Could someone help me unravel this economic conundrum? I can buy a DVD Audio player with progressive scan for less than $200 and I can also buy a Sony SACD player for around $250. Yet, when I look at universal DVD prices they are $700 and above for one chassis. It seems I would be better off buying them separately, except for the obvious pain of connecting and reconnecting the analog connections depending on which one I want to use at the time. What gives with universal prices? What am I missing?

Making wild personal observations here. When it’s high-end all-in-one convenience you pay a premium. Earliest days I believe it was not allowed due to propritorial protected formats and this had to be negotiated.
Whether the CPU is truly higher on the universal players during manuf. I have no idea, Like a receiver I assume there might be difficulties involved in the more it does, the more the electronics need to be shielded from each other, a greater number of parts have to made to fit, yet not overheat or interfere. I’m sure there are some build factors that increase the cost. And just recouping R&D, for making it all ‘work’ and reliably so, -stuffed in one unit when the platform for a universal is newly engineered. But prices should start dropping soon.

You have HTIB selling like hotcakes for $250 all day long. (of course they don’t quash quality capability in those). But you squeeze several functions into one box, (SACD/DVD-A/Progressive) formats that the more informed AV consumer lusts for and it suddenly costs a fortune.
You pay to have one box (instead of two). WAF factors rule for some, they want SACD and DVD-A with only so many shelves for all these units. The high end streamlining costs.

I have become so out of control myself wanting to hear or see this or that, that I’m about to start stacking things on the floor temporally (custom cabinet is all booked up by current units). If I like something I guess the old will go (somewhere) or I’ll break down and purchase a secondary shelf to start the second tier of stuff. I am thinking Bravo1 right now to soothe this insatiable desire to ‘see it for myself’ even though I have a perfectly satisfactory RP-91 sitting there. (I am eVIL 

Seemed I remember (Merc maybe) had some sort of system for switching between a SACD and DVD-A I’d seen. (degradation involved with any sort of switching?) That would be the killer for me, (and why I currently just have DVD-A) Not pulling 5 interconnects is prob. worth any price of admission for a high percent who want both HR capabilities. There’s no reason not to do it via separates if you have the space, and don’t go loosening your inputs during change outs.

A lot of folks have used a group of Radio Shack A/V switches to switch between DVD-A and SACD and reported no degradation. There is also the Sony TA-P9000ES that Merc and several others have used -- a 5.1 analog switching add-on to their TA-E9000ES pre/pro (which is discontinued but very, very popular on places like Audiogon and eBay). There is also this handy gadget -- a two-input 6-channel switch, with wired or IR remote control for the switchbox.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

I saw a Pioneer universal player for less than $200!!!!

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-XZ8...a=0&cc=01&avf=N

Too good to be true?? Try this report:

http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/ces2003/sources/page_03.shtml

Quick summary: this player converts the DSD on SACDs to PCM before outputting the signal.
In case you were wondering about where that price difference comes in...

Folks,

Several months ago I bought an Electrohome Marquee Signal Switcher - for ~$100 on ebay. (They went for several thousand new back in the mid-nineties.)

The one I got has nine input modules / cards, one output module, and the CPU/Power module.

My input modules all have pass-through capability - but the regular modules will do for what I'm about to suggest.

Each card has five BNC inputs (for video) and two RCA audio inputs (for stereo L/R). The ouput module has the same setup.

Now while I use my switcher to handle three different sets of component / HD inputs, as far as I can tell there is no reason why you could not use any six of the inputs (of the seven in total) to switch between 5.1 analogue audio inputs (from DVD-audio and SACD). Just pick up a bag of RCA to BNC converter plugs and you are all set. If the "video" BNC connectors can handle HD bandwidth (afterall the unit is part of the "Marquee" line) then it should sure as heck handle common old analogue audio signals. Just my guess. (I've routed digital audio signals through the regular audio inputs before I got my Model 950 - without problems.)

I've only seen three of these come up on ebay this year, including mine, but I've not been checking regularly.

Perhaps a very high quality, low-cost solution to your signal switching problems.

Regards.

Jeff Mackwood

ps. A couple of months ago I tracked down a Florida company that took over that part of Electrohome's business. I was looking for other modules. They had some complete units in stock but if I recall correctly they wanted top dollar for them.