Kevin C Brown-The sound quality is quite good, it's just that with the Sony player on cd's & sacd's I could play the 950 in the lower 40's (db's) and high 30's and get quite loud. With the 47Ai I have to get into the lower 30's and the 20's to get the same level. The Sony more closely matched the 950's digital input's levels. Also have you noticed that on dvda's that the stero mlp layer is louder in level then the 5.1 mlp layer?

Bossobass-The Sony's sacd performance IMHO is just a hair warmer then the 47Ai's, but the 47Ai's bass is a little tighter. No phase problems that I can detect, I have my sub phase control set on 60 degrees for whatever that's worth.