Music Hall cd-25 or Rega planet 2000

TAS magazine raved about a Rotel player (I forget the number) that is only about $700 new. You should look into it as it held it's own pretty well against a $5500 Electrocompaniet player.

Hi!

Take a look at this thread where I talk about the players I had last year: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1114517770&read&3&4&5

I feel the Music Hall and Planet 2000 are great players. But I feel the Arcam CD73T and Cambridge Audio Azur 640C bested them both. The Arcam is very revealing of detail but seemed a little lean/analytical to me. The 640C was not as revealing but was more full bodied and more musical. If you want to spend more, look into the Consonance CD-120. That is the player I currently use.

Have fun!

Firstly, you can't go wrong with either one. I've heard both players and they're both great. I've owned the Planet 2000 for a few years now and love it. As others have mentioned, it excels at PRAT. For me this factor is very important, so that's probably why I like the Planet 2k so much. It's not the last word in detail or dynamics but it does a lot of things very well. Ultimately, it's just fun to listen to. And a great value, too.

The CD-25 I heard at a dealer, hooked up to a modified Jolida(302-B, maybe?) integrated and some SAP bookshelf speakers. A very, very nice sounding system. Hard to analyze just the CD player since I wasn't familiar with the accompanying gear, but a system won't sound good if the source component isn't up to snuff, IMO.

I suppose this doesn't answer your question at all. However, I'm sure that either player would be a substantial upgrade over the Sony. Both are usually easy to find used here on the 'Gon.

I would suggest going with Music Hall Cd25 modified by either sound odyssey or underwood hifi. Never listened to Rega but know the CD25. Good machine but not the stock version. Arcam cd-73t is a better stock unit.