State of the art CD player? Only if you do this.

You're assuming that analog to digital and digital to analog conversion is identical and can be done equally well by a single machine - not sure that's the case.

Also - after a certain dollar amount (you pick - $2000, $5000, $10,000+), I'm not convinced that ANY manufacturer can offer better - merely different!

I'm always willing to listen to other opinions...

I would think it is far easier to turn analog to digital than vice versa. So the equipment needed to digitize the recording doesn't have to be 'as good' as the equipment needed to turn the bits to analog.

Update. I did google a $5000 plus studio digital recorder! Mike

I have listened to state of the art at the time in digital A Krell cd player that cost well over 4G. It was being compared to my Jvc 1010 cd player. The Jvc stood toe to toe and in some ways sounded even better. Till today I would not spend a fortune on cd sound.. used is best and I buy them as cheap as I am offered.

I would just like to point out a couple things in my humble views of CD players.

I bleieve the most important aspect of a CD player is the transport beyond all else. It seems as if the 30lb CD players play forever and will play the most destroyed thrashed discs exellently where a normal player would start to skip consistently it just politely passes through the content ever so perfectly that your bummed but you can still play a couple forever lost songs.

It is for this reason that you will see the auction of the denon 1650 is pretty hot right now (its not my item but i like the 1650, SCD-777ES, and the Marantz SA14 for transport/SACD value minus the 1650).

They seem to me to be mostly like a receiver. The amplification is the same just new processing or video conversion, YOU NEED A NEW UNIT!!!, It personally makes more sense to go with a new DAC every 3 or 4 years that you buy one or 2 years old (Im 26 and on a tight budget) so you are never stuck with a beautiful box with a worthless chip in it.

As far as pro gear goes. There are a few huge things to be factored in.

1. A studio should have the cleanest form of AC available

2. It seems all of the equalization is done in the digital realm so they would really only need a rock solid transport to feed a digital signal to there boards, or a rock solid recorder to record the digital signal which would have nothing to do with digital to analog conversion and once again only transport and digital feed I assume.

3. The CD player will never ever sound anywhere near as good as the original disc. I believe they record hundreds of discs at a time in series, the first cd recorder should sound better than the second and third and so on by that logic. What it will allow you is a few parts they were only able to offer in a more high end model a few years ago or brand new parts they have just created.

I am not an expert it is first assumption on the topic and it is just what makes the most sense to me. Also these are statements from someone on a budget. Im curious to see what other responses come up