I'm in the market for a cheap universal player to sample the world of hirez multichannel audio. I'd like to spend $150 or less. I don't care about video quality as I use a Panasonic DVD-S97 for video. So far there are three that I'm considering:

Pioneer DV-563a
Pioneer DV-578a
Samsung HD-841

From what I've read, many people prefer the 563 to the 578 because it has better DACs and it doesn't downsample SACD to PCM for bass management. That said, if I went with the 563 I wouldn't use an Outlaw ICBM for analog bass management. I'd end up doing D>A in the 563, then A>D>A with my receiver doing bass management.

I wonder if I'd be better off using the 578 since it has better bass management (albeit downsampled to 88k PCM). SACD music would then go D(DCD>PCM)>A with the 578 handling bass management and the receiver doing direct mode output. I've heard both the 563 and 578 have had some trouble playing back certain DVD-A discs. There are reports that many of these glitches can be fixed with new firmware.

I've heard mixed reviews of the Samsung 841, with audio skips/dropouts in SACD playback.

All these compromises make me wonder if I would have been better off sinking a bit more money into a decent universal player. I'd love a 2900 but I needed/wanted HDMI upconversion. To get that in a decent universal player would have been $600 minimum for the Denon 2910, which is a step down from the 2900/3910.