The best CD Player for the money

I love my Meridian G08 for the money. It really depends on how much you can spend. If your budget is 4k I recommend the Meridian. Ultimately, you should go listen for yourself and see if you like it compared to other players.

Another consideration is HDCD. For me it wasn't an issue since I bought a Denon DVD-5910 to do my SACD, DVD-A, HDAD, and HDCD decoding. So I bought a machine from a company that put that much more effort into producing a CD player that is dedicated to one thing only, normal CDs...

Oh, if you are good with bartering you should be able to get at least a 12% discount as well. I didn't pay 4k which is the MSRP, I got it at 12% less.

I've changed my mind in the last few months and think that the Ayre C-5xe is the best deal around for the money. It blows the Meridian G08 away for CD source (it has HDCD decoding which the Meridian does not have), and as a bonus it plays stereo DVD-A, SACD, DVD-V, etc, etc...

You would think after 7 years, that the original poster bought a new CD player already... LOL