The best CD Player for the money

"however the very best server-based systems I have heard coincidentally were connected to some of the best dac's i've heard"

That was probably not a coincidence and a direct result of the DAC.

"What annoys me is audiophiles who claim high rez music and rips which, ok can sound great, anhililate cd's played on high end cdp's with exceptional dacs. That doesn't add up.
"

I think it would be hard to practically tell the difference between a server source versus a recent even decent quality CD player through the same DAC in most cases (its hard for me in my rig), but technically the server technology no doubt has the advantage in general over optical read source devices alone.

The Marantz cd6004 or Teac PD-H600 for 500 to 700 bucks these are really good cd players. Read reviews on them. Have used a cambridge 740c cd player,nice and all but was a little to much on the foward sounding player after a few hours of listening.

I think it would be hard to practically tell the difference between a server source versus a recent even decent quality CD player through the same DAC in most cases (its hard for me in my rig), but technically the server technology no doubt has the advantage in general over optical read source devices alone.

I think you raised an observant point. Servers and the quality/consistency of digital music are still maturing, whilst cd players and cd media are highly evolved (eg: xrcd24,dxd,sacd). So whilst technically high rez downloads & rips have the advantage of buffering music to eliminate read errors, high end cdp's can play a range of audiophile cd's through what are typically better dac sections & connections (eg: neutrix xlr). But there are also a few cdp's which buffer cd's like the Boulder 1021 ;)

Larry, Marantz made some terrific players back in the 90's, but have very recently started to get back to thier roots & build some serious players again. But Marantz have always represented good value. Cambridge makes me shudder!

Hi All,

the brand new "Densen B-475 Superleggera" or the brand new "Metronome Technologie CD8 Tube"; they are both amazing!

Best regards,