...my new "toy," the Marantz SA-8001 SACD player, is expected to arrive. I'm like a little kid getting a new bicycle - I'm so anxious to get this item I can practically taste it!

I also know the first CD I intend to play on it: the Robert Shaw version of Brahm's "A German Requiem" on Telarc. Not only is this one of my all time favorite pieces of music, but this particular disc has given me many, many problems. The first two (purchased from amazon.com) had annoying, "tick.tick, tick" sounds throughout, and the final replacement, direct from Telarc, occasionally exhibits those ticks still. Sometimes, depending on which slot I place the disc in my Adcom changer, the disc won't play at all, or if it does play, I can't advance to other tracks on it. I guess the best word to describe it is "problematic."

Hopefully, it will play flawlessly, and the sound of the SA-8001 will blow me away.

I'm also expecting (perhaps not today, but in another day or two) 7 SACD's I ordered from Telarc, 6 of which are duplicates of standard CD's I already own. Jack Renner is an enthusiastic supporter of the SACD medium, and has strongly recommended that, if I'm looking to replace discs in my current library, replacing the older ones recorded via the SOUNDSTREAM process with the SACD versions of those discs will provide the greatest difference. Several of the discs I ordered are of that variety, and I'm looking forward to hearing the improvements.

Based on my discussions with Jack, it would appear that he believes in the medium itself, not just that more time and/or effort has been put into such recordings using the SACD process. His words were that SACD's "have much more information on them" than do redbook CD's.

Still, it's going to be an experience, and I'll happily report back to all of you my observations.

Drool, drool, drool.....