What makes certain cd players better than others?

Tom,

You're right, the PCM-63K's were some of the best DAC's I've played with. Damned expensive, I think they were around $60 a pop (the K version denotes military grade and were much tighter tolerances). Smooth, analog sounding and definately worth the price of admission. Sadly they were discontinued in favour of the PCM170x series. Crystal is making some fine stuff these days, showing up in most of the better units on the market. Advances for sure but still not the equal of my turntable...

Some high end CD players like the tube based BAT VK-D5SE uses four PCM-63K (two per channel). So based on Jeff's quote, BAT spent $240 just for the DAC chips.

Which one use my ML 36s ? Hope it is OK to ask her!
Thanks

Krazeeyk: You've asked a very difficult question, actually. Despite a plethora of "theories," attempts to corrolate sonic differences to technical attributes are pretty much purely speculative.

Saw this thread last night, before anybody had posted on it. I was thinking about all the kinds of responses it was likely to draw, and wrote out a fairly long, fairly philosophical response in anticipation of the onslaught, which in the end I thought better of and decided not to post after all.

Looking at the above, it's partly what I had expected, with the exception that no one seems to have taken the tack of telling the questioner what to listen for. Either way, I don't think this approach is necessarily going to help him buy his CDP - not that I know for sure what will.

Krazeeyk, from your other posts it looks as though you're just getting started, and trying to assemble a system on a $5K budget. It appears you may have already gotten some Sonus Faber speakers and Musical Fidelity amplification. I can appreciate the intent of your question, but it's really so broad that it can't be satisfactorily answered. In other words, no one can draw you up a laundry list of things to look for in a CDP which will help to choose one to buy used online without prior auditioning. It just doesn't work that way. Although there's no substitute for actual listening experience, if you must choose sound-unheard, why not post a short list of your leading contenders, so respondents can make specific comments about your possible choices?