Soney 9000ES as a transport

I have had my Sony 9000 ES only since last Friday, the sound from the analog outputs are extremely wide band and sound really good, considering I have only half the hours needed for break in. As far as this player as a CD transport, my CD' s have not sounded better, using it as is. Perhaps you will be pleasantly surprised by what you hear. On DVD movies, it does an amazing job. The image quality is absolutely the best I have ever seen, and this is my fourth high end DVD . The digital output you are considering using into a DAC, has provided perfect steering for my Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder, along with improved dynamics and bandwidth. If this is any indication of it's ability, I would think it could be a terrific unit for a DAC, if one is needed at all.

I,ve had mine for a week, 140 + hrs. As a cd player it is good, but doesn't come close to my Levinson 360s + upsampler
combo P-1a Perpetual Technologies combo. I think that it
makes a great transport. Rest of system consist of JR 8t amp,BAT VK-30se pre, B&W N802 speakers, 4 Richard G, 1
Quantum Symphony Pro, Power Snakes Cobra, Viper, Sidewinders, ASC tube traps, Analysis PLus Silver Ovals
speaker cables + int, Transparent Ultra XL from pre to amp.
Video section of this player is the best I have seen.
(incredible!) My only compaint is that it does not read
CDR's.

Let it break in[burn in ]in analog mode for 300 hours and you might find your money better spent on new interconnects.I have to agree on the digital out being first rate on this unit though.If you end up going with an outboard dac i would like to hear about the results.

You guys are really enthusiastic about the 'DVD quality of the 9000ES. Do you all have digital TVs or projectors ? With a 'normal' TV (like my Mitsubishi VS55-705) there should be not much of a difference because the progressive scan cannot work. Re the SACD feature: has noone missed a balanced output from the 9000ES ? The specifications state that it has only RCA audio outputs.

Rogerwalk,i have a cinema series toshiba 35 inch monitor and can see improvements in picture quality over the 7000.These improvements are in color and clarity and are obvious to anyone with a quality monitor.This particular tv was the best out of the box picture sght and video magazine had ever seen two years ago.I imagine any quality monitor from sony xbr,panasonic or several others you would see the differences just using s video or componet video.

Back to audio. Yes you can use it as a transport. It's a much better transport than the Panasonic A7, JVC723GD, and Sony 300. My 22 year old son and I could barely tell the difference between using the digital outs to my Rotel 985 ($2000) or using the 9000ES DAC and going analog into the Rotel. In other words, the Sony DAC is very good and you will need to spend some dough to better it. I've read of other who were pleased with external DAC and the 9000ES. Personally, if you get an internal DAC, get one with upsampling--like the MSB line. I've not read about anyone's experience with the MSB however.

So, how is it compare to SCD-777ES as transport?