I settled on a German-made reference CD player after testing and owning many, many players including Cambridge, which I find to be excellent values. In this case you will get a brighter sound than the Adcom. I do like the Wolfson DACS for bass. The Adcom players still stand up pretty well in my opinion, though you will gain inner detail in this respect. I suspect the Cambridge will be better as a stand alone than with the DAC. Dual DACs seem to make the sound more organic. The Music Hall is a nice player. Does everything right but not in spectacular fashion. Oppo players do sound good but won't run with a great CD player. You might consider a Rega Apollo or Saturn. The good news is that there are some good players around on the used market that can be had for under $1000 that will do about 90-95 percent of what very best players can do. But those last percentage points in quality get very pricy! If you have that champagne ear, save up and watch for a good used bargain. You can sometimes find various Wadia players for $1500-2,000 or so. The trade off is that there may not be parts readily available for some of the models. But since they are built well, I see them as a reasonable gamble. Check with Steve at Great Northern Sound about parts availability if you are not a gambler. Getting your source right is important. You just need to consider what your goal and satisfaction level will be. If you know you are going to want reference quality, you will save money in the long run by making the big leap rather than shuffling through player after player to get "there." While I have audio regrets, I never regretted buying the best I could find and afford.
