Recom. for a new CD/DVD?

Just purchased the Philips DVD963SA with 192/24 CD oversampling and SACD. $ 430 home delivered. Sounds better than the Meridian 500/566 24bit DAC purchased @ $ 3000 that is replacing. After serious comparison testing, disconnected and switched off the Meridian. As far as I am concerned Sony and Philips supply equipment at reasonable price that sounds a lot better than the over priced "high-end" "high-price" brands. The Philips now drives Mark Levinson and Martin Logan.

Well not much to say. CD comparison to the Meridian combo is extended low frequencies, the high end has lost a bit of harshness and is more "sweet". With sweet do not mean coloration or a sound that is more pleasent to my hears. It is closer to live performance. I could not notice much difference in the mid-band. Presentation, field depth, localization of instruments and voices are more present, i.e brought a bit forward adding more sense of live performance. Resolution is enhanced, with instrument details available where could not hear before. I have no comparison with other SACDs so cannot say much, I compared Bocelli CD with SACD, no drammatic differences but a sense of musicality not present in the CD and of course more extended low and high and minute details not audible in the CD. However you need to have a top notch system to dig out the advantages of SACD reproduction. It must be said that the mastering is probably not specifically done for SACD so there is probably some tuning at recording level that will allow a better differential between the two standards. I have only had the Philips for two days now and the sound is still changing a bit.
Should you have specific questions, ask will try to answer the best I can

Daniel

Amal

I was in that situation as well, but decided for the 963 because of the 192/24 CD oversampling not available with the SACD 1000 or the XA777ES(as far as I know). Since my collection is mainly CD and there are few SACD out there, CD reproduction performance was paramount over SACD. After running-in, the Philips on oversampling is just excellent, and the difference with SACD is not that much(tested on 2 CDs only). The 963 is a machine with a lot of attention to audio. Besides the dual laser one for CD and the second for SACD, there is a "direct mode" switch on the front which switches off all the video circuits to avoid interference with audio circuits and best audio performance. The new DAC chip is ailed as superior to other brands. However have not done a direct comparison of SACD performance between the Sony and the Philips. According to informed sources at Philips the 963 is better than the 1000.But again, opinions. My initial intention was to buy the Philips as SACD and use it with the Meridian 566 DAC for CD reproduction since I liked the Meridian sound. But after auditioning the 963 conclude the Meridian was ready for retirement

Daniel