CD Players Getting Better?

My suggestion...no need to even spend that much...newer MusicHall or others in the $500 range would more than meet your needs while all the hi-rez or next hi-rez format "shakes out"...

IMHO, level of refinement of the chipsets from Burr Brown and some others have indeed increased over last couple of years. However, I think it affected mostly expensive players, and I'm doubt there is a drastic progress among the budget ones.

IMO Cd's got better, if you play a new cd on a 10 year old player it sounds great. If you play a 10 year old Cd on a new player it may not.

I think that first you need to look at is your present player and judge what it is that your not achieving in sound quality ,eg is it to laid back in the top end , not enough bass or both, or an overall lacking sound stage and when you have got this in perspective look for a different player not just a brand new model , many older models are very compitent preformers even going back to the late 80s eg MARANTZ CD94, STAX QUATTRO 2,also it is a matter of taste some of the older models have a style and build quality that just makes you fall in love when you set eyes on them ,to be perfecely honest many audiophiles claim that redbook cd has come a long way in the last 5 years which is true but if you pick and choose and listen to a good range of older cd players you will find that the improvements in sound are few and far between.

as for cds getting better it is a hit and miss depending on the original master tapes eg the original BROTHERS IN ARMS - DIRE STRAITS original released cd has a better sound than the re-mastered cd , eg RIDE ACROSS THE RIVER does not have a drop out as it does in the re-mastered cd,
Thats progress?