Universal disc players

Pioneer LX500. Just purchased one and sending it off to Modwright for tube modification. It has great reviews.

Sony has a couple models as well but note there models do not have a DAC in them so you need a DAC and or home theater processor. 
I have one i bought last year and i find its quite good. picture quality of Blue ray disc are very good and the disc spinner seems to be good too outputting to my DAC. I paid around $300  ( Canadian) for it.

Arcam FMJ UDP411.
By all accounts super CD replay and good enough video playback.

Recently discontinued but I have seen a few NOS examples for sale.

Not sure how long or to what level Arcam will continue to support this model.

Also Marantz UD7007 which is a literal Swiss army knife by specifications!
Not cheap though but still a LOT less than an OPPO UDP 205.

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your Responses.

@audiosaurusrex, would you mind telling me what you mean by tube modifications and what kind of improvement you expect?

@glennewdick, could. you give me the model numbers of what you are referring to?

@uberwaltz, I just happened to stumble across both the Arcam and the Marantz last night and will be looking further into both of them.

Any thoughts on the Pioneer LX800

Anyone else want to join the party and share their thoughts on the previously mentioned units or a different player that has not been mentioned please do.

Thanks

I’ll dig it up tonight when i’m at home sorry i missed this reply earlier. I believe its the prior gen UBP-X1000ES mine looks identical but has no analogue audio out. https://www.sony.com/electronics/blu-ray-disc-players/ubp-x1000es

Here ya go. This does everything:
https://www.amazon.ca/LG-Electronics-WH14NS40-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B007VPGL5U
 Just stuff it in your computer and you are good to go. ;)

@audiorusty....The LX 800 was an option for me but decided on doing the LX500 and do the modifications through Modwright. Great reviews on both but I will use solely for 2 channel music. The mods that Dan does will lower the noise floor and increase the dynamics creating a more analog experience. The LX500 is awesome on its own. I’m expecting it back in a few weeks.
http://www.modwright.com/modifications/pioneer-uhd-lx500-modification.php

audiorusty

I own an AYRE DX-5 in stock form. The DSD upgrade is still available as well as continued customer service for parts in 2019. This will not change anytime soon.

And yes, playback is superb.

Happy Listening!

AYRE Does NOT have Lasers available for the DX-5. This has been the case for many years now. Michael at Ayre who I have talked to MANY times in the past 4-5 years not only confirmed this BUT told me where I needed to go to find spare parts...which unfortunately is cheap chinese junk. Stop putting out inaccurate information.

Relevant thread here from Ayre's Ryan Berry. Sounds like Ayre no longer has a supply of laser assemblies for the C-5 but *does* have them for the DX-5.

Both the audio and video are superb with my Ayre DX-5 DSD, better than my Oppo 205.  The video especially surprised me.

Once again I want to thank everyone whom have responded. All information is greatly appreciated.

I will be entering an internet black hole for the next two weeks but will check back in after that to see if there have been anymore updates.

I have to admit that I am intrigued by Ayre but not if they can't easily service the unit so I will contact them after my return to find out if they can service the the DX-5 DSD. If they can't I would say that the Pioneer LX500 and LX800 maybe the most appealing. Anyone have any thoughts on the Marantz UD 9004 or UD 7007.

Thanks again
Rusty

I owned a Marantz SACD player, the 8004, I believe.  Great midrange but I thought it rolled off the top end.
I am not a Marantz fan as I have been burned on a couple of their products with major reliability issues and poor Customer Service

Modded Oppo 205 is probably best bang for buck. 

@audioht. Were your Oppomods done by yourself?  At the same time? Your comments on improvements? Cheers

audiorusty

Give us an update?  Happy Listening!

@jafant 

Thanks for asking.

I was intrigued by the Ayre DX-5 DSD mostly because of the company's design philosophy. I searched the net looking for a used one. I passed on the one on USAM that had been for sale for a couple of years because I thought it was overpriced. After a few months I became distracted by other things and stopped looking for awhile, plus I came upon some collectable Champagnes and spent more money on those than I should have. I recently started looking again and still no Ayre's that I could find so I decided to look for my second choice, a Pioneer LX500. I've searched online retailers and everyone seems to have had them backorder for quite awhile now and I believe they are no longer listed on Pioneer's website so I'm thinking it may have been discontinued, which puts me back at square one and rethinking the whole process. I probably am going to just keep the cheap Samsung Blu-ray that we have and add a CD transport. But we will see. The saga continues.

audiorusty

Thank You for the update.  Happy Listening!