I play CDs on my Mitsubishi DVD player all the time and they sound great.

--Ethan

I play CDs on my Oppo 981 and my Pioneer 58AV. I also play DVD-As, SACDs, mp3 and, of course, video DVDs and upconvert to 1080p. All cost less than the Rega.

Given a choice, I buy vinyl, but DVD-A is a very close second and SACD right there. Of the discs, CD is the last format I buy, but still do when that's the only format available.

Dave

You are not going to find any universal player that does not cost a bundle as good as a Rega, so stay with your original choice.
As for the one who must be obeyed tell the price tag of a Linn Unidisk as opposed to say an Oppo 981 + Rega Planet.

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You are not going to find any universal player that does not cost a bundle as good as a Rega, so stay with your original choice.
As for the one who must be obeyed tell the price tag of a Linn Unidisk as opposed to say an Oppo 981 + Rega Planet.

I second that. I don't think you will find anything that will have the musicality of a Rega Planet (Be sure to get Planet 2000, not the original planet) for that kind of money.

For less money than the Rega you can mod a Pioneer DV-58AV universal. I don't understand why anyone would limit themselves to CDs when they can get equal CD performance for less and clearly superior DVD-A and SACD at the same time.

With the availablilty of more and more hi rez downloads and the ability to record your LPs in hi rez (using devices like the Korg MR1000) the prospect of being stuck with CDs is just not an option for me.

I chose the modded Pioneer route.

Dave

Dave, who did the mods and what was done? I have a vague recollection you discussed this before, but it may help the OP. It's a great option.

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Dave, who did the mods and what was done? I have a vague recollection you discussed this before, but it may help the OP. It's a great option.

Good question. Ric Schultz did the mods to my Pioneer. See his discussion here:
http://www.tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/Pioneer_DV-58AV_mods.html

Ric does great work, but keep in mind that you start with a $400 unit under warranty and end up with a $1500 unit (assuming full mods, which I did) that no longer warranteed. Ric will help you out, but it's not like a warranty from Pioneer. I'm willing to take that risk and consider it small vs. spending several times that for a factory unit with the same attention to the sound. (There are NOT many of those of the universal type machine.)

Dave

Hi Pigpen,

I'm in the same boat with WAF- PLUS my additional need for a universal player since I wisely(?) decided to adopt DVD-A in 2000 and lately SACD so I could ride the wave of nostalgia as these formats wither from lack of interest. But they sound fantastic on my Marantz DV7001, including Redbook CD. It also upconverts standard DVD to 1080p. It really does a credible job on all formats, although I'm sure the Rega must have superior capability as a stand alone cd player. But I mostly listen to the hi-rez formats, so I'm not the last word in this debate.

The Oppo, Pioneer and Marantz are all very good right out of the box. The mods take them to a level that competes with players costing much more.

We don't know how hi rez the rest of your system is. Perhaps a brief description will help assure that the recomendations are consistant with the remainder of your system.

Dave

I had been playing Cds though a Toshiba HD A3 (HD DVD) player for some time. Compared to my old Sony 5 disc changer it sounded absolutely amazing. The only dice is it's very slow to boot, open, and read a disc (but that gives my tube amp time to warm up). I've recently upgraded to a used Sony SACD player, and it plays regular CDs very nice as well. The SACD player is slightly more musical than the HD DVD player, but the HD DVD player is still a very good player. HD DVD may be a dead format now, but the Toshiba HD A3 upconverts regular DVDs much nicer than ANY other DVD or Blu-Ray player I've tried. Try it. Demo them if you can. (Best buy did for me, but my local best buy is huge and actually has a higher-end section where they allow you to demo speakers and stuff).

Wait a month and the discontinued players will likely drop to $50 or so. They're already only $100 at Best Buy for the 720p version. (Down from $300 just a few months ago)

Charles.