I have had my Sony 777ES for about 11mos. now and I think it is a great player for both CDs and SACDs. I have a decent vinyl collection which I have not sold, although I have sold my TT and phono stage. I never bought many CDs because I never liked the way they sounded overall. I bought music I had to have that was not available like the Mosaic Count Basie live collection (my most prized recordings). I tried various CD players the last being the Wadia 860 which I sold to buy the Sony SACD player. Right away I new that this new format was what I was looking for. There was a wonderful relaxation about the sound that reminded me of analog, but without the distortions of analog. I now have about 50 SACDs and am just hoping this catches on. I still buy a CD here and there for the music but I really don't want to. And I don't want to ever fool with vinyl again. But then I'm 58 and not as patient as I used to be. My system is: Joule LA-100, Clayton M-100s, B&W 802Ns, PS Audio P-300, Harmonic Tech and Analysis Plus wire, and all Shunyata power cords with a King Cobra on the Sony 777 (the cord makes a big difference.)
SACD Demo
Went to Denver two weeks ago to hear an Accuphase demo system playing SACDs. I went wanting/expecting to be impressed. Etalon speakers, sound treated room, top end Accuphase amp, pre and SACD players. Lots of fellow audiophiles sitting around going owww ya. After moving from chair to chair and keeping my mouth shut and ears open for 30 minutes I said out loud the sound was indistict, bloted, and lacking highend detail. All of a sudden several of the other listeners declared they too had reservations. Actually I still don't believe what I heard. It's tough listening in an alien room through an entire system that your not familiar with so I will try again sometime at a different store/room etc. What concerns me is the number of golden ears that were ready to accept what I was hearing as the best they had ever heard. I have a system that most of you would rank as good but not great Sonic Frontiers SFD2M2/Line3/Krell KSA200s/Thiel 3.6s, and it was clearly better then what I heard. I really want the new technology to be better, I'm ready to buy but demo's can really dance on your head.