Best CD player

Agreeable with Hgeifman. Or why not try to do some "benchmarking" with what you would like to hear. Borrow a friend's turntable like starting out with a rega,put on a descent cartridge. There is something in analog that ultimately woes your emotion. Then perhaps listen to a CD unit that is comparable.

Test with different types of music,like fast paced ones.
Almost all too often,even high priced CD players sound confused versus vinyl play. And dont forget about those extension...in both frequency extremes.

I've heard how a Forsell DAC outperforms a Jadis and curiously tried a REga outfitted with a Benz micro cartridge,it was a shock to me that at 1:5 cost ratio or over, the TT was a overwhelmingly better.

Let your ears decide,almost everything is relative to combination and compatibility.

Bat VK-D5i, used. Hands down the best redbook cd player I've had the pleasure of listening to. I only wish I had your budget, and could afford it.

The Audio Aero Capitole is in my opinion the best recomendation, As Tireguy suggests, sell the placette and you'll be there.

I have owned many of the CD Transports or Players mentioned. After hearing the Capitol the choice is simple. It is also the most cost effective, because no additional DAC or Pre amp is needed. You also eliminate a lot of expensive cabling.

Good Luck & Good Listening

There is no 'best' anything. There are many well made and designed audiophile components, and even more cables.

If you are unsatisifed with the sound you are getting, focus on the souce material, verify speaker placement and room conditions, then upgrade the speakers.

The rest is pretty much aesthetic, phyco-acoustic game playing, and hair splitting.

Homedesign, you keep spouting off about "source material" and "psycho-acoustics" as if one can not hear differences in components or that one should only listen to good recordings.

How many people would be willing to sacrifice TONS upon TONS of "enjoyable" music that wasn't recorded all that great for a handful of "audiophile grade" recordings of music that was ( many times ) sterile and unmoving ? While i'll always prefer a good recording over a bad recording, i'll still settle for good music with a reasonable recording over "sucky" music with a great recording. There is a difference between "being pulled into the groove" and using a recording for reference purposes.

As to the differences in gear, i'm hoping to have a very well made professional grade multi-purpose ABX switchbox pretty shortly. It was made by Quad and used for testing purposes when designing gear. From what i've been told, there are two of these in existance and i've got a line on one of them. If i can snag it, we'll probably be doing some pretty interesting tests at the Chicago Audio Society meetings sometime soon. Sean
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