Audiophile grade blu ray player model?

Sorry, but no. For a player to be considered audiophile grade means special effort has been put into the quality of their analog audio outputs, using more expensive components. As a result, they cost more. Also, they tend to be mechanically much more rugged than the commodity disc players. That adds to the cost, too. In other words, $500 sounds about right, although most people here would tend to recommend an Oppo player over the competition at that price point.

Refurbished or previously-owned players might be available for less, of course.

That said, most people are unable to hear any quality difference when using the digital audio provided by the HDMI connection of any disc player through an HDMI-capable AVR.

Fortunately, analogue inputs are obsolete for modern AVR.


Quite right, that. It's all down to quality of AVR analogue ouput circuitry.

My understanding is that this is a result of the "analog sunset" specified in the licenses that manufacturers must agree to in order to be able to put HDMI into their equipment. There's plenty of non-HDMI equipment available, of course. Many people like to use dedicated CD players, for example.


If you want, you can get stereo preamps and amps which are strictly analog, with no digital electronics at all, at whatever price and quality your budget can afford.

As Seldon already wrote, what you get with higher priced players is higher quality analog DACs. For $200, sorry, but you just won't find them. But if you use digital audio outs from the player, it doesn't matter anyway (all players will sound the same since the receiver is doing the work). For audiograde quality, your list is accurate (plus the Oppos).

If 3d wasn't important to ya I'd say find a used Oppo 83SE on the secondary market. Even still that will cost you >500.00. 3d AND Audiophile grade sound quality is gonna cost you upwards of 1000.00 dollars.

I can't speak as to whether this player has what one might consider Audiophile grade sound but it will retail for ~350.00 when it is finally released in May.