[Blu-RayLover]

This is becoming a very interesting situation with Sony announcing their own new high-end model Blu-Player for 2009. The old model ES2000 was a good machine, but for so much money at a price of 1200 dollars, it quickly became obsolete! It took Sony rather a long time (two years) to get with the program of upgrading their ES Blu-ray model. Yet, I can’t help but think that they have now upgraded with the ES5000 in a rather classy way. What I find so fascinating about the current crop of high-end Blu-ray players is that Sony still manages to stay away from breaking the 2000 dollar mark! As is the case with Pioneer’s Elite BDP-09FD and Denon’s model 3800, that will soon be replaced with a new expensive high-end Blu-ray player, both these Blu-ray offerings are simply too expensive for most to consider. While I wouldn’t exactly say that Sony’s new ES5000 will be reasonably priced, it will be within some reach of many audio-videophilies who won’t have to dish-out a whopping 2000 dollars or more for a high-end player. I must confess that I’m sort of locked in with Pioneer, since I have a model Elite 94 Blu-ray, and was waiting to make the switch to a new Elite player with Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. I have not been impressed with the new Pioneer Elite 05, simply because it is no different than the cheaper model 51, in that the 05 has gold-connectors and a slightly better video processor. So, all I had left to consider is the Pioneer Elite 09, but I am not so prone as to chuck-up 2200 dollars (list price) or even discounted at around possibly 1500 dollars! So, at this stage in the game, the new Sony ES5000 seems more of a better deal, once the prices become reasonable or within reach. The list price on the ES5000 is said to be around 1500 dollars, and with a bit of a discount, it appears to be the best all around deal, if you can still accept spending over 1000 dollars.