I've got the Music Hall CD-25 and it's a remarkable player for the money. I also own the Toshiba DVD players, both the 3950 and 3960, that have had a lot of buzz on the audio forums. The Music Hall is much better, even in stock form, and can be easily improved by upgrading the opamps yourself. I prefer the Music Hall to the much more expensive separate transport and D/AC I owned before.
There are a number of options out there, including adding an external D/AC to your cheap DVD player. I'm running one of the Toshibas through a D/AC and it sounds better than without the external D/AC, but still not as good as the Music Hall.
There are a number of options out there, including adding an external D/AC to your cheap DVD player. I'm running one of the Toshibas through a D/AC and it sounds better than without the external D/AC, but still not as good as the Music Hall.