SACD/DVD-A Anyone tried Yamaha or Integra?

I have a friend who works in a dealership carrying Integra, claims the whole Integra line, every product, to be absolute mid-fi garbage. The SACD/DVDA player is, according to him, worse then the Denon 2900, which make is pretty bad indeed, as the Denon was, according to him, essentially eaten alive by the Philips 963 on SACD and CD, and even his internal 20bit dac in the old EAD theatermaster processor was better overall on redbook. Performance is all relative, of course, and what one calls garbage, the next guy calls good enough, so don't hesitate to try the gear for yourself, as always, it's more fun that way.

My advice is -- don't buy a Universal Player. You will
never be satisfied with the sound. Instead, buy a
DVD player with DVD-A, like a Denon DVD 1600 or
a panasonic XP-50. These are highly rated DVD players -- they scored really high on Secrets and TAS
shoot-outs. The DVD-A playback will be just as good
as a $1,000 Universal Player. But, you can pair that with a CD/SACD player that wil get you much better CD playback than any Universal Player short of the Linn
Unidisk, which sells for $11,000.

You can get a Denon DVD 1600 for around $300 used.
Or, you can get a Panasonic XP-50 for a similar amount. Then, you can pair that with one of these
CD/SACD players....

Philips 963, which you can get for around $400 used.

or...

Sony SCD 555ES, which you can get for around $700.

or....

Sony SCD XA777ES, which you can get for around $1,600.

Each of the SACD players, the Philips or the two
Sony will give you better sound than a 1,000 Universal Player. And, when you are ready to upgrade, each of
those units can be modified for even better sound.

Think in terms of two boxes and from $700 -- $2000
you can choose how much better sound you prefer
over a 1,000 Universal Player -- and it is relatively
future proof in the sense that when you get the itch
to spend some more $$ and upgrade, you can simply
add a Super Clock II or any other combination of mods
and improve your sound.

I just did this for my younger brother. I bought him
the Denon DVD 1600 and the Sony XA777ES. That
combo is like a two box Universal Player and it kicks
the holy crap out of my Yamaha s2300. He'll be happy
with that for a long, long time.

Don't stick yourself with a U-Player.

You pay a premium for having them cram everything
into one box and you pay a price in sound degradation.

Two boxes.

Just my opinion.

Does your friend have rocks in his head? Denon is one of the most highest regarded players on the planet. The video quality is second to none. Not to mention they use the highest quality parts for both audio and video. The new Integra is supposed to be awesome as well and it's already getting alot of praise here already. It just doesn't have bass management.

No offence Eulogytool, but when I read - "Denon is one of the most highest regarded players on the planet", I just wanted to ask - What planet?

Funny, I gotten the very same type of responses from Krell and Bose owners.... :)