Which is the best CD-Player up to $ 10k ?

I was impressed with the ayon cd player as well as the emmlabs two unit stack but the playback design is easily better.

I have hear good things about the amr, the dcs puccini and the new meridian and if anyone gets to do a shootoff that would be great.....

Dcs must have deep pockets if they can loan $20,000 cd players demo models to potential customers.

The upshot is you get to test it out but its much more expnesive so in essence if you buy it you are paying for the luxury of the home audition

On the other hand, the playback designs cost less than the emm labs, dcs so don't have budget for demo tester models.

I personally would insist upon a listen first except for jonathan at chambers audio since his taste is impeccable, word is golden, reasonable prices

bar81,

I was skeptical that a cd player could sound much better than the emm labs but this the playback design is amazing cd/sacd/server unit.

Some things cannot be home tested. A ferrari can be tested at the dealer only. Hey you can come to Los Angeles and hear it at my house and I am just a lowly customer and audiophile. I am sure Jonathan would let you hear it before you buy it just that he can't loan it to you. There are many people who know own playback that would be happy to let you hear it.

I cannot imagine anyone who is looking for a cd player that would not be mesmerized by this cd player. Only someone with a tin ear or someone who only listens to vinyl and is biased against any other form of music playback in my opinion would not be impressed by this player. I have not heard the dcs puccini but that is $20k for the stack. There are some players that I have not heard but I have heard many pricey ones and this is remarkable and heck mine has only 50 hours on it so it will get even better.

The amr does not do sacd right which if true is unfortunate and deal breaker since i have 200 sacds!