Insane auction price of SACD?? over 2k

J&R is out of them. I got the last demo at a local store for $2K last week. The thing's a sleeper. Unless you read these chats you'd never have a clue about the humongous break in time. Mine, despite being the demo, was nowhere near broken in - it sounded terrible at first! To think that they were using this one to try to sell them is downright bizarre. After a week+ of 24/7, the change is the most dramatic I've ever seen in any component. It's night and day. I think sony blew it by not alerting dealers to the break-in issue. I wanted a top-notch digital front end without mortgaging the house - and got it.

When I bought mine for $3150 I felt it worth the money. If you wanted one for $1500 you probably missed your chance. Now supply and demand will determine the value. The CD section is quite good and SACD even better. I sold my Levinson D/A because I didn't think it was that much better.
You would have to buy an Accuphase SACD at over $12000 to get better sound than the Sony SACD SCD1 or SCD 777 in SACD mode. The transport alone better's units costing 2K-3K.

The supply completely ran out at a blowout price around $1500, and then the Stereophile review hit the streets. Oops!

Well put Jeff,I dont know why people care what others pay.Do the reasearch and go from there.

Let the market decide the relative value of stuff, if someone is willing to pay more, I say let'em. As for me, well, I tend to get a real good feel for the market price of gear before I spend my hard-earned money. Caveat emptor

Pugstub, what does last year's price matter if you can get it NEW WITH WARRANTY for less today.

I've got some great Pentium 1s computers for sale. Only $1500 ea, they sold for $3000 3 years ago.

Are you forgeting that list price last year on this was $3500? I personnaly paid $3150 for mine last year.

I called both places and I believe only J and R still carries the SCD-777ES. I think Reference-AV still does too. So does the Sony Employee Store.

I know of two places that sell them new for under $1600. Don't know if they have any left. J&R Music in NYC and Oade Brothers. J&R even has 30 day return on mail orders.