Comparing these CD players with my gear...

The Naim is over priced. The Cambridge is a solid player. Never heard the Myryad.

The Rotel is the best of the bunch. When I had mine, it was in a Creek/Vandersteen system. The cheapest CD player I have that bettered the Rotel is my Arcam 33.

"Looking at the dac converter chips, and transports/lasers, for Redbook cd replay.

 I'd go for the CAL Icon, it's got a very good Burr Brown PCM1702 Multibit chip, and the HDCD PMD100 filter chip."

Why not look at the analog section of the dac as well? It accounts for half of the component and has just as big of an effect on SQ as the digital half. Also, listing individual parts like the dac chip and filter shouldn't be relied on too heavily. The overall design is far more important. There's plenty of CD players that share the same parts, but sound completely different. 

"What do you guys think of the Theta Miles? I used to have one (and loved it) but I different gear at the time. Any comments on how a Miles would sound with the rest of my gear? I have the opportunity to buyback the one I sold another audio friend a while back. He wanted a black one (mine was silver)."

I had one. The build quality was fine buy I didn't care for the sound quality. It just had no life to it. Very boring player to listen to. Some of it, I believe, had to do with Pioneer transport they used. The Wadia 830 and 301 were the only players I've heard that sounded really good with that transport.

"I've talked to the seller and he cannot confirm... only saying the original had it upgraded, or perhaps upgraded to the 3.5? So what do you guys think?"

Call Naim and give them the serial number. I think the US importer is somewhere in NY.

"Why not look at the analog section of the dac as well? I think you’ll find all the players mentioned use dac data textbook I/V stage and output stages, which are just opamps."

I've owned 3 of the players on the OP's list and I have a fair amount of time with 2 others. They all sound different. Audio is hands on. If you want good sound you have to be proactive. That means listening to as much gear as you can. If you make buying decisions based on spec sheets, that's what your system will sound like. A spec sheet.

georgelofi

I was responding to this statement.

"I think you’ll find all the players mentioned use dac data textbook I/V stage and output stages, which are just opamps.I think you’ll find all the players mentioned use dac data textbook I/V stage and output stages, which are just opamps."

Just because the players use the same types of parts doesn't mean the analog sections will all sound the same. Different brands, different design, build quality, etc... It all makes a difference.

"To a small point, if you’ve work on and modded as many as I have they are very similar, only when you get into the esoteric stuff (non data sheet) like what I and others do with feedback free inplementation stacked AD844/discrete/transformer based I/V stages can you hear a real difference, as for the output buffers again very similar opamps used."

I really don't believe in modding audio components unless there's a really good reason to. My personal opinion is to just buy the right component first. If you make a good choice, there's no reason to fool with it. As far as zero feedback designs that don't use opamps, there's really no need to debate the matter. Of course its a better way to go. Both my Wadia's, Ayre and Resolution Opus are all made this way. Players like that are clearly out of the OP's price range, so I didn't see the need to mention those types of designs.

"To give an example, even the mighty $20k Linn CD12 that I have here at the moment, just has PCM1704 data sheet text book opa627 as the I/V stage and again a opa627 as the output buffer. Just classic dac text book stuff."

From that point of view, maybe. But, as I've stated above, I think it better to look at a component in its entirety, and not just single out pieces. I can also use the Linn CD12 as an example. Its an extremely unique piece because the transport is made by Linn in house. If I remember correctly, its the only CD transport ever made outside an Asian country. I'm also pretty sure the CD12 was the only cd player that transport was ever used. So its really a one of a kind piece, which makes it difficult to compare with other players.    

"To me the biggest differences between dac and cdp players comes down to which type of conversion process has been used, and the type of filtering used.

Cheers George"

We can continue to argue, but your last post should put an end to it all. If that's how you judge a CD player, and its working for you, fine. You're getting it right and that's all that matters. But not everyone does things the same way. If we did, we would all have the same system.

"@mgreen   In a world with loads of brick and mortar come listen to it establishments what you said would be THE way to go, however in my "neck of the woods" (literally) there are NO audio shops to listen to gear.  My last major purchase, Vandersteen Treo CTs involved a 6-7 hour round trip to make the purchase.  In that particular instance I was buying speakers from a manufacturer whose speakers I have owned for the last 30 years.  I knew pretty much what I was getting without first hearing them as available reviews and discussions with owners confirmed what my relationship with Vandersteen Audio had me believing.  Fortunately all is well as they have turned out exceeding my expectations.  I do envy those of you fortunate enough to have audio emporiums in close proximity."

Yes, but you still took matters into your own hands and drove that 6-7 hour drive. I've driven half way across the country to make sure I was doing the right thing. I find that the money spends much faster than it takes to make it. That said, there's zero risk when you buy Vandersteen's. They make the best speakers.

"Not just me, but many are now starting to understand that to get RedBook, PCM, CD, to sound right it has to be converted via a Multibit dac not Delta Sigma based

Even music companies are starting to understand this also.
  Quote from MoJo Music:
" When a PCM (CD) file is played on a Delta Sigma or Bit Stream converter, the DAC chip has to convert the PCM to DSD in real time. This is one of the major reasons people claim DSD sounds better than PCM, when in fact, it is just that the chip in most modern single-bit DACs do a poor job of decoding PCM."

I'm not saying your opinion isn't valid, but the reality is someone could listen to one of the players you like and hate it. That's just the way it goes, and it doesn't mean you're wrong. For example, I like time and phase correct speakers, and from a technical standpoint, they have advantages over other designs. I can't see myself changing to any other type of speaker. But no matter how much I like them, other people will prefer different designs regardless of the technical issues. Most audiophiles really like Magnepan's. To me, that big strip of aluminum they use for a tweeter sounds like a flattened out soda can. Its like icepicks in the ears. But most of the people that own them love the way they sound. Who am I to say different?