Current Universal Players

I purchased a Marantz UD7007 universal player from a US seller on eBay a couple of years ago - it was little used, essentially new. I'm very happy with it since it offers XLR balanced out from it's internal DAC, and digital out to my main DAC, as well as two HDMI, which gives me options. SACD through the internal DAC and the XLR sounds good, but I got a HDMI to I2S conversion box to allow me to use my external DAC, just to see if "better" was possible. So far, no success in getting it to work. The transport seems decent - unlike my Sony UBP-X700, which chokes on some old DVDs.

@ spenav

I'm not sure what the point of your post is but I think you don't understand the HDCD format. Yes, you can play an HDCD disc on a standard Redbook player but the player won't decode the HDCD information and provide the extra dynamic range. If you want to experience the advantage of the format you must have a CD player or a DAC that will decode it. It will have an HDCD logo and a light that will come on when it detects an HDCD disc.

@secretguy 

Berkeley Audio Design makes a range of DACs that all decode HDCD. They are expensive but they definitely support the format. One of the principles of the company is Pflash Pflaumer who was a co-inventor of the HDCD format. There are also lots of used players for sale that do HDCD.

As the man said----Oppo.

Oppo 105D SADLY UNAVAILABLE NOW

I use a Panasonic DP-UB9000 in the HT - excellent in all respects. Don't know about all the formats it does, though, so you might want to check that out.