I own a 900V (european model) and have listened to a 9000es.
As a transport, I feel the 900 is the better player. It has 96/24 through it's digital output and can also read CDR. It is a newer generation transport.
As a 2 channel player it is about equal to a good $400 CD player. No worse than that. Considering I paid $590 for the unit, I'm satisfied with redbook playback. It uses 192/24 DACs and has a separate toroidal transformer for the analog audio board (there's a switching supply for the transport and chips). Video can be completely turned off.
I think the 9000es might be a bit better for pure 2 channel audio, but not as a transport.
The DD/DTS decoders are basically 'free', since it is integrated in one of the big chips inside. Analog 6 channel output was already needed for multichannel SACD. The multichannel SACD also has some bass-management and can work with a phantom-centre speaker. It also offers level matching and delay.
All multichannel SACD releases should also have a 2 channel SACD mix on the disc. This is mandatory. Whether this will hold up in the future is less certain of course. It is not possible for an SACD player to downmix mc SACD to stereo.
As a transport, I feel the 900 is the better player. It has 96/24 through it's digital output and can also read CDR. It is a newer generation transport.
As a 2 channel player it is about equal to a good $400 CD player. No worse than that. Considering I paid $590 for the unit, I'm satisfied with redbook playback. It uses 192/24 DACs and has a separate toroidal transformer for the analog audio board (there's a switching supply for the transport and chips). Video can be completely turned off.
I think the 9000es might be a bit better for pure 2 channel audio, but not as a transport.
The DD/DTS decoders are basically 'free', since it is integrated in one of the big chips inside. Analog 6 channel output was already needed for multichannel SACD. The multichannel SACD also has some bass-management and can work with a phantom-centre speaker. It also offers level matching and delay.
All multichannel SACD releases should also have a 2 channel SACD mix on the disc. This is mandatory. Whether this will hold up in the future is less certain of course. It is not possible for an SACD player to downmix mc SACD to stereo.