Before I purchased my Rotel RCD-1072 CD player I had one of those Sony universal cd/dvd/SACD players I purchased for usd 129 at jr.com. I can tell you that the difference in redbook CDs were huge!! I can hardly tell the difference between SACD layer of a SACD in my Sony with the regular CD layer played in my Rotel. However the difference in cost is huge as well (Msrp for RCD-1072 is USD 700)

Axiom M60s, QS4s, VP100 Onkyo TX-SR804 Oppo 970HD Rotel RB-1080/RCD-1072 REL Q150E sub, PS 3