Absolute Best CD Players Out There Under $12k ?

Whoopadeedoo, do you mean something like the Accuphase DP-77? Heard. . . looks great. . . and the sound. . . sure is different!
Judy, feeling a touch acidulated today?
All, let us not knock Norm's Halcyionic active isolation platform quite yet. From the only thread discussing it on the Gon, it looks like it was born for and is mostly still use for mechanical isolation of laboratory equipment. See:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1112411577&read&keyw&zzhalcyonic
From what I can tell its manufacturer's claims are at least in principle quantifiable and verifiable. I may have to start selling lemonade on my driveway during weekends. . . perhaps some day I will be able to afford one of these creatures as well. . . and in case of earthquake I will climb on top of one for 'total protection'.

Guido based on your posts here and in other threads, I suggest you concern yourself more with you than me. Thank you.

Sorry if I disturb your sensibilities, Judy. Please avoid my posts. I think you are unable to see my great enthusiasm for the H-Cat and the Halcyonics. I like the Cerious and think the Exemplar products are the best moded units I have heard, but do say the Reimyo is the best digital I have heard. I am certainly not alone in singing the praises of the Indra. I am sorry you don't have enthusiasm for anything.

I own the Meitner gear and very happy with it. All of the above are great players with different personalities and already a lot of comments done. Among them Meitner/Reimyo/dcS are generally similiar in quality (well by that I mean cutting age digital), clearly a cut above the rest, but with different characters and a matter of personal taste: the one thing Reimyo can't do is play SACDs which is factor to consider. If you want to consider price as factor, the new Ayre universal player is extremely good and I would recommend auditioning it against the Esoteric gear. I plan to do so next year as I move into another house and build a second system: perhaps the dcs new one box player will come into play but it is 50-100% more expensive than the other two: hopefully they will be cutting prices? Yeah, right.