James_Stewart said:
I'm currently playing my CDs through my RP82, is this a good option? Am I missing out on quality?
How is the player connected? With the optical or coax cables? Are you using the analog connections instead?
If you are using either the coax or optical connections, the DACs in your receiver are primarily responsible for the level of sound quality. If you are using the analog connections, the DACs in your Panny player are responsible for the level of sound quality. However, some transports - when connected via the optical or coax cables can also sound differently when connected to the receiver.
Now, with that being said, how serious are you aboue music? It seems like you are looking for a universal player. But, there's a school of thought that a universal player doesn't necessarily do *everything* as best that it can. For that reason alone, some people opt to keep their CD player for 2-channel audio and their DVD player for watching movies - or playing SACD/DVD-A discs, if the player permits.
This leads to the next question, what kind of budget to you have? You might consider the $200 Oppo player for DVD and pick up a good $300 - $500 player to keep as a dedicated CD player (the brands for my example are the Onix CD or NAD CD players.) However, there are many other brands out there in this price league that do pretty good.
Now, from my personal experience, you could look into the Panasonic SD-97. The player sounds pretty good with the on-board DACs playing CDs - and others really love the video quality. Keep in mind, that you can purchase this player for under $300. Then, there's also the Panny SD-77, which might be in better supply at the moment and cost less than the 97.
