Does it still pay to buy a $3k CD player

Your question, of course, can only be answered very subjectively. Anyone who will consider spending $3K on a CD player has a very personal set of audio desires. For me, spending $3K on a CD never much sense, and it makes almost none now. In the next year or so, we are going to see another generation of players hit the market with 96/24 capability, that may also include HDCD. The old 44.1K CD's will be around a long time, but they will be certainly be eclipsed in sound quality by newer recording technologies. Over the past 3 months, I was pondering the same question you posed, and I opted to buy a used Rega Planet CD player for about $575. I'm very pleased with its sound quality, and it will be a fully acceptable unit for the next year or so. You may want to consider the same approach.

If your income is $300000.00 go buy $4000.00 Electrocompaniet EMC 1 or $12000.00 Accuphase 75v.If,however,it is close to $50000.00 then I suggest you get CEC TL5100Z from Audio Advisor for $795.00 and keep it for another 3-4 years.

Hi Joe; It also depends greatly on how old you are and how many CDs you have..... think about it. Good luck. I'm an "old coot" and there's no doubt in my mind. Best of luck. Craig

Joe, if you get one used, then yes. That's what I did, and I want to challenge anyone with an SCD-1 to come by and compare CD playback with my CD50.

Well, no need to visit you Carl, as I've had the Res CD50 here for an extended listen compared to my Sony SCD-1. Did the CD50 as an integrated player into a preamp and CD-direct into my amps balanced (Atma-Sphere M60 MkIIs). The CD50 is a very nice CD player. Rich sound, non-fatiguing. The integral volume control is a nice bonus and it worked smoothly into the amps direct. Bass a little soft, but the midband is excellent. However, the CD50 was not as refined as my fully-broken-in SCD-1 on redbook CDs, and for SACDs, the comparison is of course pointless. People tend to exaggerate differences, if something is a little better compared to something else, then the first is "crap" and the latter "blows it away." Hardly. The CD50 is a very nice player I could easily live with. But the SCD-1 is better. Noticeably better, not a huge amount better. Is the improvement worth the extra $$? Only you can answer that.