I forgot to point out that there is some mediocre, and crappy vinyl out there that really cannot be used to judge what a deck or a recording sounds like.

I have some recordings that got re-mastered and the cd is a bit better than the original pressing. This is again, not a good determining thing.

A properly modded/equipped thorens will make some excellent music. The one thing it may miss vs a heavily modded unit, or more expensive player is a rich timbre, and tonality. Less expensive decks seems to sound reasonably well detailed, but fall just short of a really involving experiance to separate it from a decent cdp. But if I had a thorens, I'd not hesitate to equip it with a decent arm, and $300- $600 cart before I decided.

The lowest priced cdp I have heard that sounds decent is $400. But there is no way you'd mistake one for a $700 or $1200 cd player. Cd players just do not have a decent analog stage for a few hundred bucks. They might sound decent, but they are highly omissive.

FWIW: I cannot listen to the 1812 overture (Telarc) Lp in it's entirety, my cartridge will not track it. But the cd has frighteningly powerful bass. That in itself is a bit of an advantage.

But again, since I can hear differences in ambient recovery (decay) that cheap cd players do not have---that alone is worth a better deck. I am not sure there is a commercial cd player under $4,000 USD that has real ambient detail. However, there are decent $800 turntables that do.