The music. SACD playback provides a wide and detailed soundstage, improved dymamic range, and organically warm strings and vocals. This is a honey of a CD player with standard CDs as well. With the latter there is no audible difference using a Sereophile class B outboard DAC versus the built-in, so you can save the $800 or more a good DAC and interconnect would cost.

None with the hardware. Somewhat limited software locally, so far.

You have read enough. Get one if they are not gone, burn it in for a week, and enjoy it. At this price value would be 6 stars if I could give them.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha transport & MSB Datalink III DAC with upsampling.

3D,TRANSPARENT,DETAILED,DYNAMIC,SMOOTH SACD PLAYER. VERY GOOD RED BOOK CD PLAYER.

NONE.

THIS PLAYER HAS TURNED MY SOUND SYSTEM INTO A "CLASS A" PERFORMER WHEN PLAYING SACD DISCS. I HAVE HEARD THAT TWO GIANT RECORD COMPANIES WILL START RECORDING IN THE SACD FORMAT, UNIVERSAL MUSIC AND VIRGIN RECORDS. THIS SHOULD PRODUCE A LOT OF SACD TITLES. AFTER HEARING

Similar Products Used:

NAD C520.

Sacd and as transport

Noicy mec. and cheap remote

I wanted to add to what others have said,in that I actually find it ok as a cd player only, but also know, I am somewhat spoiled. However if you like me have separate DA conversion, the unit is an excellent transport. I have both jitter box and up sampling, and the cd is frankly as fine here as the SAcd. A huge upgrade in all ways from my older Rotel (which was more laid back).
What a bargain this is!
And yes: burn in! two weeks 24/7.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel, Denon more

The sound! Gold connectors, CD exchange while playing, shuffle, LED displays big enough to read from listening area. Awsome warm sound takes the edge off of digital while retaining the quality we love. Makes my room sound twice as large as it really is. Tons of features.

Eject button too small and not convenient enough. Remote is semi-cheesy.

After ungrading my whole system throughout the year it was past time to upgrade the CD player. Not wanting a single CD nor a 200 CD player (single isn't enough & 200 makes it a pain to keep trak of ones collection to take on the road or whatever) Checking on this site and seeing what others have rated the unit put this unit on my shopping list. Then seeing what Ben said below about Good Guys selling them for $399 sent me on my way. Less than an hour later I had the last unit they had in stock in the Valencia, CA store. I have been listening to it for a while now to allow the before mentioned break in time and I am beyond happy. Good super clean sound, nice and heavy, sound is awsome no matter what type of music you listen to. This was the final piece of the pie and it fits perfectly. For the price I doubt if it can be beat. If I had paid the full $1200 list ( I believe Good Guys said they previously sold the unit for around $850) I would have been a little bent about them going on sale for $399. Still, it is a high end piece of equipment. Even though it plays SCD format disks I have yet to play one with this unit. It even came with a sample disk. Many thanks for the reviews below. They set me up with exactly what I wanted. And the fact that I purchased the unit with a huge discount is a much added bonus.

Similar Products Used:

$175 Price Club Technics model.

Excellent build quality, SACD playback, Optical and Coaxial digital outputs, transport mechanism

Typical lousy Sony remote control; hard wired power cord

I needed a new transport to replace my Cal Auido labs unit in my main system which was being used as a transport for an EVS Millenium II DAC (highest recommendation ont the DAC by the way). I wanted to replace the Cal Audio unit so I could use it as a stand alone CD player for a low end system I am putting in my finished garage. Anyway, I hemmed and hawed a bit at the purchase, because I didn't want to degrade my system by purchasing a transport or CD with a lower quality mechanism, and didn't really want to spend $1,000 on a Rega Planet or the equivalent for a transport. When I heard of the discount on this unit, I went out and bought one. I know it was Sterephile class A, but most importantly I knew that the transport in the ES series are extrememly good, so it was a good choice. SACD was a little bonus I thought, but the price was right as a transport anyway. I typically dont like Sony products, they tend to be too gimicky and laden with useless features, and all over the map in terms of quality, value and performance. However, I must say that this is a terrific product, clearly aimed at the audiophile crowd as evidenced in the solid steel construction, aluminum front panel, superior transport, elegant control panel, etc...In terms of performance I will talk about redbook CDs first. As expected, the unit has a terrific transport mechanism in it. It was immediately obvious that the Sony was a slight upgrade in this area. Slightly better soundstage and imaging and very crisp uppers without any trace of brightness. After breaking the unit in for 70 hours or so, I A/B the internal DAC against the Millenium II. The Millenium II wins here, being more detailed, fuller and more airy. It was however, fairly close. The unit is a terrific CD player by itself, and is defintely as good as many much more expensive cd players I have heard. For most systems, excepting super high end systems ($20,000 +) I think this would be a terrific upgrade. I still recommend the EVS Mill II DAC but at $1,000 it is a significant adder to the price. After that I listened to SACD. I have heard a few DVD-A discs and was not impressed, and found most of them to sound even more analytical than the typical CD. However, the test SACD disk was revelation. SACD is incredible. Unbelievably detailed, open, and crisp, it has no digital hardness to it, it in fact sounds like very clean vinyl, very analog. I must admit that I am one who thinks that CDs have never sounded quite as real as vinyl (although they have gotten better latlely, and the dynamic range and noise reduction really level the field) However, with SACD you have the best of both worlds. The dynamic range and noise reduction of a CD,actually even more, with the open, trul transparent accurate and real sound of vinyl. It is incredible. Even more from what I read, DSD recorded discs are even a jump up on the material on the demo disc. I am truly looking forward to hearing that. In conclusion, if you have an older CD player that you have been thinking of upgrading and $400 is within your budget, run, don't walk to good guys and hope they still have one left. The store in Escondido where I bought mine is now down to one.

Similar Products Used:

Cal Audio Labs DX-1, Harmon Kardon DVD 5, Rega Planet

Smooth, detailed sound. Build quality.

Slight mechanical noise when changing discs

Bought this demo unit at the good guys for $299 and they're all disappearing very quickly so if you find one, don't hesitate and you won't be sorry. Anyway, after connecting to my receiver/amp combo, I immediately noticed a certain smoothness and clarity without the digital harshness that I've grown accustomed to. Not since the vinyl days have I experienced or heard this type of sound. Before I listened, I had this mindset that this unit was not going to make a dramatic difference in my sound system, and I'm glad that I was very wrong. Just let your ears be the judge and for the price that the good guys is charging, what a steal!!!.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, Denon, Marantz

Plays SACD, solid, dithering control

Mass market CD playback sound

I brought home the 333ES after a startlingly good audition at the dealer. The original audition was done with McCormack separates and Nautilus speakers. I heard a fine sound, a huge soundstage and stunning details. Maybe it was the McCormack pieces that made that system purr, because when plugged into 2 other systems, the Sony sounded only marginally better than the $200? mass market Onkyo I'm trying to replace. In fact, "mass market" sums up how I and 2 other listeners found it. Veiled, sometimes harsh with a modest soundstage. To be sure, it was an improvement over the Onkyo, but the 3 of us - professional musicians all - agreed that the difference was worth nowhere near the $1200 full retail price. The other systems consisted of a Krell integrated going into Revel Studios and a Classe CAP-151 driving Magnepan 1.6's. We also compared these 2 CDPs to a Krell 300 and learned that yes Virginia, there CAN be significant differences between players. To be fair, we did not try SACD's but then once you have amassed a CD collection, you're going to want good CD playback. Looks like I'll be going the time-honored high-end manufacturer route to replace that faithful old Onkyo. I can't recommend this product.

Similar Products Used:

low-end Onkyo

Solidly built, convenient controls

Noisy carousel

At $1200 this player was a reasonable buy. At $400, Sony is basically giving them away, probably to increase the demand for SACD disks. After a short time listening to the '333ES, I can say that the SACD performance is impressive, whereas the standard CD performance is good, but not great. In fact, if you want to know how this player performs you would do well to pick up a copy of the April 2001 issue of Stereophile magazine and read J. Scull's review. He is right on target in his assessment of the Sony CD playback. But at $400 this an absolute steal and you can always output the CD signal to an outboard DAC, if the standard Sony sound (very laid back) is a problem. If you need a new CD player and want SACD also, this is a fantastic deal!!

Similar Products Used:

Sony ES player with MSB Link DAC

GREAT SOUND IN ALL COMPATIBLE FORMATS,ALSO PLAYS CDR'S AND
CDRW'S.

DOESN'T DO MULTICHANNEL SACD'S,BUT I KNEW THAT WHEN I BOUGHT
THE PLAYER.

GREAT SOUND, AMAZING CONVENIENCE FOR LONG LISTENING SESSIONS
BECAUSE OF 5-DISC CAROUSEL CONVENIENCE AND THE ABILITY TO
CHANGE OTHER DISCS WHILE LISTENING. EXCEPT FOR THE INABILITY
TO PLAY IN MULTICHANNEL SURROUND, WHICH I KNEW WHEN I BOUGHT
THE PLAYER, I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS. AM PLANNING TO ADD THE NEW
SONY SCD-555ES MULTICHANNEL CHANGER TO MY MAIN MULTICHANNEL
SYSTEM WHEN I FIND A REASONABLE BARGAIN PRICE FOR IT.

Similar Products Used:

SONY DV-9000ES DVD/SACD PLAYER

SACD is the second coming!!!

For the price the 5-disc changer mechanism is pretty noisy.

Read so much about SACD, already had DVDA (Technics DVD-A10), that I was very, very interested in getting a player. Price was a little steep at first. Then came the 333ES. I was able to get this for (at the time) a good price.

Right out of the box SACD blew me away. The quality of SACD is head and shoulders above anything I can remember hearing coming from two speakers in a long, long time.

I recommend that anyone thinking about SACD really think hard about getting this player. If multi-channel SACD is what you are looking for, get the 555ES or other players that are coming out soon. Anyway you look at it, you must have SACD if you care about how music is supposed to sound on your system.

Similar Products Used:

No other SACD players