Best CDP in the $4k to $8k range


I just sold my Simaudio Moon Nova and am in search of a replacement. At the moment, listening to CDs on an Arcam. I have listened to a bunch lately - notably the Simaudio Eclipse SE (which I thought was great, but might suffer from a slightly bright uppermid), the Esoteric DV50 (which lacked the openness and extension of the eclipse), Mark Levinson 390S (which seemed a tad dry and reportedly suffers from reliability issues). The Wadia 861b was suggested to me and I will find time to listen to it. The Audio Aero Capitole also might be a contender. The rest of my system consists of a Placette active preamp, CJ Premier 11a, Revel Gems and B15 sub, Shunyata PCs and Hydra, and Sistrum rack. Those familiar with these CDPs, please help! Thanks.
poonbean
if you have been playing lots of music (and enjoying it) on the arcam, keep your money. except for esoteric design and/or build quality, the vast majority of improvements in digital sound have come from the software, not the hardware. an ancient mac,krell,classe,proceed,revox,arcam-delta,quad,linn or other comparable brand sounds outstanding with most newly mastered redbook cd's. any can be purchased for far less than today's so-called state of the art units. by the way, those players in the 4 to 8k range won't make those old, poorly mastered cd's sound any more satisfying than they already do. many of the complaints about digital playback in its first 20 years, were the by-product of rushing software into the marketplace before the industry's producers and sound engineers had mastered the technology. it was a painful learning curve. designers and engineers on the hardware side know that the differences in hardware performance are almost entirely determined by your listening room, your loudspeakers and certainly the quality of the cd itself. there are lots of great players today too, but not one of which is anywhere near this price range unless you are paying for a conversation piece.
Hello Poonbean,

Have you considered the $3,000. Consonance Audio Droplet CDP 5.0 ?

Six moons recently raved about it here:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/droplet/cdp5.html

You could add the ExactPower EP 15A power-conditioner ahead of it for ~$2,000. and have a 'killer' front end !!

Hope this helps !
The Krell SACD Standard is one-hell-of CD player. Killer looks (in Black), outstanding sonics, Stereophile A+ rating and built like a tank with 5-year warranty. It's the best CD Player I've heard priced south of the $12,000 Classe top-loader SACD/CD player. It's worth taking a listen to and hey it's made-in-the-USA!
A Stello CDT200 via a TacT S2150X or a LyngdorfAudio TDA2200 is in your price range, and would make an excellent redbook playback system. It would also give you more power, eliminate the need for a separate preamp & amp(less cables), plus give you digital EQ, crossovers and room correction.
Audtion the new "universal" player from Ayre (model # is 5x or something)...actually its only 2 channel and does not do DVD-A so the universal mkting ploy is a bit misleading: but great redbook performance (Ayre's DVD/CD players were always good) and you also get 2 channel SACD. Price should be within your range. A glowing (perhaps excessive) write up review in Sterophile. I have not auditioned it myself, but have had experience with Ayre CD players in general: the DVD/CD player (model was K1X or something) was really really good. Very true to the source, extended & smooth highs.