I would agree with some of the respondents, get a moderately priced CD player and get it moded in due course. If you're interested in sound not appearence then this is the better route, the more any unit costs, the more seems to be spent on cosmetics. I bought a Shanling CDT 100, because it was the only unit I had heard to make classical music bearable on CD. I spent half the origonal purchase price on a Trichord clock 4, never connected power supply and numerous upgraded components. To me the result more than doubled the value of the unit. No aspect of reproduction was'nt enhanced, particularly the Shanling's weak base and soundstage depth. Colin the upgrader, recently put his heavily modded universal Pioneer player, a $300 unit against a Naim CDS, the owner thought the pioneer was his unit. He immediately had his Naim upgraded of course
Is it worth spending $10k on CD-only player today?
I have been waiting for the new Spectral CD player...now scheduled to be released early next year. It's supposed to be great...rest of system is Spectral. But now I'm wondering - should I look at a multi-player (SACD, etc) unit? I dont want to spend all this money on an obsolete product, and I'm unlikely to buy anything new after this for quite a few years. Thanks for feedback.