The Nad C542 is also $500 (retail list) and has an excellent reputation as a musical player. I had one and was very pleased with it. (I've gone to a PC based hard drive/Squeezebox system now.)
The Music Hall CD-25's discontinued the new model is cd-25.2 but the Onix CD-99's the same unit from AV123.com for only $399 and you can upgrade the opamp to OP627 yourself for ~$20 to make it better player. Good luck
Another vote for the Music Hall players. I had a CD25 with upgraded opamps and it was a very, very satisfying piece of gear. I switched to a universal player for space reasons but I wish I'd kept the CD25.
I've owned both the Onix and NAD players mentioned above. Preferred the NAD as it was smoother, less analytical, easie t listen to for long periods. This suits my taste, yours may differ.
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