My stock 9000es sounds really awful (as SACD/CD does not matter) with comparison to old Arcam CD, I would not have courage to put $1700 to make it sound right. I believe that for ($2500 = 900ES+$1700) I can buy cdp far beyond squared(super-extra) modified SONY. There is so much to choose from. But this is belief of discourage owner not a fact.