Hi! I'm thinking about upgrading my Pioneer 588A universal player, which is currently used for DVD, CD, SACD & DVD-A listening. I think it did a pretty good job in general, except red book CD can sound a bit grainy and harsh. I do not have experience with high end player to know what kind of improvements I could get from them, if any :)

I'd like to find a player that excel in redbook CD and stereo SACD playback (of course, it has to be clearly better than the 588A in those respects). Multi-channel SACD/DVD-A playback would be a plus, but not critical. My budget is around $1k, but could go up a bit if needed. I like SMOOTH sound, and I'm wondering whether I'd need tube based player to get that. All my other equipments are Rotel solid states.

Here're some of the options I'm considering, and I'd appreciate your opinions and suggestions:

Denon 3910 (around $800 new)
Marantz SA8001 ($900)
Marantz SA 15 ($2000)
Marantz DV7600 ($800)
Marantz DV9600 ($2000)
Shanling SCD-T200 ($2000+)
Cayin SCD-50T ($2000)
Oppo 970 ($150)
HK DV47 ($250)
Cambridge DV89 ($360)

As you can see, the price range of the products I'm considering varied, as I do not believe expensive always means better. It appears the Denon 3910 could be a good choice, but I'm wondering how its redbook CD performance is compared to the others dedicated 2 channels players.

Thanks ahead!

Good Morning, Just recently listened to the Denon 3910 (at a Tweeter of all places, arghhhhhhhh !!) and while it sounded good i wouldn't begin to think about trading my Cary 303/300 in. Truth is the number of really good "universal" players out there that I've heard, I can count on one hand. The best I've heard to date is the Esoteric unit, but it's out of my league $$$ wise.

If Redbook is a serious musical media for you then by all means get yourself a dedicated CD player that fits your budget and buy one of the Oppo's for everything else.