD had more to do with Sony trying to out position the DVD-Audio consortium. Sony now intends to market SACD as a mass market product -- witness the introduction of their $1,200 multi disc player and the annoucement of a $400 (street price) single disc player. Furthermore, within 18-24 months all new Sony CD/DVD players will be SACD capable. Where Sony has fallen down is on the software front. Despite many promises, SACDs are not readily available. Also note that all current Sony SACD players have digital output of 44.1kHz signals, so if desired, an external DAC can still be utilized. By the way, most who have experienced both upsampling and SACD opine that SACD is the superior format.
