APL 3910, Exemplar 3910, MF KW, Esoteric X-01?

Smilin, why would APL 3910 not be in price range? I thought that even now with all the latest upgrades, like the AKM DAC board, price is c.ca 6K, which is less than most CDs mentioned in the original post.

I agree with Michael's suggestion. Take the units you seem to like best home for a spin if possible at all.
I personally adore the Teac Esoteric X-01, -- audio-only brother of the UX-1--which not having video output and no DVD support, has been optimized for redbook and SACD playback, and is equipped with 4 DAC chips per channel instead of the 2 per channel found in the UX-1.
Just a word of warning: X-01 and UX-1 do not sugar-coat nor caramelize the recording.
They will give you lots of information, in all its beauty, but also in a lot of its truth. If the recording were terrible, these machines will not hide it.
They will sound their best with revealing but tonally complete power chords like the Shuniata Anaconda VX and the Electraglide Epiphany. Power chords that exasperate treble or bass like the Kimber Palladium may make the X-01 sound unbalanced. To make an analogy, these are like Arabian horses: don't feed them hot chile peppers!

Has anyone A/Bed the current leading moded units based on Denon 3910 and follow ons with the Teac Esoteric X-01?
I have A/Bed the older APL 1000 and X-01, but that is not a fair comparison, being the APL 1000 based on older Philips hardware.

Smilin, in wat other league are the modded machines? you are not telling us what the base league is. More specifically, have you compared these leading modded units with such machines as the Teac X-01?

As already mentioned in passing, a personal listening of the Esoteric X-01 and the admittedly surpassed APL 1000 did favor in my view the X-01 in almost every aspect, except perhaps the APL did sound sweeter.

I have heard the Teac X-01 several times, both at dealerships and at a friends home. In all cases I found it to be very impressive. You will see some of my findings at:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1090867688&openfrom&3&4#3
I have also recently heard the DCS P8I and the Accuphase DP-77. I much prefer the DCS. I found the the DP-77 to be sweet, graceful, but also somewhat artificial. see:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1123254379&openfrom&58&4#58
Both APL and RAM are highly regarded redesigners and enhancers of stock players. According to at least one shootout the APL 3910 outperformed the EMM combo. See:
http://www.aplhifi.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=48
The findings of a RAM vs APL shootout can be found at:
http://www.aplhifi.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=56