I'm in the market for a SACD player at the moment, so I've been looking around a bit lately. Most recently I had the opportunity to listen to all of the 3 new Denon 2 channel players, DCD-1500/2000AE and DCD-SA1, hooked up to the PMA-SA1 (their new statement 2 ch. amp, which compliments the DCD-SA1). Spent a good 2 hrs in the shop, in quite a good demo room, with a pair of B&W 803Ds at the end of the line. I was left to my own devices and Mssrs. Respighi, Borodin, Coltrane and more progressed in turn through the 3 players.
Result? If I'd had $100.000 spending money on me I'd still have walked out of the shop with the 1500AE, because there was precious little difference between them. Best I could do in terms of differences was a "maybe", a "possibly" and a couple of "not sure", which isn't all that much to show for a price span of thousands of bucks.
Might just hang on to my Pioneer multi and buy some discs and a few beers instead.
