New DAC or New Player??

Mine did exactly the same thing.... Sony USA ES warranty is five (5) years so yours should be covered. Mine arrived back from the Sony ES Service Center in CA today and I will be picking it up tomorrow. ... was 3 1/2 years old when I brough it in 6/27 to local dealer. Repairs made under warranty. .. no charge
Hope it helps.

That's a difficult question to answr because it depends on how much SACD listening you (plan to) do. I have an SCD-1 which I definitely want to keep even though I don't listen to a ton of SACD, and want to improve the redbook of the SCD-1. That's mostly because I think the SCD-1 makes an amazing transport. I've some experience with the DVP 9000 and know that it has some issues with the flimsy tray, so as a transport it may not be the best option. There are mods out there for it, but as you can get one for 650 used, I think putting more money in doesn't make a ton of sense. If you're concerned with redbook play mostly, then get a dedicated cd player, but as you have a dvd player now for your sacd and cd playback, than I think you're probably better off gettin a universal (sim, ayre, linn?) player. So what do you plan to use it for mostly, because without knowing it's hard to say wether an outboard DAC is better or not.

i was in the same boat as you a couple of months ago. i have a good working sony 9000es and use it mainly for cd and sacd playback. i did not like the sound that it was providing from cd playback. sacd playback is very good though. i looked into getting it modified (to tubes). i also look at purchasing a cd only player. in the end, i didn't want to give up sacd playback, and i do like the option of using it as a dvd player. I ended up buying a used $3500 Audio Research DAC for less than a $1000 for cd playback and couldn't be happier.
good luck.