Best universal disc player that has great audio reproduction?

You can also check out the mods from Ric Schultz at EVS - www.tweakaudio.com. Rick does a serious mod to the Oppo 105 and his work guaranteed for life (see his website for details). I don't own a mod'd Oppo 105, but I do own an older Oppo player that Ric mod'd and it was awesome for the price.

I think it makes all the difference in the world. I find it very analog sounding with the ability to tube roll to customize the sound to your liking. After the mods, you wind up with a very "non-sterile" player that can play whatever you throw at it. If you sold you 105, you would have enough to buy a modded 105 and be within your budget. I have owned McIntosh players but to my ears, the ones I have had in my own home sounded veiled. I'm not bashing McIntosh at all, I own probably a dozen McIntosh pieces of equipment. Good Luck!

Not quite sure I would be anywhere near the price of a modwright 105, the only ones I have seen are in the 2500 range. I paid just 650 for my 105 in lightly used shape. 
Might be a better bet to just have my existing 105 "modded", will have to research this some more

after multiple failed attempts at stand alone cd players. I settled on the Pioneer elite DV-79avi,and am pleasantly surprised at the quality of this player. I have most of the video outputs turned off via the onscreen menu.

The pure audio button, sets down all vid outs, and turns off the front panel lights.

cd/sacd/dvd-A/dvd/mp3 discs/ pretty much everything ,,except blue ray. which i don't own any anyway.

nice player weighing in at about 20 pounds.

can find used for about 100$