McIntosh MCD 201 vs. other good $4K SACD Players

I had an in-home demo. of this Player until it broke (Transport failure) and the Dealer took it back. It worked for nearly 3-days, and I thought that it sounded very good, highly-detailed but also very smooth and laid-back, not harsh or overly digital-sounding at all. SACDs sounded a bit strange to me, the CD layer of Hybrid Discs may have sounded better. Redbook CDs sounded excellent. I'm still curious about this Player, has anyone had long-term experience with this piece? Or compared it against the really good, sub-$4,000 SACD Players from Krell, Sony, Marantz or Esoteric (SA-10)? I'm shopping for the best sounding Digital Source Component available for less than $4,000. I would prefer SACD playback, since I own quite a few that I really enjoy. Thanks!