Quote Originally Posted by topspeed
At only ~$600, the Denon 2910 is a top contender. Very good picture combined with excellent audio in all formats. Faroudja chipset and top of the line BB DAC's. It's connected via Harmonic Tech ic's for analog and a Monster optic cable. My avr has the exact same BB DAC's as the 2910 and when switching between digital and analog inputs, the only difference I can discern is more bass when using the digital input, but that's a product of the bass management. Naturally, this is for rbcd only, not hi-rez.

I previously had a Sony DVD, along with a few Sony CDP's, and none of them reproduced rbcd to my liking. The DAC's are the key. I'm partial to BB and Wolfson, but always audition everything yourself and see what works for you.
Actually, the Sony SCD-CE595 (their entry level SACD player) and the ES model that I bought both use the Burr-Brown 179x series DACs that the 2910 and Denon's current batch of receivers use. The improved performance that I got with CD audio was a pleasant surprise when I switched to that CD/SACD changer.

This same DAC was also used in the Arcam CD72 CD player (the successor to that model changed to the same Wolfson DACs that Arcam's more expensive CD players use). Believe it or not, that Burr-Brown DAC has also shown up in the entry level Toshiba SD-4960 and Pioneer DV-563A universal players, both of which sold for under $200 and are very popular with modders who claim that with analog section upgrades, those players can approach the performance of far more expensive high end CD players. Pioneer went to a different (and cheaper in all likelihood) DAC when the successor model was introduced; not sure what Toshiba did with their newer model.