best cd player for 2500- 3500

thanks for all of the input but I want to spend $2500- 3500 on a new player . but what is the deal with the bow tech wizard vs the zz8?

I have the MUSE 9 signature and I think with a little discount you vill get it for 3500 new,It had the ´most fantastic sound i have ever heard from a`CDP and it beat Wadia 860x in my system and its in the same league as the Ayre DVD-1 at 9000$. And as bonus you can play DVDs and 24.96 DADs.

IMHO, my choice would be Cary 303 ($3000) or Cary 306 ($5000). You can find either of these new for far less than list prices shown and both are awesome and musical.

I auditioned Levinson No.39 and although its a nice player it didn't do it for me. Besides, the No.39 digital internals are a bit dated so thats why Levinson finally came out with the No.390s to replace the original No.39. You'll see more No.39 players showing up on the secondary market and prices should start to soften slightly if you're looking for one.

As you're interested in Krell, why not go for the KPS20i as it is being offered on audiogon at the moment. They don't come along too often, but I think there are now three different units up for sale within your price range.

Don't get too uptight with all the hoopla about recent developments in digital audio, or whatever else the manufacturers of the so called upsampling devices would have you believe. This mid 90's machine will happily do a 7.056 kHz sampling frequency and 24 bit accuracy (by employing a DSP-based proprietary 16x oversampling digital filter), that will show these pretenders a clean pair of heels in the resolution department. It also has the Philips CDM9 Pro transport mechanism configured for toploading (using a very cool disc clamp, not to mention the fact that the disc is bathed in green light), fully balanced digital circuitry with two Burr Brown PCM63K converter chips per channel and a discrete balanced analogue output stage (not an IC or op-amp in sight). As for construction, there's no plastic within a mile of this machine!

But forget about all that high technology and solidity of construction. The PERFORMANCE of this player will bring you as close to the feeling of "being there" with the musician as you have any right to expect.
I've purchased mine about a month ago and I'm convinced it's the best audio decision I ever made.

cheers,
hans

For New Retail under $3000, the Theta Miles is an excellent product. Get HDCD and AES/EBU outputs