$5000 universal player ... am I a fool ?


So now ... recently my old reference source player finally died and I needed to upgrade to keep up with the times, and I'm not sure if I played the part of a fool or no.
Redbook CD is of the utmost importance to me, even though it is done in the context of my home theater system, Egads ! So I went on the search to find a DVD player that would hold it's own against about any CD player in the $5000 range on down. I'm fairly sure I found that in the Lexicon RT-20 I purchased used off these forums. SQ is as good as any CDP I have owned up to about $7000.
Here is my dilema though : Blu Ray seems to be the future, and this "universal" player does not play Blu Ray.
I've read EVERY long post on these forums about Blu Ray playing 2ch audio, but there seems to be absolutely ZERO concensus about this subject.
So simply put, are there ANY Blu Ray players that MAY equal my RT-20 from it's analogue outputs ? Anyone heard a good comparison, or are we still just guessing ?
timtim
I also bought an RT-20 on here new for about $1000. My thinking was that to find a Blue Ray player that met the Lexicon sound quality and video quality with DVDs you would have to spend at least $3-4,000 or more and I knew there was no way that I would do that. I care more about the sound quality for music and then DVDs now - I may or may not buy a Blue Ray so fast but when I do I figure I'll spend $500-750 or so and be way ahead, particularly for 2-channel, having spent about $1500 or maybe $2000 than paying $3000 or more now for a Blue Ray player with the music quality of the Lexicon (or not). Maybe I'm wrong about the quality of the Lexicon and whether or not it is a "deal" at $1000 (then again people seemed pretty happy with it for music and DVDs paying multiples of that) and perhaps there might be a BR player with music quality that is close for less than $3000 but figured going the Lexicon route was the cheapest way to jump from a good Pioneer Elite universal player into more audiophile quality, particularly for 2- channel, without having to spend to the $3000+ level. And then, a few years from now when I am no longer using it as a video player and have a better BR player I'll still have a pretty damn good CD player.
Wait for the new Oppo which will be a BluRay universal format player. Early word is that it is stunning and it is inexpensive compared to what you are considering.
Some reports say that it's still buggy on audio. BluRay appears to be OK.

Regards,
Why compromise with a universal player that attempts to do everything? With your priorities (redbook) and a $5k budget, I would suggest spending $4700 on a top notch "universal" redbook/SACD player, such as the Ayre c5xe, and then spend $300 on a separate blu ray player.
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