Universal Players vs. Dedicated CD/SACD Players

cjcomo-

the Omega series was very sweet. Does Classe' still have parts/service for these players?

I agree- NAD makes excellent cd players, especially, the 1990's models.

Oops, I got the model number of my Nad wrong, it's the C565BEE, and the current model I was referring to is the C546BEE.


Beernut, I had the ERC-1 and sold it after becoming dissatisfied with it.  It would freeze up every now and then and I had to power cycle it to get it to work again.  It also skipped the first few seconds of the first track played upon power up, after that it was fine.  I replaced it with the Oppo 95, which did sound superior.

The ERC-3 shouldn't have these issues.  Marantz, Nad and Cambridge all have interesting options.

Thank you. I was wondering last night if I wanted to improve upon redbook cd performance, how much would I need to spend on a dedicated cd player to better the performance of my Oppo BDP-95? I'd be happy with a $100.00 blu ray for video. If I'd have to spend $1000.00+ to improve upon the cd capability of the Oppo which I bought for $500.00 then I'd think harder probably...

Hopefully some more Oppo 95 owners can chime in.  I know the Nad C565BEE is superior, but it's no longer made and went for $800 back in 2011. They pop up used now and then.  I'm not sure if the current Nad C546BEE is just a stripped down version of the 565 or not, and thusly would sound the same without the optical input and filtering modes.

But it does come down to taste, some prefer Marantz cd players over Oppo and vice versa.  Owners say the Oppo 105 is nicer sounding than the 95, but you'd have to spend a fair amount.  

I'm not sure OP told us where the output of the 95 goes.  Oppos can provide many of the functions of a processor or they can be used as spinners if HDMI is taken to a pre/pro.

Balanced analog from my Ayre C-5xeMP goes to a Parasound JC 2 BP, but HDMI from my Oppo 105D and Sony XA5400ES goes to a Bryston SP3 that does the analog processing.  Front LR from the SP3 is passed through the JC 2 BP to JC 1 mono blocks.  The SP3 has closed the gap, but I still prefer the Ayre for stereo, especially for CDs.