Quote Originally Posted by Dolby
I have an Marantz CD17 MkII KI Signiture - which is a reasonably high-end CD player, and reviewed well in most magazines.

In the classified, I saw a Theta Pearl transport and Theta Cobolt DAC - which I'm told is a better sound than my Marantz. The Marantz, however, costs nearly FOUR times the price of the Theta setup!

I also saw a Meridan 203 DAC and old Meridan transport - which I'm told would rival the Marantz. The Marantz is SIX time more expensive!

Question is : Would I be able to look in the classads, make up an entire high-end system from 10 years ago, for the price of just a high-end CD player today? Why would people want to go for the new stuff - other than the looks?
I've heard the latest, and best from Meridian, the 800 (over $20k)

http://www.avrev.com/equip/meridian800/

Which to me is about as good as CD can possibly get. I really don't think the bar for CD quality has gone up since oversampling was introduced. My CD player is about 5 years old, and give me about 95% of that quality. CD is now a mature technology, and so any incremental gains are going to be tiny.

That being said, the Meridian gives you DVD-Audio quality that is clearly better than ANY CD. With the proper system would provide you with an unrivaled audio experienced. What I heard at HE2005 was better than ANY 2-channel audio setup I've ever heard.

Home Entertainment 2005 show report; part 5