I owned the CDP .5 cd player and have some cd player experience to semi back up what I will say. I will tell you my experience strictly from a quality of sound perspective. I wanted the .5 to be great. Its specs, looks, company reputation were and are impeccable. It was not. After owning it for 2 months a buddy of mine brought over his Marantz CD63SE and left it for a while. The two players sounded IDENTICAL. I confirmed this later on via several other unbiased people and some switching and even long term. I sold the player and got something better for even less $$$. I now own the Meridian 506.20 and completely love it. It is way more refined than the CD63SE. At the bottom I will include a list of CD Players I personally have owned. After several calls to Classe I got the answer that this player (and the CDP1) only carried their name and was not designed or built by them. Classe may be a fine company but their digital is a complete joke. 1.) Classe CDP .5 2.) Rotel RCD 990 3.) Krell KAV 300CD 4.) Meridian 506.20 Keep looking there is much better out there. Also from my experience the Rotel was WAY nicer than the .5 so the 991 may be something to check out. Good Luck.
