My push is for seperates. There are lots of good transports available in the used market and the quality/price of DACs is continually improving. If you're in this hobby for the long haul, seperates are always the ideal choice for upgradability.
If I weren't sticking to seperates myself, I would be searching audiogon daily. Some amazing deals roll through there. I saw the Arcam CD72 go for $380 used the other day and Arcam's top of the line going for $1500.
Thus far, I'm unwilling to limit myself to the handful of brands available to get the SACD format. I think the SACD format has more potential than redbook, but I'd rather have a good redbook player than an SACD player. I don't agree with the consensus among Sony owners that their SACD players equal the performance of competitors' similarly priced redbook-only players and think the gap broadens even more when used components are taken into the equation.
If however, I couldn't talk myself out of SACD, I would probably buy the 9000ES. I haven't gotten to hear this player yet but its gotten great reviews from people I have a great deal of respect for. In the long run a good DVD player has a lot of value added features over CD only players and should you still find yourself on the upgrade path later on, the 9000ES will still find usefulness to you when you decide to buy a high end CD player or transport and DAC later on. Modwright is no longer offering upgrades to the 9000ES (or any of the other sub-777 model Sony players) but I'm sure there are other qualified modification companies who do. I do think Sony makes great drives and overall an upgraded 9000ES could also serve as a good transport to a seperate DAC later on, giving you an alternate upgrade path.
Many people in this hobby find themselves at one of two extremes--one in which every product purchased must be utilized to its fullest from the first day of purchase and one in which today's usefulness is sacrificed for what will hopefully turn fruit tomorrow. I find myself trying to accomplish both goals at once which I think is an even greater challenge as a consumer. I have to look at the best bang for the buck TODAY but I also have to consider resale value and/or upgrade paths so that I don't feel like I got ripped off knowing full well that I'm going to upgrade.
As a third and final option (I swear I'll stop typing at some point), you may want to consider sinking the money into your PC. There are a lot of good CD drives available for your PC that will equal or better the drives placed in $1000 CD players. Of course, you'll want to get that digital signal out of that RF trap, reclock it and convert it to analog on the outside but there are a few advantages--that you can now play internet audio files at the full capability of your system, for instance, and that you can hear exactly what your equalized or otherwise edited audio will sound like before laying it to disc. I don't pretend to know you, Joe, but from what I know about you thus far, I'd put at least a thought or two into this route as well. I'm personally going this route in my "work rig."
