Hello, I owned the Pioneer DV-37. Nice machine but frankkly not in the same league as the 9000ES. For starters, one can hear the disk spinning inside at low volumes ! All Pioneers do this except the venerable 09.
I have heard quite the opposite on the Sony line. Sony is NOT coming out with a high-end ES-designated DVD/SACD player to replace the 9000ES.Better grab one while you can. They will keep SACD to non-DVD transports, which is a shame as it's one of the great transports for audio purposes, regardless of price. Even that old 1997 Planet Hi-FI review (still available on-line)came to that conclusion ( with a roomfull of respected audio reviewers from all magazines) with the S-7000, which I owned. Went to the following 7700. And now the 9000ES. Each upgrade occasion, I did the audition circus, trying out most one-box cd players out there, up to twice the price of the 9000ES. Always came back to the flagship Sony. Of course this deserves non-respect from most "high-end" shops where they would rather sell us the megabuck cd player of the month, and would never admit to the "audiophile" status of the 9000ES for redbook cd playback, never mind SACD.
I just do not understand why audiophiles do not grab all of the 9000ES players available, when such quality is available for the equivalent of audiophile-peanuts. It's a tank that looks like it came out of a design museum and makes a true class statement. It's a superb SACD player. A superb video picture ( although I'm not using it, I know what it's capable of )a competent cd player that will smoke many big names in Audioland. It can be modified to extract even more excellence out of it. And finally, it makes a ridiculously cheap transport that rivals with units costing five times it's price when mated with an external upsampler. I hope I have succeeded in convincing you that buying this machine is a no-brainer. I'm holding on to mine for awhile. But of course, for about the same money, the Rega Planet has this cool top-load design... Happy listening all !!!! Hope you found this entertaining, anyone agree with me here?
I have heard quite the opposite on the Sony line. Sony is NOT coming out with a high-end ES-designated DVD/SACD player to replace the 9000ES.Better grab one while you can. They will keep SACD to non-DVD transports, which is a shame as it's one of the great transports for audio purposes, regardless of price. Even that old 1997 Planet Hi-FI review (still available on-line)came to that conclusion ( with a roomfull of respected audio reviewers from all magazines) with the S-7000, which I owned. Went to the following 7700. And now the 9000ES. Each upgrade occasion, I did the audition circus, trying out most one-box cd players out there, up to twice the price of the 9000ES. Always came back to the flagship Sony. Of course this deserves non-respect from most "high-end" shops where they would rather sell us the megabuck cd player of the month, and would never admit to the "audiophile" status of the 9000ES for redbook cd playback, never mind SACD.
I just do not understand why audiophiles do not grab all of the 9000ES players available, when such quality is available for the equivalent of audiophile-peanuts. It's a tank that looks like it came out of a design museum and makes a true class statement. It's a superb SACD player. A superb video picture ( although I'm not using it, I know what it's capable of )a competent cd player that will smoke many big names in Audioland. It can be modified to extract even more excellence out of it. And finally, it makes a ridiculously cheap transport that rivals with units costing five times it's price when mated with an external upsampler. I hope I have succeeded in convincing you that buying this machine is a no-brainer. I'm holding on to mine for awhile. But of course, for about the same money, the Rega Planet has this cool top-load design... Happy listening all !!!! Hope you found this entertaining, anyone agree with me here?