Seems fewer people have asked this question than I would have suspected, so here goes...
I have an eclectic and somewhat bizzare home theater system consisting of the following: Onkyo TXDS494 receiver, Sony Playstaion 2 (DVD player), Sony CDP535 (1989!!!), Heavily Modded Audio Alchemy DITB, Maggie MG-2c mains, and Paradigm Mini-Monitors at center and surround locations...
My problem is This: the Sony changer, which I have been happily using as a transport for more than 14 years is finaly on it's way out, I've re-biased the laser but it just doesn't read cd-rs like it used to and you have walk lighty past it to prevent skipping...it's also begining to fail to respond to button presses after the drawer is opened (requires power cycle to remedy).. Even with a laser re-bias on the PS2 and a upgrade to the V4 laser, the PS2 just does not have very good error correction and rented DVD playback often requires a skip-dr run before play is possible, and skips are common.
I REALY want a universal disc changer, and I like the looks of the Onkyo, but my budget is pretty small...I wish Pioneer made a changer version of the 587a. I listen to music more than I watch DVDs, but I want to get away from using the PS2 for DVDs and really want to explore multi-channel audio (DVD-a and SACD). With the moded DITB for 2 channel PCM a player with digital out means I don't need high quality on-board CD DACs, but HDCD would be nice too... The Panasonic changers seem to be well received but have no SACD...The Toshiba universal changer (6515?) seems to have a number of issues...
Do people see an inexpensive universal changer (that works) on the horizon? Should I wait, or lay-out (what I consider) big money for the Onkyo? I know Denon/Yamaha/Marantz, yada yada yada but I really can't afford a player over $600...
Does anyone have any coments on the audio quality of the Onkyo, or any other universals out there besides the Denon/Yamaha/Marantz? I'm able to find plenty of info about video quality on lower-end universal players, (Samsung, Toshiba, Pioneer etc...) but they seem to get lumped in with DVD only players and no one seems to care about or test thier audio performance.
Opinions, rants, and ridicule gladly accepted,
Thanks
