Have you looked into the OPPO 981HD? www.oppodigital.com
If you're patient, Google "Secrets of Home Theater". They do extensive tests and found the OPPO to be the top dog of EVERY DVD player EVER MADE. OF course they focus on DVD playback mainly. The audio part is good, but not superb. Still, I had the mighty Denon 3910 and the Pioneer 9500 and overall the $229. OPPO is a better overall. The OPPo has better intelligibility for dialogue than the Denon and I preferred CD playback to the Denon as well. The Pioneer's DVD section was decent, but not great. The audio was another story, absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately the DVD playback wasn't good enough to make me keep it, although I tried really hard to learn to love it, the CD playback was that good.
If you're patient, Google "Secrets of Home Theater". They do extensive tests and found the OPPO to be the top dog of EVERY DVD player EVER MADE. OF course they focus on DVD playback mainly. The audio part is good, but not superb. Still, I had the mighty Denon 3910 and the Pioneer 9500 and overall the $229. OPPO is a better overall. The OPPo has better intelligibility for dialogue than the Denon and I preferred CD playback to the Denon as well. The Pioneer's DVD section was decent, but not great. The audio was another story, absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately the DVD playback wasn't good enough to make me keep it, although I tried really hard to learn to love it, the CD playback was that good.