Best CD player now made.

Sony SCD-1.It makes ordinary CD's sound great let alone what it does for SACD's

SACD does nothing for CD, and I'd put the CD-50 up against any SCD-1, any day...

I have listened to many one box units and have to agree it all comes down to the other stuff in your rig. After auditioning players from Proceed, Audio Research, Krell, CAL, Cary, and Sonic Frontiers, I bought the Sonic SFCD-1. It may not be everyones fav but, I and my wife and everybody else that we have let borrow it all say the same thing... it's awesome. And for about $1500 used I'm not sure you can do much better. The Proceed can be had new for $2000 but all truth be told in my current system I could not tell much of a difference between it and my previous player the marantz cd67se (although it was modified) Anyway, that's my take.

What's the deal with guys using the names of women as their member names. Seems like they'd have identity "issues"...that's my take...no offense, I guess, whatever floats your boat.

Of course the Linn is rated the best in stereophile, and is a wonderful machine. At 20K very little of the audio community will spend this. I recently puchased a CD player. I auditioned accuphase,Sim Moon Eclipse, Theta and BOW. The Sim Moon Eclipse was very good, but was a little bright and sibilant. At 5k I expected more of an improvement over my old Theta ( I listened to Sim Moon in my home for over a week). The accuphase was a little laid back and too polite(listened in a friends home.It did not sound good with HDCD's). Then I bought a Bow technologies ZZ-8! absolutely wonderful. I have never had one piece of equipment make such a temendous difference in soundstage and detail- and the bass is increadable! This player is $7500 and hard to find in the states. I placed an wanted ad and bought one for $3000. I know where one is for $2800. If you are Interested. Mike Thiel