The best CD Player for the money

Bartokfan, I've been advised that it depends on which Mundorf caps you use. Also, it has been said that there is no one way to define overall musicality. Look, I'm a pretty simple guy. I've got two volumes-one for analog, and one for digital. Even though my $10,000 analog(circa 1992, and in need of a tune-up) is slightly more relaxing than my digital, the lack of detail, and bass response in my analog has my volume set for my APL(It takes me about a week to dial in volume.). Now, I have less than 100 cd's, and over 2,500 albums, so you'de think I would prefer to set volume for analog. Yet, I don't. Do you live in Northern California? TVAD's suggestion of comparing the two, sounds good to me. I've got to admit that the APL exceeds my abilities to understand. I more or less go with what music makes me listen to. That's why I wanted to compare it with the Rega. I'm not sure that I could live with the Rega. I am sure that I can live with Alex's Denon 3910. It is that good! I have to mention that Alex is also involved with analog. He just has an incredible ear, or something. He listens. He just doesn't put in things that are supposed to be better, and assumes they are. I can't say that his Denon compares with Meitner, but I can say it competes. I assume the Cayin has tubes?

At present have a Musical Fidelity X-Ray CD Player original version on the test bench. At stellar performer for a 6 years in service,over kill Sony CDM as opposed to the sometimes problematic Philips CDMs. Excellent build quality and one of the most ridgid chassis I have seen. Released at $1296.00 and still command about half that in the pre-owned market. Strong resale value as opposed to others that only bring about a third of retail value.

Excellent sonic signature, 24 bit 8 times oversampling unit. One of the most revealing CD players to pass through here. If interested look for an indepth review on Audiogon before end of year.

Would be very hard pressed to do better than this machine at its current pre-owned market place value. Although very hard to come by. Visually it is a love it or leave it proposition as it is not conventional in standard EIA format.

Dbld, how about my APL Denon 3910 in this comparison? I am that confident. In fact, Ori(Oritek Audio-X-2 interconnects, and Zhalou modded DAC) wants to hear it. I am not necessarily confident in comparison to other cd players, although in a way I am. I am confident in comparison to analog(circa 1992 Linn, Ekos, Archiv, Mana Sound Table, Lingo). Does that tell you something?

Mmakshak - I mention those players above because they are all less that 1 hour from me...well John is a little less than one hour from me, and the others are about 15 minutes. I don't know that there is an APL nearby, but that would be very welcome.

Actually getting this to happen might be a pipe-dream though...

Regarding vinyl...I am just not into that kind of maintenance and don't have the storage space. Starting a completely new collection of music media from scratch doesn’t appeal to me either.

I guess I am just lazy-

Dbld, Alex moved to Dixon(near Sacramento). I'm sorry, but I don't think what you've proposed is competive with my APL Denon 3910 with Volex power cord(17604?). Just don't ask me why, as I don't understand. I do have my APL on a Bright-Star prototype 3 isolation platform, and use an Oritek X-2 interconnect. I'de be extremely suprised if the players you recommend are in the same ballpark.