More CD Player selection woes

i own a marantz 11s2. i'm not sure you would prefer it to your denon player, without a statement regardding your sonic objectives.

definitely, stay away from the cayin,. i owned that player. without mods, it is definitely unbalanced in its frequency response.

send me an e mail with your concerns and i will try to answer your questions.

most of the 24 bit players in current production are fatiguing after some duration of listening.

Look at used Musical Fidelity players or decoders. They are very good and I have found them reliable.

Raysonic CD-128. Check the l-o-n-g review on 6moons. Built like a battleship and sounds absolutely wonderful. Two audiobuddies bought them after hearing (or hearing about) mine. I've had the Raysonic for 18 months with zero problems and sold a Sony XA777ES ($3,000 msrp) because the Raysonic sounded better on the CD layer of hybrid SACDs than the Sony did on the SACD layer. They show up fairly frequently here for ~ $1200 used. Good luck, Dave

I agree with Dopogue. I have the 168. According to 6moons the 128 & 168 are quite close sonically. I am a proponent for fully balanced system from source through amps, so the 168 fit my needs.

Previous players Lector CD 7T and Bluenote Stibbert Mk II (both around $5K). I had a lot of problems with the Stibbert, none with the 168. It sounds better, too

The Marantz is a little out of my price range at this time. Basically, I'm looking for a player in the $800-1100 or so range. Sonically, I prefer something that does not ADD anything to the CD that isn't already there. I hear the Cambridge fits that bill. I am intrigued by the Raysonic CD-128, and other tubed players. My preference is to list to LP's via my TT and tubed EAR phono. I'd like the CD player to sound as close to that as possible. I intend to connect the player with balanced outputs into my pre-amp that is connected to the power amp via balanced connectors as well.
I'm not all that well versed in the subtleties of audiophile jargon, I’m just looking for a player that sounds crisp, clean, warm, and doesn’t “influence” what’s on the disc.
Thanks.