I have a 15 year old Nakamichi CD player, and when I purchased my Denon 2910 several months ago, was hard pressed to tell the difference for redbook CD. The Nak obviously lacks SACD or DVDA, and I was able to notice an increase in the sound quality of SACD & DVDA, particularly when the next listening selection is a redbook CD. Currently have a demo Rotel RCD 1072, and depending on the source material, have not notice any difference between the Rotel & Denon, or a very marked difference depending on what components each was connected to. As I'm currently in demo heaven, with 1 receiver, 2 pre/pro's, 2 amps, and 2 cd players, the differences between the Rotel & Denon 2910 I attribute to the other components, as when I ran both on the same components, with the same cd, back to back, limited only by how fast I could switch the CD, I was hard pressed to find a difference. I was able to hear a difference between digital & analog playback, but no noticeable difference comparing Rotel analog to Denon analog, and same for digital. As I already own a 2910, and the rotel is only a CD player, I was pleasantly surprised to hear little or no difference. Any difference I heard I attribute more to the other components (Rotel cd w/ rotel stereo pre & rotel 1080 amp was very forward & bright, with poor vocals, where Rotel CD w/ Cary Cinema 6 pre/pro & Cary Cinema 5 amp sounded very good, with exceptional vocal quality). As the 2910 supports so many formats, and the Rotel only plays CD's, I see no need to buy the Rotel. This is not to disparage the Rotel, it's a quality CD player. But for virtually the same price, and with no real differences in sound quality, the Denon is a better player for my money as it is able to support more formats than only redbook CD.
I live in Indianapolis, and the local availability of SACD & DVDA is slim to none. Can anyone recommend a good website with a wide variety of SACD/DVDA and good prices?
As I have hundreds of redbook CD's, I am still interested in purchasing a quality redbook CD player, and better yet if it supported SACD & DVDA. However unwilling to pay for another CD player unless the sound quality is better than my 2910. I would prefer another universal player, but would be willing to purchase a CD only unit if the sound quality was a substantial improvement.
And Sleestack, please continue to post. You personally own equipment that I can only hear rarely, and your insight into this forum is greatly appreciated.