Okay......best single box reference CD player

Audio Research CD-7 without question.

My Wadia 581se sounds pretty amazing...deep, warm and round, with lots of articulation at the top and a full, defined bass at the bottom. IMHO I believe that when you start spending 10,000 and up for a single boxed player that many of the percieved audio differences between these players are many times related to room acoustics, cables and power delivery choices.

If your willing to think out side the box, then the Linn Klimax DS is the BEST digital I've heard. It's like listening to vinyl.

A single box player that can "outperform" your current setup, particularly since you like your current setup, would be a bit hard to come by.

I've heard a very similar DCS rig and liked the sound a lot, particularly for its smooth, relaxed and musical presentation (perhaps at some sacrifice in dynamics and detail). One box players that I've heard that may give you a similar sound are the Nagra and the Linn CD 12 (I heard that Linn may be bringing it back). It's been a while since I've heard a Burmester player, but the one I heard struck me as being very sweet and smooth sounding.

I like the player I have, the Naim CD555, though it is actually not one box (separate power supply and a combined DAC/transport). This player does everything well, though it still has a touch of "transistor" sound to me (slightly artificial "edge" to the initial attack of a note -- a kind of hardness to the sound).

correction to my post above regarding the Playback Designs;

i said;

"it uses an Esoteric VRDS transport"

i had thought that all the Esoteric digital transports were VRDS and that there were various levels of VRDS. a friend pointed out to me that this is wrong. other levels of Esoteric Transports are called different names. so to be clear; the Playback Designs has an Esoteric transport; but i don't know which one it is. it could be the VRDS-NEO, but i seriously doubt that due to it's cost.

i hope this is clear.