Redefining "Universal Player"

I am looking for high-quality conversion for a music server, with the ability to play the occassional SACD, DVD or Blu-Ray, and newly purchased CD without ripping it to my music server. I agree, Kr4, that if there is a pre/pro in the system, you can use a digital input and its internal DACs, but my goal would be to get the pre/pro out of the system. In my LR, space is limited, and I have an excellent setup for 2-channel sound, but I'm perfectly content with 2-channel movie playback and therefore don't need all the pre/pro functionality.

There are several examples of high-end, multi-format players with digital inputs. Simaudio, Linn and Wadia all provide players that do at least SACD and Redbook, plus a digital in, and the Linn SC does them all (minus Blu-Ray) with digital in. Esoteric and Ayre do not make players with digital inputs.

I would think a digital input would be one of the least expensive "formats" to support - no licensing, etc. - and provides a level of flexibility that many would want. In my case (and I'm sure others'), I would like to keep box count as low as possible, sound quality as high as possible, cost as low as possible, and flexibility as high as possible. Okay, I want it all :-)

I see your goal Kthomas. I recall that perhaps PS Audio is coming out with something like you describe, but I'm not certain.

FWIW, I have never considered SACD/CD players universal machines. IMO, a truly universal player must include DVD-A, but that's nit picking since DVD-A an SACD formats have been marginalized.

I would like to keep box count as low as possible, sound quality as high as possible, cost as low as possible, and flexibility as high as possible. Okay, I want it all :-)

My Oppo 983H is a universal player of sorts and has USB 2.0 input for PC based digital media. CD, DVD-V, DVD-A, SACD, CDR...probably missing something else too. Oppo should be coming out with their BD-83 pretty soon, though its release has been pushed ahead several times at this point. That player is supposed to add BluRay capabilities to the foundation of the 983H (which is also a superb DVD video player which rivals, though falls just short of, BluRay when upsampled via HDMI to 1080). I cannot comment on the actual analog audio output of the player, but others seem to like it. I use it only as a transport and run the digital out to an external DAC. Oppo prices relative to the Billet'N'BlueLED crowd are relatively affordable.

I would think we have to add netflix and pandora streaming to "such a universal player";NO???

How about LP?

Kal