Why spend money modding average players like the denon (and you're right, its video is much better than the audio)when you can just buy a high end player from the get go and not worry about mod's? Additionally, modded players are very difficult to resell and lose their value much quicker than stock players.
In answer to your question, there are NOT ANY really good universal players in your price range of $1,000-$3,000 that give a good dedicated redbook only player a run for its money. If audio is really important to you then you will have to spend considerably more to achieve your goal.
The McCormick UDP 1 is getting reviews that it has very good cd playback...but that is only in comparision to other cheaper or older model universal's. Its not even on the level of an Ayre CX-7 or Arcam cd 33t (I've heard the McCormack and previously owned those two players). And to be honest, the Ayre CX-7 and Arcam CD-33T are at the beggining to middle end of the spectrum in terms of really, really good standalone players.
To find a universal player that really gives you excellent redbook you're going to have to spend $5,000 or more. You may not want to hear it or believe this but that's just the way it is.
Marantz just came out with a new universal player called the DV 9500 to replace the 8400. Its audio playback is better than the 8400 (and definitely better than the 3910, Marantz's audio is consistently better than Denon's)but still nowhere on the level of the good to very good standalone players. No matter what Denon tells you, most of the upgrades on the 3910 (over the 2900) were made in the video section...not the audio. And the changes/improvements that were made on the audio were not significant enough to make a huge difference.
I'm willing to bet anyone that the sound (via the digital output) of the 3910 is improved but there is no change (or very little change)whatsover via the analog outputs. That's where it takes real money to make improvements. The transport mechanism is another area where real audio improvments occur. Denon hasn't changed their transports in any menaningful way in the past 10 years.
Denon has always been and will always be a decidely mid-fi company. From an engineering and sound standpoint they can't even compete with Rotel...and Rotel is one of the better mid-fi companies who occassionally make a hi-fi piece of gear.
Just telling you like it is! Don't believe the hype. Look at it this way..when you hear the reviewers gush and go ga-ga about new products from mid-fi companies like Onkyo, Marantz, Pioneer and Denon....do you EVER SEE THEM make any comparisions or do face off's against high end gear gear from companies like Arcam, Lexicon, Meridian,etc? NO!!
They just go on and on about how good it sounds but never make any comparisons. Why is that?
Some of you may say that's not fair because those companies prices are much higher! But that's not the point. Mid-fi companies that are really striving to improve should be compared against the best to see (in relative terms)how far they've come and what trade-off's were made.
Products from companies like Anthem or Rotel are routinely compared to products from Lexicon, Meridian or Krell even though the price points of products from those companies are much higher. Why? Because these companieroutinely strive to give 85-90% of the performance of the elite companies at 60-70% of the price. That's called value!
Denon, Pioneer and the like only attempt to better their products in terms of their previous models. And that's what the reviewers stick with..comparing them to their previous models. And even then the improvments are small.
Just the thoughts and observations of a grizzled audiophile!
AVGURU
