Sugarbrie, have you tried the Aiwa in your system? I got one and have only used it as a transport for a few days so it is not burned in. It's ok for background music, but in its stock form is about as good as my 9 year old Marantz cd94 as a transport. The Marantz is no slouch, but is not world class. I would think the Stan Warren mod is almost mandatory to get decent sound out of the Aiwa. Of course, for $90, the Aiwa is probably a great bargain. I haven't tried any other changers.
CD Changer advice
I'm looking into a CD chnager as a replacement to an 11-yr old Sony single player. I'd like to check out HDCD and I can spend about $1K. This presents a few options: First, buy one of the two 'audiophile' integrated units (CAL CL-10 or Anthem CD-1) out there, BOTH of which are now out of production, both of which can be found for around a grand here. Second, pick up a credible mid-fi rig (Denon does a decent HDCD 5CD carousel) and add an outboard DAC (Bel Canto, CAL Sigma 24/96) to it. Any thoughts on either path? Changer or DAC recommenations? Reservations about buying the out-of-production units? Lastly, if I went with separates, would it matter where the HDCD filter is - transport or DAC? I'm not sure if the filter is used during D/A conversion (requiring an HDCD DAC)or if it affects the digital signal picked up as the transport reads the CD (requiring an HDCD transport). Thanks!