New CDP for $500?

I've owned both the Onix and NAD players mentioned above. Preferred the NAD as it was smoother, less analytical, easie t listen to for long periods. This suits my taste, yours may differ.

Another vote for the Music Hall players. I had a CD25 with upgraded opamps and it was a very, very satisfying piece of gear. I switched to a universal player for space reasons but I wish I'd kept the CD25.

Bada Cd player..very good tubed output unit! I think it sounds better than quite a few more expensive units.

The Nad C542 is also $500 (retail list) and has an excellent reputation as a musical player. I had one and was very pleased with it. (I've gone to a PC based hard drive/Squeezebox system now.)

The Music Hall CD-25's discontinued the new model is cd-25.2 but the Onix CD-99's the same unit from AV123.com for only $399 and you can upgrade the opamp to OP627 yourself for ~$20 to make it better player. Good luck

I liked the Music Hall 25 in this price range better than anything else I heard. It's warmer than others (which tended to be bright) but without loss of detail.

It lists for about $500 new. I am not a fan of used CD players.

If you can stretch to $1000, consider the Olive Symphony, which gives you full music server capability in a CD player drop-in replacement. It's real nice to be able to put your CDs away permanently.

Search the fora here, this question has come up before.

Cordially,

Eric