Few people are really qualified to make a sound statement like that. Personally, I am not. I have listened to only few other high-end players (top Wadias, top NAIMs, Audio Research, few others) attached to different electronics/speakers and in various locations. Finally, I bought the Accuphase SACD/CD DP-85, I am very happy with it and try to stay that way. Otherwise, the hunt for a "supposedly better player" will never end. It is indeed a great-sounding player, a pleasure to look at and a piece of state-of-art audio engineering. It has a build-in combination of upsampling/oversampling circuitry (a specific Accuphase brand which even very existence the company will NOT officially acknowledge). It really opens ears to the fact that CD recording quality varies tremendously and the best of them equal, if not even exceed (say JVC XRCD), a current SACD sound quality standard. Furthermore, the CD player alone will not make up for a mediocre speaker system, for example. Is it the best single-box CD player on the market? May be - may be not. It IS, for example, according to the German magazine AUDIO, which is as 'unbiased' audio magazine as the commercial publication of this sort could ever (afford to) be. Outside of Japan it is quite pricey, indicating a hefty surgarge imposed by the government together with distributors/dealers cut + transportation cost. In my opinion, there is at least a dozen of serious contenders for the title "the best CD player". If anything, a true comparison would be a formidable effort by aligning high-class "comparable/synergistic" electronics, identical mega $$$ speakers, double-blinded sessions in the same listening room, on reference quality software, and ... still verdict might be a very personal one. So I would advise to treat discussion like this as a good starting point to collect an initial list of player to audit for a search of YOUR best CD player.
