Thanks to the enthusiasm of certain people on this list I have bought a
SACD player.  It is a Pioneer DV676 - a hybrid which also plays DVD audio
and a few other odds and sods.  For what it does its price was remarkable
- a mere AU$249 or US$189.  There was a Marantz right next to it which
did the same job but was almost exactly ten times the price.  At my age
I do not think I would get ten times more value from the Marantz; hence
I settled for the Pioneer.  When I commented upon the Marantz I triggered
the usual rubbish in the salesman about the Marantz being "a different
machine altogether" and of supernal splendour.  I politely told him to
cut the crap and just put the Pioneer in a box for me.

My nearest large record store said they had SACDs but they were scattered
throughout their collection; I could not find any - certainly none in
the rather unimpressive classical section.  Hence I settled for a DVD
audio (these were all together in one location) - the Beethoven symphonies
7 and 8 with Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden.
These are good performances although I thought the unison was lost a few
times and perhaps the tempos were a bit fast; particularly in the first
movement of the eighth symphony.

For those who extol the virtue of SACD do they have any advantage over
DVD audio?  How do the frequency response and recording length differ?
Which provides most high quality music for one's dollar?

Leon Le Leu
Canberra