Best Tube CDP for $2000 Budget

have you heard the unison players ??

I have - it is probably some of the most awful sounding gear out there (even my Wife thought so). Slow, lifless, with tonal balance that was always off in one way or another even for different tubes: Exaggerated midbass and lower midrange, grainy highs. The Audio Aero Prima is much more well balanced, detailed and resolving with better instrument separation and more realistic portrayal of instruments. Of course only my own experience, and your might vary, but I could not get it to work with several different amps (amongst other the Unico integrated).

Have we come to a point where most of the CDP's all sound somewhat the same, just picking a certain aspect that one likes over the other in their particular system? Or do we have to spend a small fortune to get what we want?

have not heard the Unison. look forward to the 4 tube prima luna. I thought the cayin SACD and the Cayin 17 were built on close specs. So i figured they would sound 'similiar". I had the stock chinese 6922's rolled to Sovtek ( $150/quad)and made a nice tweak + the 4 opamps(labor + parts $200 I think) changed, which gave me another nice improvement. I'll lookmat your review of the Melody. I'm sure its a fine player, as is all their gear. As a audio reviewer you should consider the Cayin 17 in your next review. There may be better out there for same $, but I'm happy and will upgrade the caps to Mundorf's Silver in oil ($300+)

Mrtennis, why even mention Primaluna when they do not even have a web site????????????? Just forget it. "all players sound about the same"....Not true. Also reliability is of extreme importantce in cdp's.