Decent SACD?

As the owner of a Pioneer Elite DV47A, I'd recommend it only for DVD and redbook - it doesn't do SACD or DVDA that well. (It's not bad, but it's no better than redbook.)

You might consider the Shanling T200 which does 2-ch SACD and redbook, and it's (barely) in your price range. Nice tube sound.

Marantz DV-8400 Universal Player. Don't buy into the audio dogma that universal players cannot sonically do it all. This one can, in spades. Superior SACD, full blown DVD Audio, a pure digital out for transport, and HDAM circuts for all RCA SACD DVDA and REDbook connections . Pure discrete direct DSD chipsets , along with isolated 24/196hz DACs . Happy Listening.

Here's another vote for the Sony SCD XA777ES CD/SACD. You
can usually get a used one on A'gon for around $1,600.

I just bought the Denon DVD-2900 and it does all three formats pretty well. I have it in a top drawer system (Audio Physic IIIs, Jadis Defy 7 Mk IV, Hovland HP-100, etc) and it acquits itself quite well.

Wendell

Will the mentioned players perform 'red book' as good as dedicated CD player by the same price ($2.5-3.5K)? I'm not sure...