I hope that Rcprince has answered the majority of everyones questions. Rcprince's system is quite substantial with basically four distinct channels, high end cabling, ioslation devices, etc. His speakers (with separate subs for each channel) and tri-wired front tweeter, rear firing tweeter and midrange are excellent for the type of music he prefers. Prprince also told me that Jerry does not believe in upsampling with his DACs but Rcprince has advised that the Purcell does add to the sound mostly for its filtering, as he wrote above. If I had the CEC or better transport than the Sony, I would get a tubed DAC (I want to add tubes in my system) and try an upsampler and that would be that. My comment implies that you will not know what you are missing until you compare them in your system side by side. In my system, Rcprince's CD set up would be it. I do not have that extensive of a SACD collection so unless you see the SACD format taking off, I would stay with the best CD player set up. I have never heard the Linn 12 but I would think that CD will never approach the top SACD format in the sound quailty that Rcprince describes.
For some of us who already own the Sony, the mods are cheaper than getting Rcprince's CD set up and if they can also help SACD playback, the better. I think that Dan Wright offers a tube output for the Sony for around $3000. So that maybe the cheapest option if you want to get into a tube CD player.
For some of us who already own the Sony, the mods are cheaper than getting Rcprince's CD set up and if they can also help SACD playback, the better. I think that Dan Wright offers a tube output for the Sony for around $3000. So that maybe the cheapest option if you want to get into a tube CD player.