Sony DVP-S9000ES Compatible With My System?


I have a music system with a Theta Pearl transport and Kora Hermes DAC as it's digital front end and a home theater with an older Pioneer DVL-700 Laserdisc/DVD combo player at it's heart. The two systems are completely separate, but do share the same room and same subwoofer.

Recently, three components in my home theater have started to fail, the Pioneer one of them. HT performance isn't super critical to me, it's more of a convenience.

The recent rain in Los Angeles has caused a storm my brain as well. How would getting a used Sony DVP-S9000ES to serve both of my systems work out?

1. I'm aware of the mixed opinions of the 9000ES's ability on redbook reproduction, but how would this unit fair against my Theta as a transport running to my Kora?

2. The Sony has two digital outputs, an optical and a coax. I would use the coax output with my Hermes, but what quality can I expect using the optical via Toslink to my HT pre/pro especially if I require a 3 meter run?

I realize that no matter what I need to have this unit in my system and judge for myself, but I was really interested to hear people's opinions on the Sony's ability as a transport and if Toslink for HT sound would work well. Thanks in advance.
gunbei
Yeah Viggen, can you believe all the stuff in my HT starting to break down? I'm about to close a deal on a pre/pro for cheap and it happens to be the model that replaced mine, so I'll have slightly newer technology.

As far as the 9000ES goes, I was considering it because of the SACD capability to go along with the other formats. It would interesting to see how SACD sounds in my system.
Hey Dean,

There is a Meridian 586 for sale on Gon for $899. It's a dvd/cd transport that was new about 3 yrs ago I think. On Audioweb, the directory pretty much shows the going rate is $800, so....

From general research on AA and AR, the 586 seems to be is superior transport compared to the 500. So, it should have the same Philips CDM12pro transport. Plus, it has memory buffering on the digital output stage, so it eliminates skipping and supposedly improves jitter (reduction) and such.

Et
Wow, lucky for me to get a response from someone with a very similar dual setup. Thanks for the insight!
I recently tried a Sony 9000ES in my system hoping to replace a Theta DaViD. I also own a Kora Hermes and my plan was to run the Sony into the Hermes for two channel use and into a Proceed AVP for home theater use. I was then going to sell the DaViD and still hopefully have a good DVD/CD player and also have the added benefit of an SACD player. The Sony was a very good SACD player and a very good DVD player but I was very dissapointed in the Sony as a transport. The DaViD was significantly better (much fuller sounding, bigger soundstage, and much better bass) even when I ran the Sony through a Camelot Dragon Pro jitter reducing device first. Hopefully you will be able to try the Sony for yourself but my guess is that the Sony would be an excellent replacement for you current DVD player but your Theta Pearl would be a better transport than the Sony.