Price Paid:  $170.00 from ebay

Summary:
First let me say that I have encountered absolutely no problems with this unit's mechanical operation. Yes, sometimes I get irritated waiting for what seems like an ice age for a disc to initialize, but I've never had a disc refuse to play. Besides, such a minor irritation is a small price to pay for such terrific sound quality... or so I thought at first.

It turns out that this player has exactly the same problem as my Sony DVP-NC555ES dvd player, albeit to a much lesser extent. The problem is this: whenever I'm playing a disc and a dynamic passage occurs (ie. the music suddenly gets much louder), and regardless of whether I'm playing cd or a super audio disc, the analog section of this player overloads and the musical waveform clips audibly. For a long time I blamed other componets in my system for the distortion I was hearing. My first thought was that my speakers had been damaged. But after replacing my speakers (twice!!), I continued to notice the problem.

My next thought was that my amp was clipping. But this didn't really seem that likely since my amp is a powerful NAD integrated with an enormous amount of headroom and since I only listen at low to moderate volume levels. Nevertheless, I secured a temporary replacement amplifier boasting similar power ratings and inserted it in my system. No difference, even after trying the new amp on three different pairs of speakers...

Well, after a little more investigation (which included, I'm embarrassed to admit, trying different interconnects and speaker cables), I finally identified the culprit.

Strengths:
Excellent sound quality (well most of the time...)
Attractive silver finish
Sony ergonomics (still the industry leader)

Weaknesses:
Long disc initialization process
Player clips during dynamic passages

Similar Products Used:
Sony DVP-NC555ES, Onkyo DX-C390, Yamaha DVD-C750, Sony CDP-608ESD

Price Paid:  $399.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
I bought this unit a little over a year ago as an upgrade over an older entry level Sony SACD player I bought 5 years ago. The sound was definitely an improvement over the older player but it seems to have some... Personality quirks. It is a bit fussy over what CDs are played. Certain CDs will get "hung up" (stop abruptly and then start again). Others just won't load up at all. Also it has twice failed to recognize the SACD layer of two different hybrid discs (they had to be reloaded both times). Finally it will skip over the first second of CD-Rs (that play perfectly fine in my 20 year old Technics) burned from Just! Burn (A much older CD burning program that is no longer supported).

I would expect this from Sony's bottom of the line players after a few years of use but NOT their ES line after only a few months. I will be contacting Sony and I will either have this fixed or I will ask for my money back. The Marantz 8001 is looking more attractive every day.

Strengths:
Great sound

Weaknesses:
Very fussy over what it plays. Quality is not what it should be for a player of this caliber. Slow in loading.

Similar Products Used:
Sony SCD CE775
20 year old Technics player

Price Paid:  $399.00 from Sony website

Summary:
Altouhg the expectation created for the new formats such SACD and DVD-A was to high, the reality is that spending much money in those player is not worthy unless you get a entire system including speakers and amplifier able to reproduce the excelence of those format. The 2000ES probably represents the best SACD player for the money. The built quality is good. Aluminium front panel, generous power suplly, gold plated connetion and multi-channel posibility. The CD sound quality is very good, comparable to the qulaity of players that double the price. I compared it directly with the Arcam CD72 and matching the volume levels (the Arcam has a higher volume output) there is no much differnece. The Arcam gives a higher space impression but you really have to focuss on that and use the right music to detect it. With pop, rock or similar no diferences will be deteted. I used "Mi buenos Aires Querido" (Barenboim and Mederos) and in that case you could detect but considering the price ($400 vs $800) I expected something else

I got the Marantz SACD sampler to test the SACD reproduction. With the 2000ES you can select the format, SACD and CD and althoug it takes some time you still are able to recognice differneces, well if you can because I did with many song at differents volume levels and I did not ear any difference. I did and ABX test with a friend and neither of us passed it. I played one of the format without saying which one ten times and only in 4 of them my friends was right. In my case was 5 which says that we were not able to pass it. We used a PSB speaker.

After reading about SACD I realice that the majority of the speakers available in the market simply are not able to go above 25 kHz making it impossible to detect any difference. I tried after with my B&W with the famous Nautilus tweeter able to reach 35kHz and again, nothing.

Reading further I got and article for the Journal of Neurophysiology in which the SACD was examinated. The conclusion is that the detection of the goodness of SACD is over the time. SACD gives a more relaxing listening experience similar to that in a concert room. The high frequences affected the brain activity but in a non-detectable way. I would like to puntualize that this is the truth about SACD. The people ensuring that the diference is detectable are based probably in the price and the expectation rather than the actual experience and is scientifically demosntrated. SACD is a cool format that requieres a expensive system and time and it does not make sense spending so much money only in a player. But I have to say that the 2000ES gets everything and that is way I thing is a good investment.

Strengths:
Good design
Perfect sound quaility for the money
Very versatil player

Weaknesses:
Slow response
SACD does not make the difference

Similar Products Used:
Arcam CD72

Price Paid:  $299.00 from Authorized Electroni

Summary:
This is the first Mid-Fi component I have introduced into my two channel stereo system. My interest in purchasing this unit was to introduce myself to the so-called vast improvement in SACD sound quality vs standard CD. I did not look into or audition other players, I bought this component based on the reputation of Sony ES equipment.

Right out of the box I was impressed with the sound quality of CD playback. In fact, performing an A/B comparison of the unit with my Cal Audio transport and Theta Pro-Basic II DAC, the differences were surprisingly small. The Cal-Theta had slightly more base authority and midrange air, however the real kicker is that the Sony had a much sweeter top end compared to the aggressive sound of the Theta. I have no idea what Sony did with the high frequency filtering on this unit, but for CD they hit the nail right on the head. In fact, because of the very subtle differences between the transport/DAC configuration in base and midrange, I would have to say I actually preferred the sound of the Sony overall, again, very impressed with CD. Additionally, due to the multi disk feature I find myself primarily listening to the Sony.

Okay, even with the great build quality, features and CD sound quality, this component is not without one major weakness; the sound quality of SACD. I do not know if I just set my expectations too high for the format, or if the unit just fell down in the area of SACD playback refignment. After purchasing the Sony I immediately purchased ten hybrid SACD releases. One point here I don't want you to miss is just like CD, the sound quality of SACD recordings can vary widely. I did purchase a few recommended SACD recordings mentioned in forums for their reputed quality of sound and a few from just artists I liked. Never the less, I'm unimpressed with either this units SACD sound quality or the format itself. In fact, some of my reference CD's sound better than a number of the SACD recordings. I have to admit, even though I seem to be contradicting myself, the average SACD does sound better than the average CD, especially in the area of high frequency extension, clarity, air and sweetness, but like I said this is based on the quality of the recording.

The bottom line is if you are interested in a fantastic sounding multi disk CD player this unit is for you. If your interested in the supposed virtues of SACD, audition the format on a number of players, perhaps more in the area of high-end units to see what you can really squeeze out of the format. With the Sony SCD C2000ES, I may be missing the expectations I had for the format, the format may be over rated, or this component just missed the mark in the area of SACD sound quality. I think my SACD recording purchases in the future will be approached with caution.

Strengths:
Great CD sound quality, way past expectation for a unit in this price range. Good multi changer build quality.

Weaknesses:
SACD sound quality did not meet my expectations based on my impression of the supposed dramatic increase in sound quality. Either this unit falls down here or it's the format. Check out other units for SACD sound quality.

Similar Products Used:
None