My favorite is the 608es which is now 12 yrs. old and has over 6500 hrs on it without any break-downs, talk about reliability! This player has extremely extended and defined bass, excellent pace and rythm. It is lacking somewhat in the area of "air" and transparency which is only obvious in a high resolution system. I also have a 77es which is better in some ways, ie in the areas of transparency but overall not quite as musical. The build quality on the 77es is very impressive with the I-beam frame, high quality boards, and copper plated chassis. It too has been perfectly reliable. I auditioned one of the later Sony's with the fixed laser in both my systems and found it was not an improvement in either case. I don't recall the model number but it was the second to the top.