HI.  I have recently been thinking about how to upgrade my current system.  Right now I have:

Denon AVR-1403 receiver, Yamaha CDC-505 Cd player, Samsung HD841 DVD player (not very pleased with this player), and for speakers I have four Aperion bookshelves and the bookshelf center and the 10' sub.  I was thinking the most logical upgrade would be a universal player.  Maybe a denon 2200 or 2900.  What is the best way to upgrade this system to get excellent music production.  Do universal players play CD's very well?  What about DAC's?  Any suggestions would be helpful.

Noah, I think you are on the right track in realizing that your sources are probably your weakest point, and should be the first to be upgraded to start noticing changes.  IMO, modestly priced universal players do not do CD well.  Unless you are buying a Linn Unidisc 1.1, I would recommend a stand alone player.  In the $500 range, their are many nice stand alone CDP's from Arcam, Rega, Cambridge Audio, Rotel.  This would be my suggested path to better music production.  Again, you could look at DVD players from these same companys (and others less costly) to get better movie and soundtrack presentation as well.  What is your target price point?

My target price range is probably anywhere from 300-600 dollars.  I was looking at the cambridge audio azur line that got pretty good reviews from what hi-fi. 

The CA CDP's are nice for their price range.  My friend has a $500 Arcam that he is happy with (forget the model#) and the Rotel RCD1072 has gotten a lot of good press too.  You can check out a TAS review of this player via the Rotel website.  Good luck in your search, and keep us posted.

I have heard nice things about the Rotel model also.  You might also take a look at the Pioneer Elite DV-45A. 

We also offer the Onkyo DV-SP800 at $800.  The pricing went down not too long ago and if you recently purchased the speaker package from us you would still qualify for the package pricing of $650.

The Cambridge Audio Azur CD player is worth looking at.

Another unit getting good reviews and that may be even better is the Music Hall CD25. This is a CD only player, with HDCD capability.

Cheers,

 

I'd have to disagree with Jim on the notion that the Denon universal players don't do cds well.  I think they do a very fine job. 

In my opinion, CD (and DVD) players is an area of audio with a lot of snake oil being sold.  Lots of "high end" brands are just packaging mass produced products with fancy face plates.  Be careful before you spend your hard earned mony on one. 

There are 2 parts to a CD player, the transport and the DAC.  If you are going to use your receiver to decode, the CD player will make even less of a difference.

I would agree with Brain that the universal players do a fine job, but in your search for excellent musical playback, a stand alone player would better suit your needs.  But don't let my words tell you, let your ears.  If you can't hear the difference for the price, don't pay for it.  It's as simple as that. 

Just a note when testing universal (and standalone) players.  Be sure to use the analog outputs vs. the digital to be sure to utilize the players interal DAC vs the receivers, since the players will most likely be better than the one of your receiver.  You can test this out for yourself as well, as it is not always true, but most of the time is.  People get used to wiring up only a digital cable from the DVD or universal player to their receiver in the world of HT, and discount the players internal DAC's.  On higher end transports, you are paying for the upgraded DAC's, so you should use them (if they prove better than those in your receiver), and the analog interconnects will allow you to do just that.

And if you do that (test the player's DAC's vs. the receiver's), which I recommend too, make sure and use decent if not good analog interconnects, since they'll play a significant part in the sound.

 

 

Thanks for the input guys.  One player that nobody has mentioned yet is the nad c542.  Has anyone heard anything good or bad about this player? 

see if there's any reviews at audioreview.com or audiogon. I myself love NAD gear, but haven't had any experience with that particular player.

 

Our local NAD dealer stopped carrying NAD about 2 years ago because of reliability issues, they just had too many CDP's coming back to keep up with.  I had a coworker that went through a NAD player in about 18 months as well.  He was dissapointed, as this was his first 'high end' audio product.  Their stuff sounds good, but I have stayed away from buying any NAD gear and don't recommend it to others based on my local dealers and coworkers experience with them.  My local dealer replaced NAD with Rotel.  I've heard that recent NAD gear is dealing with some of these issues and they may be resolved?  Just thought I'd throw the 'heads up' out there for ya!

search for c542 at http://www.ecoustics.com/ in their fourms, they love NAD.