I bought a Sony C333ES SACD player for just over $500. Since they have been discontinued you should be able to find one for the same price or less. In the past two years I have owned a Sony DVD Player/MSB Link DAC II comb($550), Roksan Caspian CD Player ($1600), Aiwa Changer/MSB Link DAC III w/upsampling ($650), and the Sony C333ES SACD player ($1200). In my system the SACD player has been the most natural sounding. Even my wife commented that vocals sounded warmer. Together with a new tubed preamp my front-end has never sounded more musical. As always YMMV and try before you buy (or at least buy wisely and resell for s small loss).