It was detailed while it worked.

Build quality, and Philips obviously skipped on the product testing in their rush to get it to market.

I had mis-givings about buying a Philips, but the reviews were raving about it. When I got it home I noticed the CD tray was very flimsey, and when playing, the mechanism could be clearly heard. Also it gets faily hot, so I made sure it was on the top of the rack. I didn't notice an enormous improvment in sound quality on my system, but when taken to a friends house with better equipment, it seemed as detailed as his Meridian CD player. Within a few months of occasional use, I had trouble turning it on, the power light would only light up sometimes, but I've lived with that fault. Recently it began stopping in the middle of tracks especially when playing DVD's. This progressed fairly rapidly to strange behaviour (like suddenly opening CD tray, going off) and now to not even starting to play. A Philips repair centre had it for two weeks, but they were unable to get any information from Philips on this player. I feel rether cheated by Philips, and want to urge anyone considering buying any Philips product to think again.

Similar Products Used:

none

Overall sound quality is superb even for its initial MSRP of 2000 euro. Can be purchased for very low price on second-hand market.

Average lifecycle is only 2 years with no chance of repair.... Product support from Philips is abominable!!! Thats why only a 1 star value rating

I've used the SACD1000 for two and a half years and was very. very satisfied with the sound quality. I chose it over a Sony 555ES which I had in direct comparison. The Sony seemed to be of a much better build quality but was simply outclassed bij the natural, true to life sound of the Philips. The Sony overwhelmed me at first with its deep bass & clear highs but it became clear very soon that it was really overdoing things in these respects. This both in CD and SACD playback. The CD playback is very good overall. Until I got the Philips I used a Rotel transport and separate Rotel DAC and the SACD1000 sounded, at least, every bit as good as this combination. When I wanted to upgrade from the SACD1000 to something better it became apparent that that was harder then I expected it to be. I tried the Marantz DV8400 and DV9500 but neither of these two could better the sound quality of the Philips. Then I tried the Marantz SA17 which sounded just a little bit better in terms of detail and space around the instruments, but the improvement was not enough to satisfy me. After these attempts I took a drastic step up (at least in price) and tried a Lexicon RT-10 because I had read in a review that this was a wonderfull player, especially when combined with my Lexicon MC-12B through the AES/EBU balanced digital connection. This however turned out to be a huge dissapointment. Although the RT-10 did provide slightly deeper and tighter bass performance it put too much emphasis on the top end to sound good in my sytem. When connected through the analog outputs there was almost no noticble difference to the Philips. This all goes to show how good the SACD1000 really sounds even though it is (only) a Philips... Then I got my hands on a CEC TL2 transport which finally revealed how good redbook CD could sound on my system. It presented me with the sonic detail, space, pace and soundstage that I was looking for. But unfortunatly this wonderfull device only playes redbook CD's and left me wanting for equally good SACD and DVD playback...... Things finally all came together when I encounterde a second-hand (or pre-loved...) Teac Esoteric DV-50. This really is a reference class piece of playback equipment! It even bested the CEC TL2 by a very small margin and gave the same stellar performance on stereo and multi-channel SACD!! Alas I to have to say that ultimately the Philips SACD1000 is NOT WORTH ITS NORMAL RETAIL PRICE because they ALL BEAK DOWN AFTER 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 YEARS of use!! And those A-holes at Philips tell you the can't repair it. If you present them the SACD1000 for repair they will offer you a (rather mediocre) 963 multiplayer if you give them an extra 100 Euro!!!! However, if you want to upgrade from Mid-Fi to HiFi you could take a chance and buy one of these players for a few hundred euro's on the pre-loved market. All you have to do is make sure it works well when you buy it and the PLUG & PRAY that it will keep working for a while..., because IT DOES SOUND SWEET! Really a 5 STAR sound rating!

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Marantz DV8400, DV9500 & SA17 Lexicon RT-10 Teac Esoteric DV-50 (my precioussssss)

superb build quality (my experience, that is) excellent SACD playback a real bargain at $500, built like a $1000+ player

redbook playback aint optimal they never made it in black :(

Well, after all the depressing reviews you saw below - here is something refreshing. Fortunately my uni, bought used from audiogon, works flawlessly and its over a year now (touch wood). In terms of performance, I think its SACD playback, in a single word, gives you superb "soundstage". Clearly SACD sounds amazing. However - for redbook CDs - i in fact prefer my Marantz CC9100 player. This player simply compromised on redbook playback, but i do not mind because I have two sources connected. To someone who said the faceplate and remote are cheap - dont believe them. The build quality is excellent and its a superb unit, at least for me. And it can be found real cheap at audiogon. There cannot be a cheaper and better way to experience SACDs. But I recommend you keep your existing CD Player too...

Similar Products Used:

Marantz CC9100, Creek, various others

Given the circumstances, I cant say much on this.

Customer service, build quality. And this was once a $2000 product???? Puleeeez.

First, let me say the SACD playback was really not that bad at all. I was fully convinced of SACD's great advantage over CD when I heard the stereo mix of DSOTM. However, It would've been great if the player didnt crap on itself six months into its lifespan. One day the player refused to turn on. I did the diagnostics and it said something like error 4. Ok, so I send it into Philips and have yet to see it. They say its "fcked forever;" those were the repairman's exact words. So I just told them to send me a check and forget about seeing even a drop from my wallet fall for another crappy product. I should've seen it from the beginning, though. Cheap faceplate, cheap buttons, I had it coming.

Sounds great on c.d,sacd,dvd etc. Versatitliy plays almost every format Internals of a high standard. Multichannel option.

Noisy transport can be heard at low listening levels.C.D Tray holder off something costing $100.Repairs could be a seriuos problem down the line.Doesn't output a P.C.M signal @dig out.

I thought I would post a review of this player after listening to it for about 8 months.It has had already a turbulent history.After seeing a lot of great reviews against cd players costing twice the price see"stereophile review" and the fact that it uses a lot of technology from Marantz machines.I bought it but straight away I found the transposrt very noisy also it would't play certain tracks on certain c.d's(standard p.c.m's).So I returned it and they put in a new transport with another that looked much cheaper.This reduced the noise slightly but was still there.But now it made a rattle noise when there was no cd present.Sound wise it plays every format very well ,normal c.d sounds better than my previous model marantz 63 mkII k.i and sacd is amazing"check out rolling stones re-issues let it bleed ,beggar's banquet"This is a good value buy but you could be at risk with parts as replacements and backup service is very poor from manufacturer.

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Marantz cd63mII K.I,Nad, pioneer dvd

Laid back, warm/relaxing presentation

Horrible build quality, Horrible Customer Care

I must add my voice to the previous review. The SACD 1000 is a wonderful sounding CD/SACD player and can be had at a great discount. BUT, it is built to such a poor standard and Philips is so unhelpful as a company, I would not go anywhere near the SACD 1000 or its replacement players! Mine started skipping at 6 months. It was sent to Philips for repair. After 5 weeks I was finally able to find out that 4 weeks earlier (!) they had decided that it cannot be fixed and tossed it. Nobody informed me of this. How can a $2000 (original list) player, under warranty not be able to be fixed...or at the very least replaced?? Philips doesn't have a clue, either. In addition, IF you can track down the proper customer service number, good luck finding any actual customer service or satisfaction. Clearly, Philips has no interest in supporting either its products or customers. Just fare warning.

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Sticking with NAD

Wonderful warm and detailed character. Great dynamics in SACD mode.

Transport reliability.

I felt I had to write this review as a warning to anyone considering this player. While the SACD 1000 is a wonderful sounding CD and SACD player, my experience with it's reliability is far from acceptable. My original player was purchased at the Good Guys after the retail price dropped from $1999 just over a year ago. Straight out of the box it sounded really good, and I was very happy with it. However, six months later it started to develop a problem with skipping (not just within a track, but also randomly jumping from track 2 to track 8). I took the player back to the dealer for repair. They couldn't fix it, so they gave me a replacement. Six months later my replacement player is now freezing randomly in the middle of songs, and flashing the message disc! My first thought was that I was using a defective disc, so I tried several others. All now freeze at some point during playback. Now I have to return player #2, which raises an interesting question. If they are unable to repair this player, what will they replace it with (as Philips no longer makes the SACD 1000)? As a CD player and SACD player this unit sounds great. It's reliability however leaves a lot to be desired!

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Denon DVD 3300

Cd and SACD playback

NOISY transport and chintzy faceplate. Average read time for SACD Player.

Very happy with cd playback. Detailed and very resolving without any digital hash. I would describe the sound as exuberant compared to Sony DVP9000ES. I only wish the transport were quiet. No one on this site mentions how noisy it can be. I could hear mine from my listening position at low listening levels. Unacceptable.

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Sony DVP 9000ES, Audio Analogue Maestro, Rotel 951, Marantz, Jolida, etc.

May I know where is tweeter website?

SCAD sound. Does well on Redbook CD too.

No progressive scan or 3/2 pull down. No PCM output. Awful on-screen displays. No on-board DTS processing.

After 96 hours of burn in my Tweeters $399 special is really performing well. The SCAD CDs are very nice to listen to. Very dark background but I like that. SCAD is warm and rich. The difference from redbook CD is striking. Seems fine on the high and low end although I run a sub with my 2 channel integrated tube amp set-up (run a parellel feed directly out of the 4 ohm taps into the high inputs of the sub and match the bottom end of my speakers to the top end of the sub as best as possible frequency and level wise)so low end weakness would not be a factor for me as it may be for others. As far as redbook CD player, I am pleasently suprised. I run a Ah! Tjoeb 4000 with upsampler ALL all other upgrades and Amperex tubes and love that player. The Phillips is VERY close in resolution, soundtage, and dynamics although the Ah! is warmer (which is how I prefer things with redbook CDs) and with less digital glare than the 1000 (although both players really do well on this compared to a lot of other standard CD players). Very happy so far with CD/SCAD sound. Hope another 100 hours of burn in will really do the trick. BTW: The 1000 is a lousy DVD player. My $200 Toshiba with progressive scan blows the Phillips away. Also, the 2 channel outs on the Toshiba do a decent job on DVD-Audio into my amp whereas the Phillips two channel outs are NOT meant for high def audio (read the manual). The Phillip's on-screen displays are just awful and about 3 years behind the times. This is DEFINITELY a music player and NOT a movie player. Phillips rightly marketed this as a music player first and foremost although at its original street price of about $1000 that should not have been the case. Also puzzling for a player that went for so much money (although even for $400 it would still be weird) is that the player does not output a standard low tech PCM digital signal so you cannot use it as a transport or send a PCM digital signal into a HT set-up. I've seen $150 players that have this feature, so what gives with this high end player? Because of these weaknesses I have to saythat the $399 price is a fair deal for the player. If you paid more than about$500-$550 I think you got ripped as this is NOT a MSRP $1900 or EVEN a $1000+ street price player. However saying that this IS a good SCAD and Redbook Player and worth the price Tweeters was selling it for.

Similar Products Used:

Ah! Tojoeb 4000